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| TRS Coral Costa Mujeres, a Registry Collection Hotel |
How to Attend a Destination Wedding in Cancun (Without Blowing Your Budget)
Beautiful Cancun, Mexico 🌊
Destination weddings are more popular than ever. For the bride and groom, they often mean a stunning setting and a more affordable celebration. For guests, though, they can quickly turn into a pricey commitment once you factor in flights, hotel minimums, and resort rates.
So what do you do when you’re invited to a destination wedding—but don’t want to drain your savings? Here’s exactly how I approached a recent invitation and ended up saving thousands.
The wedding hotel reality check
We were invited to a wedding at the TRS Coral Costa Mujeres—gorgeous, no question. The couple reserved a wedding room block at a “special” rate of $408 per night 😬
But there was a three-night minimum stay.
That’s over $1,200 before flights or transfers.
Step one: look beyond the wedding block
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Even better:
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Rooms were available for 30,000 Wyndham points per night
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I already had 18,000 Wyndham points, so I was part of the way there. But how do I gather enough points?
Step two: run the math on buying points
Wyndham offered me the option to buy points with a 45% discount. To cover three nights, I’d need an additional 72,000 points, which would cost $514.
For three nights at an all-inclusive? $514 is already a huge improvement over $1,200.
But could I do better? Of course.
Step three: stack promos and transfers
Wyndham was also running an 80% bonus on purchased points. Buying 72,000 points would cost about $520—roughly the same.
Then I asked the most important question:
Do any flexible points transfer to Wyndham?
✔️ Yes—Capital One and Citi Thank You transfer 1:1.
I had 14,000 Capital One points. If I transferred those to Wyndham, I’d only need to buy 58,000 points, dropping my cost to about $420 💡
The points sale runs through February 18th, so there’s also time to:
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Shop through the Wyndham Shopping Portal to earn more points
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Keep earning points on my Capital One card
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Reduce the number of points I need to buy
Step four: consider staying fewer nights
What if I stayed at the wedding hotel for just two nights?
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Two nights = 60,000 points
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With just Wyndham points, I’d need 42,000 additional points
→ Cost: about $300 -
With the Capital One points transfer to Wyndham, I would need 28,000 additional points
→ Cost: about $200
But is that the best value for my Capital One points? or does it make more sense to pay the $300 and use Capital One points to erase other travel purchases like the shuttle or flights? 14,000 Capital One points will erase a $140 travel purchase and I will have 90 days to continue erasing. Unfortunately, purchases to buy points do not usually code as travel so they cannot be "erased".
Step five: mix in another hotel
So where would I stay the remaining nights? Easy.
I checked the Chase Travel Portal and found:
InterContinental Presidente Cancun Resort by IHG for 18,428 Chase points
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I could use the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit and pay just 6,000 Chase points.
I could:
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Stay three nights for 35,000 Chase points + the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit, or
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Use my IHG credit card free night + 8,000 points for one night 🏨and the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit for a the second night.
There were also several Edit hotels in the area where I could use my Chase Sapphire Reserve Edit credit and points.
The takeaway
With a little flexibility and some points strategy, I turned a $1,200 hotel stay into a much smaller out-of-pocket cost—while still staying at the wedding resort and celebrating with the couple 🥂
Destination weddings don’t have to wreck your travel budget. Celebrate the bride and groom—and keep your savings intact.
