Weddings, Castles, and Timeshares

As wedding days go, April 29, 2011, is a big one with the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. And although some weddings may be higher profile than others are, each day in the US alone an average of nearly 6000 couples tie the knot, according to the National Vital Statistics report.

Although not every bride is on her way to becoming a princess or a queen (except in the eyes of her beloved), that doesn’t mean that a couple’s wedding can’t be set in a romantic castle. Of the roughly 2,077,000 weddings that will happen in 2011 in the United States, more than 1600 of them will occur at Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, with a large number of those held in Cinderella’s Castle.

The Disney Orlando park handles as many as 12 weddings a day, some in the Castle, while other couples choose more unique locations such as Disney’s The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror.

For the bride and groom seeking a more ‘authentic’ castle experience for their special day, there are plenty of other options. Lacking any actual royalty, most residences in the US that qualify as “castle-like” never housed a king, queen or even a princess. The one exception is Iolani Palace in Honolulu, which was once home to Queen Lili‘uokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning queen. Today this former royal palace is available for weddings and receptions.

Other castle-esque destinations in the US available for weddings include: Belcourt Castle, Newport, Rhode Island; Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina; Falkenstein Castle, Burnet, Texas; OHEKA Castle Hotel & Estate, Huntington, New York; and Pythian Castle in Springfield, Missouri.

Of course, worldwide, there are endless numbers of castles and palaces for planning your own royal wedding day. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married in Inverlochy Castle, a 15th-century Italian castle, near Fort William, Scotland. In fact, Scotland boasts some 70 castles available for weddings. Many of Scotland’s castles are under the management of National Trust for Scotland or Historic Scotland. Or consider Castle Rushen on the Isle Of Man; Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna; Leeds Castle in Kent and The Belfast Castle in Belfast, Ireland.

Storybook weddings call for happily ever after honeymoons and what could be more romantic than a timeshare honeymoon that enables the bride and groom to return year after year to the site of their special day. Timeshares bought on the secondary market as timeshare resales make it affordable for young couples to begin a honeymoon tradition they can enjoy for a lifetime. Best of all, whether it is a Disney timeshare resale, a Hawaii timeshare, Scotland timeshare, or any of dozens of other locations, there are great opportunities in timeshare resales near almost all of these castle destinations.

More on Disney weddings from The Timeshare Authority blog:

Disney Wedding Plans Call for a Disney Timeshare Honeymoon

And a video look at a bride’s day to feel like a princess.