Cancel? Elope? Change states? Or keep?

I am assuming most of your family is in your home state? If so, I would probably just keep it in your home state. It is unlikely you will get all your money back, plus it saves everyone having to travel for the wedding.

Seems like you would be losing some money- I would ask your venue how much. Seems like you have a lot on your plate with moving & than trying to cram in a small wedding would be adding more. I would come back next year so you can have the wedding you originally wanted.

I agree to keep your date in CO. Aside from losing money and requiring guests to travel if you move it, CO is literally one of the easiest states to get married in- no officiant or witness required and the marriage license is only $30. You could definitely elope here very easily if that’s what you wanted, but I’m not sure if you mentioned that just because your moving or if that’s what the two of you actually want.

I think you'll lose $8500 if you cancel, so I know I'd want to avoid doing that. Also people will be mad at you for not inviting them, which isn't a reason to invite anyone you don't want to, but hearing them complain until they die might make it more difficult to lose that much money.


I would recommend eloping before you move and travel bank to Colorado to have the reception at your original venue next August. We postponed our reception to 2021 but got married last month. I cannot describe how much less stress I feel now. If we had postponed the whole thing and were waiting to get married until next year, I would've had another year of wedding stress (we have a pretty inclusive venue, so there's not really that much planning involved, but it's still a stressful time). Since we're already married, we're still "planning" something that looks very similar to a wedding, but there's a lot less pressure. Moving is stressful enough as it is.

We moved from Ohio to Texas right after we got engaged and are still getting married in Ohio next year because all our family is in that area. Honestly the hardest part has been planning from a distance! I'm not worried at all about traveling for the wedding. It sounds like you've got the planning mostly done so I'd say relax and enjoy and then just travel back instead of losing your deposits.

I recommend you stick with the venue and travel back for your wedding if they say you'll loose the $8k+

No reason to move your wedding just because you move, especially if you already have the big stuff booked. My wedding was in a different state than where I live. It took a little extra planning and some Skype meetings with vendors we couldn’t meet in person (omg back in the pre-Zoom days haha, hard to imagine lol!), but it worked out really great. I kind of feel like traveling for the wedding made it more magical as I was more removed from regular old every day life!

Is your family in your home state? If so I personally would just travel back for the wedding instead of losing money.