Celebrity Planner Jove Meyer’s Destination Wedding Tips

Wedding planner and designer Jove Meyer offers engaged couples wedding tips, recommends fabulous places for a destination wedding, and does his part to empower other minority-owned small businesses.

Jove Meyer, the owner and creative director of Jove Meyer Events, has always been a hopeless romantic obsessed with rom-coms, and his creativity didn’t blossom until his first job in high school. For four years, he made balloon arches and florals for events at a store in his hometown, San Clemente, California.  

After high school, Meyer made his way to New York City to attend Columbia University, following his best friend who got engaged and moved to the Big Apple, too. Instead of pursuing a law degree, Meyer followed his heart and became a wedding and event planner, after he successfully planned his best friend’s wedding.  

“I did her wedding and a couple of other friends’ weddings and it really captured me by surprise,” said Meyer. “So, during the summer of 2008, that’s when Jove Meyer Events was unofficially born.”

Nine years after launching his business, he was able to score celebrity weddings, including the wedding for WNBA All-Star and Olympic athlete Elena Delle Donne as well as the planning the nuptials for Saturday Night Live and Shrill actress, Aidy Bryant. Star power or not, Meyer said, “all of our couples are pretty incredible and celebrities in my mind.”

The 36-year-old event planner and his team guide clients through a maze of wedding details from choosing the perfect venue to deciding on the colorful floral arrangements to handling the mundane logistics like third-party contracts. 

A couple can also consult Jove Meyer Events to help coordinate their destination wedding in the U.S. or abroad. Meyer likes to start planning a destination wedding a year (or a year and a half) before the wedding date to ensure no one is rushed and to give family and friends enough time to book travel for the wedding and plan extra vacation days before or after the wedding. The long lead time gives him and his team time to sort out the details. 

“In other countries, we’re dealing with other factors like language differences, cultural differences in terms of contracts, and how certain vendors work,” said Meyer. “I find that working with most couples that it’s a lot of decision making and spreading that out for them is helpful.”

He offers some advice for LGBTQ+ couples who want to have their dream wedding in a different country. First, he recommends queer couples understand the laws and the local feelings around gay marriage to ensure they are tying the knot in a safe space where their love can be fully celebrated and supported along with family and friends.  

“Oftentimes, there are campaigns around Pride months that are from certain countries or travel organizations – ‘we love you, come here’ – but the law might say something very different,” he said. “I just want to avoid any potential negative energy. Hate has no place in the celebration of love.”

Meyer said the Maldives may seem like a beautiful location for a destination wedding, but the country is ruled by shariah law, which means it’s still illegal to be gay. “While some people may say it’s antiquated or they don’t enforce it – the law is the law,” advised Meyer.

He recommends queer-friendly places such as Palm Springs, Hawaii, New York City for an LGBTQ+ destination wedding. Further afield, Greece, Australia, and Iceland are places he’d recommend to gay couples who want to get married abroad.

Regardless of whether Meyer is planning a local or international wedding, he makes a concerted effort to work with businesses owned by women, people of color, and queer people. It’s all part of his Diversity and Inclusion Commitment and his Ally Pledge, born from the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020. 

He recalls an example of Jove Meyer Events working with and supporting a catering company owned by a queer woman, who employs a talented transgender server who had difficulty finding a job. 

“There are so many amazingly talented people that are overlooked because of the color of their skin or their sexuality or presentation in public,” said Meyer. “By hiring this queer caterer, who is also empowering and hiring people who may not have other job opportunities; if I give them business, then my clients are not only hiring someone who’s super talented, but they are also doing the work to make this world a better place.” 

He goes on to say, “I used to spend my life hiding myself someone, but in my own business, I have to encourage everyone to be who they are and celebrate that and empower that by hiring and supporting marginalized people.” 

If you need an event and wedding planner, you should consider contacting Jove at Jove Meyer Events.