Planning a wedding from another state

I live in NYC but I'm getting married in Orlando, FL. I getting married at Disney so they have a planner working with me to get everything done. If it's possible I would suggest getting a planner.

Since we just moved I've been thinking about hiring a partial planner and just sucking it up and paying the money for it. A lot less stress I think. I will diy some stuff but finding some vendors is proving a challenge and then coordinating it all together.

We live in MS and are getting married in my home town a few states away. I hired a DOC and my mom has been able to help since she is there, but I REALLY wish I would have cut down other places and hired a full planner. If I could go back and start over, I would cut pretty much anything to have hired a full time planner. That is my sincere advice to you. It can be done; I and another friend are both doing this, but it is really challenging and stressful.

Get a planner to assist you. I am planning a wedding in another state as well but it has been so much easier once I hired a planner.

Have you checked to see if the city you'll be getting married in has a wedding Facebook page? We live 700 miles away from our hometown, where we will be getting married. I've relied greatly on other couples vendor recommendations on the Facebook page. I've also Skype or face timed vendors so I could decide if I liked them.

At first I was really stressed out about planning a wedding in a different state, but I'm really not worried about it anymore. We are not planning to hire a planner, but if you think it will help you, absolutely do it!

I live in NY, and am getting married in Kentucky. What really helped was visiting twice - once to visit venues, and then to have various vendor meetings like cake, DJ, etc. I relied on reviews and word of mouth to book vendors that are established and trusted in the area, even if it cost me a little more money. The very best decisions I made were to have a DOC, and to not attempt any major DIYs. I'm about to hand everything over to my DOC to implement, and am really just showing up a couple of days beforehand to party and hang out with my loved ones.

We live in AZ and got married in DE. Our venue had a wedding planner (chose the venue because of how highly she was praised in all the venue's reviews) and was semi inclusive, so we had a head start on finding some of our vendors (Baker and florist) because their base cost was covered in what we were paying our venue, so long as we chose from their list of preferred vendors. We were able to upgrade and pay those vendors the difference once we met with then and chose them.

DH and I made a list of all the planning steps we wanted or needed to do in person as soon as we booked our venue and we mapped out which trips we would be taking care of those tasks. I was able to visit the state every 3 months and DH planned one trip out there before the wedding (so that one trip was when we scheduled the menu tasting and all the cake tastings). If it didn't make our list of things we absolutely had to do in person, we did it over email or my parents (they lived an hour away from our venue) filled in for us to interview a vendor. I sent my mom a 7 page document with inspiration pics and descriptions of what I did and did not like about each picture to take to the first meeting with the florist so my mom would know exactly what I was looking for. I got to meet with the florist on one of my trips after that, but a lot of stuff was already done and I was just confirming and tweaking things and picking out the type of wristbands for the corsages.

I'd recommend limiting your DIY, unless you're driving down to FL for your wedding and can fit stuff in your car. I went out there a week before our wedding and between a few final meetings with vendors and the fact that my final meeting with the venue coordinator was a few days before the actual wedding, there was only so much time to work on the few projects I had. I spent most of the time I had assembling hotel welcome bags and favors, and then completing my place cards (names and meal choice were done ahead of time in AZ, so I just had to fill in the table numbers and fold them). I just recommend that you don't plan to do too many projects once you get in town for the wedding because you'll have less time than you think.

I agree with everything @endruger said. We live in AZ and are getting married in IA.

We hired vendors I knew we wouldn't have to worry about from reviews and recommendations, and I just met with who I could last week on a trip home.

We also hired a DOC, and are not DIYing anything. We'll just show up the day of the rehearsal and enjoy everything. It actually hasn't been as stressful as I thought it would be; hire great vendors, have a quick meeting with them in person if possible, and then trust in them to deliver.

We live in MA and are getting married in FL. We did make a visit to the venue and I'll make one more trip before the wedding but everything has been done via email or phone.

We live in Maryland, but planned our wedding in Massachusetts without ever going there. Best advice I can give is a) use the Internet for all it's worth, and b) accept that you lose some control by not seeing everything ahead of time, but you'll end up married anyway.

I live in WI but am getting married in CA. I went ahead and hired a planner. It's just made it so much easier and less stressful. I think it's worth it. Managed to do everything via email. Did one trip for tasting, venue walk through, Florist, cake tasting, hair and make up trial and may do one more this fall before our wedding in November. We tried to keep the extra trips to a minimum.

Siera, what is your venue? Some have in-house event coordinators or at least a list of preferred vendors. That's a good start. Once you have one vendor booked, you can ask him/her for referrals. If I can help, let me know. I've lived in Sarasota for 36 years.

My FH and I live in DC but are getting married in Kansas. His whole family is there so they are helping a lot. It is really hard though

@Nancy my venue is IMG academy. I don't think they have a coordinator. Cindy said she can help set some stuff up but I don't want to put a lot on her. I don't need many decorations I just worry about getting everything coordinated

We marry plenty of couples who plan from all over the country and all over the world. You pick great vendors and you hire a DOC. it can work, for sure.

You can do it, you just have to plan ahead. I planned my wedding in MA from PA, 300 miles away. DH was in grad school full-time and I was working full-time plus a part-time job. Anything we had to do in person and couldn't do on a weekend, I would figure out a Monday or Friday that I either had off or could take off work and turn it into a 3 day weekend. Also, since our families were both in MA, we would schedule things around holidays. For example, I picked our venue the day before Thanksgiving, and I bought my dress on Christmas Eve.

We got married in a different state and hired a wedding planner. Best money we spent.

Do you have anyone in Florida that could help handle some of the details for you?

I'm in DC and we're getting married in Charleston SC. We hired a local wedding planner and are flying her down for the wedding. Retrospecively, I think planning would have been better with a Charleston wedding planner. They know the ins and outa if the area and most likely have relationships with the vendors we're using so negotiating would work better.

We will be visiting Charleston 2x before the wedding. The first to pick the venue, the 2nd in a few weeks to meet with our vendors and do tasting, etc.

I dont know where you are in FL but jetBlue flies pretty frequently to SC and for pretty cheap. I would definitely recommend atleast 1 visit. It boils down to whether youre ok giving up some control. (I was not, haha)

Live in PA but getting married in WI. i've made about three trips there to do wedding related stuff. my mom also lives there and has a big help. you just need to stack up all of your appointments on a particular day and travel down to take care of them. i've also handled a lot via email.