How To Make a Choice on Venue and Start Planning!

Does your budget allot for you to get married in any of those places? Mexico is an incredibly cheap place to get married and you'd be surprised how many people are interested in going [mx bride here!]. But that being said, if you're on a budget the best way to plan accordingly would be so that you and FH are not traveling [no flights or hotels to pay for]. If you give guests enough time to plan, more will show up than you realize! Also, accept that certain people that you feel like are non-negotiable may not be there. It's the hard, sad part about planning a wedding destination style, whether that means MX or AZ or OR because it will be a destination wedding for at least some!

Don't overthink it. Make a list of non-negotiables from your venue, followed by a "it would be nice if they had:" list. Go down the non-negotiables, if your venue doesn't hit all the boxes, move on. If it does, see which venue hits the most extra good stuff. No matter what venue you pick, there will be that "but what if" but honestly, it's irrelevant! See my comment on your dress post about "there will always be another one!"

To me it makes the least sense to have it in Mexico if you want most of your family and friends to be able to attend so I personally would narrow it down to either Arizona or Oregon. If it were between Oregon and Arizona I would select Oregon. The reason being that you said all your family would attend. To me it would be important to have my family in attendance and it might surprise you how many of your friends might actually attend. My husband and I have traveled pretty far for weddings so you never know your friends might be willing travel.

I agree that Arizona or Oregon would be better.

Planning is always the fun part..... wherever you choose just make sure that it fits you!
Some like simple, some like elegant. Most try to stay traditional while others try to do a little twist..... once you've established your budget, that will help navigate on venues.
Discover what speaks to you 2 within a wedding.....and build on that.

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Thank you Bailey! I think the non-negotiables part is very helpful and anything outside of that is just extra or not needed. That will help when my FH and I discuss in narrowing down what we want. I got nervous about the Mexico wedding, as we were thinking maybe 30 people would come and it would be affordable, and as we discussed it with people, we had a larger interest and worried more like 75+ would come. That would make it much more expensive. If we go the Mexico route, we may try and pick a more affordable resort that will allow more people for a smaller cost!

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That is a great point! The concern with Oregon is price and venue availability. The wedding season is so small in Oregon that venues are competitive and cost a lot! But I agree that family is very important.

View Quoted Comment My advice then would to make a budget for everything you want for your wedding. My husband and I made a spreadsheet so we knew exactly how much we were willing to dictate of our total budget to reach item. This helped us eliminate venues and vendors that were too expensive. I would also recommend making a full and complete guest list because things like caterers would need to know headcount and their pricing is normally based on number of people so you want to make sure you don't go over budget and that you'll be able to afford the number of people you plan on inviting. And yes you want to plan as if everyone invited will be attending which also means you want to make sure the venue can accommodate the number of people invited.

Planning a wedding where everyone is able to make it is next to impossible. Someone on your list will have something already planned, something will happen last minute, etc. I'd suggest to plan it near where you live so you'll be able to tour venues, go to tastings, etc.