Long distance wedding planning

Your family still lives there, though. Do you have a close friend/family member that would be willing to help? Stress is inevitable whether you live close or far.

View Quoted Comment Not really unfortunately. All my BMs and MOH now live at least 2 hours away too so it’s just my mum around and we have very different tastes LOL.

I did the exact same thing. I got engaged in August of last year. Had my first trip home in October. That's when I toured venues, did cake tastings, and dress shopping. My FH and I just went back this month and had our food tasting, final venue details meeting, met with the photographer, and did some shopping for wedding items. The biggest thing that helped me was planning in advance. I also would buy things for the wedding and send them to my mom so that they are close to the venue and all in one place. Most vendors have worked with out of town brides before and are willing to work with you through email and phone conversations. The hardest thing for me was selecting a hair/make up person and I wasn't able to fit in a trial. But, I'm really excited about all of the vendors we selected since they all have great reviews. Just do your homework and you'll be ok. There isn't much else you can do

Hi! I FEEL YOU GIRL! I live across the country from where I am getting married but we are doing the same thing because our families live over there. And get this, half my family STILL will not commit to coming because they don't want to save for the travel cost. I got as much advice from the venue as I could. We found hotels, a caterer, and our florist through our venue contact. Also, our caterer recommended a place to get our cake done and so that worked out really well! My advice is to use your contacts. These people do this for a living, they should have a lot of info. As for the stress... it's 5am and I've already been up for an hour stressing. I just keep reminding myself that regardless of what happens, I get to get married and my family (some of them anyways) and friends will be there with me.

I definitely understand what you’re going through! We’re getting married in my hometown in October and we live almost 7 hours away. So while we’re not across the country, it’s not like we could just drive for a day trip to get something done. We would have to block off 3-4 day weekends. One weekend alone I found my dress, met with our photographer, did a cake tasting, had a meeting with our church organist and visited a rehearsal dinner venue. My family was not very helpful in the planning stage due to them having to work and other events going on, so I had to make sure I did was everything. Organization binders/notebooks are my best friend! Haha

You may also be able to do phone conferences/video chats with some of the vendors. When I was picking out flowers there was no way I could make it for just one thing. So my florist is amazing and we had a Skype video call one day where she showed me all my possible bouquets and just sent me to contract via email. Maybe this is a possibility for some things?

Is it possible for you to get a partial wedding planner or at least a day of coordinator in that area? As this is someone who will make sure all of the vendor details are straight prior to the wedding day & that everything flows well.

We moved in the middle of wedding planning, and now live 5 hours away from the venue. Luckily I had most of the big stuff nailed down before we left, but I am still stressing big time about finalizing everything from so far away. Plus I was planning to buy decorations and whatnot over the next few months, but at this point that means I’ll have a car full of wedding stuff when we go down there. 😫 not to mention transporting my dress, his suit, all of our honeymoon stuff. I feel like there’s no way I’m not going to forget something.

You'll be fine! We did a DW so only saw all of the potential venues once. Our venue e-mailed us photos, floor plan layouts, vendor recommendations and anything we needed to plan for our awesome day. Even if you can take 1 trip there, that may be all you need!

We booked all vendors based on their WW & Yelp reviews, plus website galleries. Didn't do a makeup/hair trial and both came out great. Get excellent rated vendors and trust them. It'll all work out.

Yup! I keep A wedding planning binder and a list of things I need to get done while I am in Washington. I am incredibly grateful to have A wonderful family in washington to help with some of the legwork. I am scheduling a visit to washington in early august for A tasting, dress alterations, meet with the venue people, cake ordering and some much needed organization. I think ill feel better when that is done. I am scheduling another visit in september to do another dress fitting and bridal shower (so far).
I am a listmaker, but I would suggest you make a list of things that need to get done when you visit, too.

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions ladies! I'll definitely be hiring a day of coordinator to make sure that I've got everything covered and to make sure that the day goes off without a hitch. Really appreciate everyone's words of encouragement- I'll make sure that I'm making lists and do all the tasks on them when I'm back home in August and then again in February