Guests and family live everywhere and limited budget

I would hold the wedding where it is convenient for you and your future spouse. If family wants to travel, it is their option to travel. The size of the guest list is also entirely up to you and your spouse. The larger the guest list, the higher the price. Find a venue that you and your fiance love within your budget and where you want to get married. Whoever you decide to invite, it is up to them whether they want to pay for the expense of travel to get there.

I live far away from every guest I’ve invited, except my parents who are a 2h30 drive. Some are even in another country.
We chose to get married in our area because we love it here. Everyone understands. You should get married where you want to get married.
Also some areas (Florida, NY) could be a lot more expensive to get married in because vendors are more expensive there.Good luck!

Hello there,

I live away from most of my family that are close and we are having the wedding where we live because it is most convenient for us. I also don't believe that asking for your guests to travel is considered rude especially if you give them time to save up money for travel and renting a car. As for a venue, I don't know if you looked into hotels at all but I find them super convenient, but most of the time when it comes to hotels most things are included; if you have the reception and your ceremony at a hotel they can also do a courtesy hold of hotel rooms for you and your fiance that is specific to your wedding and plus your guests could stay at the hotel that you had your wedding at. This is only a suggestion, if you have a different option that you have envisioned go with what you and your fiance envision and whatever makes you two happy. Happy wedding planning!

It’s entirely your choice. Since you will have guests traveling regardless of where you hold it, I would personally have it somewhere you love that’s convenient and affordable for you!

Hi, I recently called our wedding party and guest and asked them if they would be to make it in for our July wedding. Surprisingly enough they all said yes they can and will make it. Communicate with your out of state people and see what the overall response is. I would suggest deciding from there.

It’s your special day and those who want to make time to celebrate in your unity will make sure that they have the means of doing so. Try not to please others before pleasing yourselves. I know exactly where you’re coming from with worrying about out of town guest - in my case I was more concerned with the elders, but after a conversation with my aunt and uncle I was told that should be the least of my worry because that’s what the job of my aunts and uncles is since me, my FH, and parents have our hands full.
Stay positive, but do something that the both of you will want. The last thing you want is having a wedding in a place that serves no purpose to either of you and makes you both miserable.

This is completely your choice. Most people understand that they might have to travel to attend a wedding so I don't think it is rude to have it somewhere you want and can afford. I would highly recommend sending out save the dates so that your guests know well in advance when and where you wedding is so they came make the necessary arrangements to attend. I would also try to pick a Saturday wedding rather than Friday or Sunday because you will be having a lot of guests traveling, but Saturday weddings do tend to be more expensive. We got married on a Saturday because it would’ve been too inconvenient for everyone if we had picked Friday or Sunday.

When we got engaged, we had a similar dilemma. My husband is originally from New Jersey and I am from Pennsylvania, but we live in Maryland. If we had gotten married in Maryland, nearly 98% of our guests would have had to travel over three hours. It didn’t seem right to make all of them travel that distance so we knew we wanted to get married in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Like Maryland, New Jersey is very expensive so Pennsylvania was our number one choice because it was the most affordable and convenient option. We ended up picking a venue in Scranton, PA because it made the most sense for traveling for our guests. All of my family except for my one uncle live in Pennsylvania. My husband’s parents, sister and most of his extended family live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We also had guests from California, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Maine, and Maryland. The biggest downside was that we had to drive 4.5 hours for our own wedding. We had to do a lot of our communication with vendors via telephone and email. We also had several in person meetings which meant taking several trips to Scranton. If you decide to go with a venue somewhere other than where you live, it can present some serious challenges so I would definitely take that into account.

We now live in Florida but a majority of our family is in Indiana, where we are from. We chose to have ours in Indiana because that is where a majority of our family is from and venues there happened to be cheaper, plus our family had other connections that helped us to save costs. I think its polite to invite out of state family, but if they are unable to make it because of travel to not be upset. We chose a Sunday wedding to save costs knowing that with the advanced notice people could get that Monday off of work, and most people would be able to make it.

I have a similar situation, though it's a 2nd wedding for each of us, so we decided to have our wedding near our grown children (2 grandsons under 3, the littlest isn't a fan of car rides). Ultimately, people will have to travel anyway. You aren't talking about finding a city in the middle of one state where everyone would only have a couple hours drive. So I would do it wherever you want. If you have a favorite spot near your home, do it there, or an outdoor spot you and fh love to hike, whatever suits you both. Those who want to be there will come, regardless of the location. 🙂

Have you thought of a hotel wedding? That’s where we are having ours because we know that my fiancé has a lot of out of town guests.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your replies!! That was a big help!