Families live on the East Coast! Help!

Our families are all over. We got married where we live and everyone came to us.

YES! My fiancé and I are in Cali, but both of us grew up back in NC which is on the East Coast. We are planning our wedding from across the country since our wedding is going to be in NC where we met, where most of family are, and I fell in love with this particular venue. We thought it would be more convenient for us to fly back to NC than having a lot of family and friends purchasing plane tickets to California.

View Quoted Comment This is what we are doing. If we traveled to them we would have to go to multiple states. It's easier to get people to come to us.

My cousin lives and got married in California. (she never told anyone that they got married) but then they got "married" in town so her grandparents and friends and family could be there.

Yup. Were in Chicago. My parents, Ohio, his New Jersey. We're getting married in NJ bc his request was to be married in a Ukrsinian Catholic church and his parents are members there.

Unless you have VIPs who can't travel, just plan for the event where you live. People generally will travel if given enough of a heads up. STDs (needn't be physical mail, a phone call, text, or email works) are the best way to handle early communication. Then invitations 6-10 weeks prior.

We live in South Florida. No one lives near us. We are getting married in Key Largo on a holiday (new years day) and 90 people are coming. Do the wedding you want to do, and people will be there.

Our family is all over. His is mostly in California and mine is in Ohio. We chose to do a Vegas wedding since it's an hour and a half from his mom who doesn't fly. People came to us. People in Ohio wanted us to have a reception when we got home but it wasn't in the budget. I have no regrets on how we did things.

View Quoted Comment We’re the same. We live in Colorado but most guests are in NC where I’m from and SC. So we’re having it in NC and some guests are all over and they’ll have to travel. But no one place was convenient for everyone.

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I agree with this VIP thing...

Also, send out STD and Invitations WAAAAAYYY in advanced. I have had an issue with the US Post Office where I send out the invitations 7 weeks ago, and some people STILL haven't gotten it... one lady lives 3 houses down from another invitee and she has still not received it (in the same town that I mailed them). I had to end up calling a bunch of people... Especially if you are going to have people traveling I would tell them, and then send out STD as soon as possible to give people enough time to save for travel and hotel, etc.

A wedding is supposed to be a once in a lifetime thing. Therefore your family in other states should want to show up. My friend comes from Cali and her father (divorced from her mom) and many cousins/uncles/aunts and grandma live there. They all flew here to PA for her wedding because it's the right thing to do. Why put that stress on yourselves to go visit them and sounds more than one state? Have you and FH thought about having it in one of the states that they are from? Although that seems additionally stressful for out of state planning but it can be done with so many people who do destination weddings!

We live in a different state than everyone we know. We're having the wedding where we live and anyone who is able to attend is coming to us. I've had friends plan weddings in different cities and states than where they live in order to have the wedding in their hometown and they have all said planning was incredibly stressful. I didn't want that kind of stress so I planned local to where I live. I've considered having a reception type party after our wedding back in my hometown but I really can't afford to host two receptions and most of my family no longer lives in my hometown so they would still all need to travel. I think it will depend on you and your guests as to what will make the most sense for your wedding.

We live in California, his family lives in Louisiana and mine all over the East Coast. I lived in New Orleans for a long time (it's where we met) and have friends there so we had our wedding there. The rationale was to pick the place where the least number of guests would have to travel or would be closest for them. Still half our guests had to travel.

The reason we had a wedding was because we wanted to have our families get together, so having two celebrations for each of our families didn't cross our minds. And I wouldn't want to have to host multiple parties. From a planning perspective, I'd think it would be easier to just plan for where you live - and probably accept that some people won't be able to travel- or choose a place most convenient to the majority of guests.

Nope. His family is in CA and international. Mine is East Coast with a few sprinkled on the West side. We are kind of in between, as are most of our friends. Some are from away. We are having our wedding here, because that's where we live, it's easier to plan, and we love it here. Most of the VIP's are coming, those who are not would not have been able to any way. There would have been zero solutions (visa issues, etc.) that would have allowed every important person to get there, so we went with what's best for us.

We currently live in Houston, but I'm from STL and he's from NYC and we're starting to plan our dream Flordia wedding! Lol we figured if people are going to travel, we might as well do it on a nice beach!

View Quoted Comment I think I honestly want like 3 fam members of mine, our 2 best friends from out of town and a few local friends. What worries me is hurting people's feelings by not inviting. We want wedding on west coast. We thought possibly no family and offer to fly out after to visit. Maybe as a wedding gift from them??

View Quoted Comment We dont wsnt to get married in our states of origin. We love the PNW. Bottom line is, families aren't rich, short on time and have kids and jobs. We though a visit would be nice in lieu of them coming to wedding.

Also going to do a small wedding in OR! Cannon Beach, Oregon. We have family on the east coast and in Utah were we live. We will be doing an intimate wedding in Cannon Beach some family will fly out. And then a large reception in Utah. That way family can fly out to Utah where most our family is and where we are if they choose.

We have been thinking about cannon beach wedding. Do you mind providing details?!