Wedding Guests Travel Issue

Personally, I would plan the wedding in Florida because you live there. DW are harder to plan especially if you want to do things like hair trials, make-up trials, venue walk throughs, food tastings...People will also understand your desire to get married in Florida because you live there. If you do this though, perhaps send save the dates out in advance so those NY guests can have the opportunity to plan. I think in any wedding there will be some that just can't make it...

Agree with Megan. If you give plenty of notice the people that want to be there will make it happen.

Definitely have the wedding where you live. The people who want to/can be there will be there.

It's your wedding so you should have it where you want to. You are giving everyone plenty of time to figure out travel. If they can't make it because it's too far for them to go or too expensive it's not necessarily an awful thing. While I'm sure it would stink to have some family members miss out on your big day, they'll be there in your heart (and plus it may save money on the venue/food/drinks).

Every wedding is a destination wedding for some of the guests. There is just no way around that....

They either come or they don't. What is Florida like in July? NY is pretty nice..

Florida is absolutely disgustingly hot in July. The date I have listed is tentative anyway, and flexible, since I am so early in the planning stages.. but either way I look at it, FL will be humid and hot. NY would be much nicer, weather-wise.. though the advice about planning where I live does make sense. I just know that a good 90% of my family will NOT come down. I'm not the kind of girl who has a lot of friends, so the guest list will already be small enough as it is.

It's unfortunate but you will never please everyone. Half of my invites didn't come because it was out of state. But, if they really wanted to be there they would of made it

It's hot everywhere in July. Plan to have your wedding where you live. Try to suggest more cost-friendly hotel options for your hotel block and let the chips fall where they may. Some people may change their tune as the date comes closer if they're given enough notice.

You can have the wedding in FL, but do NOT do an outdoor wedding in July. In FL, any wedding between the months of March and November should be held inside.

As for people not traveling, there's nothing you can do about that. I would bet that at least some will surprise you though. A wedding isn't just traveling for no reason. It's special and sacred to a lot of people. So long as they can afford it, some will likely come.

Agree with PP about having the wedding where you live (indoors for a FL July wedding might be the best). My FH's family all live in ME or FL with the exception of his brother that lives here in WI. Only FH's parents are able to travel from OOS. It sucks; but we did vaca in ME last summer & had a cookout with his extended family knowing that most won't be able t make the wedding & it was easier for us to get away with FH & his son's schedule last summer, than this.

Perhaps have a little get together in NY after the wedding sometime?!?

If I could do my wedding planning all over again, I would not worry so much about specific people being able to come because a lot can change in a year's time...or even a month's time! People that I thought would absolutely never miss my wedding are not able to attend and people that I haven't seen in 20 years are attending! You just never know about these things and circumstances change for people. Have your wedding where you would most like to have it.

My personal opinion would be NY because FL is HOT in July, and I would venture to say that there are ways to plan a wedding when you live out of state....skype, email...everything can be done digitally now, but it depends on your venue and other vendors!

My mother suggested a party in NY afterward, that she also offered to foot the bill for entirely.

That is unfortunate that your guests aren't willing to travel. Could you possibly have a low key 'reception' in NY if you get married in FL? My FSIL got married in DC (where her and FBIL lived) and his family was from MD and came but hers was from Iowa and didn't. Her family then threw a reception cookout at their house a few months later so the family that was unable to travel could celebrate. A few from MD (parents) flew out too to be there for the reception and meet everyone. Not quite the same but I know she was appreciative.

Is your family hosting the wedding? If so, I would have it in NY. Like others said, every wedding is a destination for someone.

So I'm in a similar situation to you in that I live in FL but have family in NY. For us though both of the majority of FH and my families live in NY so that's where we're having our wedding. We are planning on having a small get together at some point after the wedding to celebrate with our FL friends who aren't able to come to NY for the wedding.

For you though since it's going to mean family is going to have to travel and people may not attend either way I would agree it's probably much simpler to do it in FL since that's where you live. Planning a wedding from out of state is kind of a pain. If your family or friends in NY are willing to help you out or you can travel back and forth a few times between now and your wedding it shouldn't be too bad though. Maybe have a small party in NY after the wedding for people who couldn't come like PP mentioned if that's something that's in your budget and you'd want to do.

Where in NY is your family from? If it's anywhere near the city, it's still going to be hot and humid and you'll probably save money by doing it in FL. If they're upstate, I still think you'll have fewer headaches just planning the wedding where you live. Take your mom up on the party.

Have the wedding where you live. It will be much more convenient FOR YOU. Regardless you will have some form of family who may miss your wedding- there's no way around that.

Florida in July sounds horrific to me, but we had a gorgeous summer here in NYC, and it never got super hot. You can't count on that happening again. Do what's best for you.

FH and I have a similar situation. We opted to plan the wedding in our town. It's effectively a destination wedding for both of our families. My parents and 1 great aunt still live in town, but there of my family is in TX & GA. His family is all in WA. We're currently in NE which is central for all and flights are reasonably inexpensive.

We are having our wedding reception at a hotel since that was the most logical venue. We're also hosting a welcome party, which is totally unnecessary but we felt it was important to thank people for traveling.

FH and I live in Chicago, but his family is in Ohio and mine in small town Missouri. We are getting married in my hometown because its so much cheaper there, and 60% of our guest list is out of state. So far almost all are planning to attend, based on rsvps and conversation. We have friends coming from IL, TX, MA, MI, WV ..... and we only had a 7 month engagement, so they only had 6 months notice. If people want to be there they will make it work, if they don't there is nothing you can do.

At one point we considered doing the wedding in one hometown and a smaller reception later in the other, but I'm so glad we didn't. I WANT our families to meet and interact and see this as two families coming together, and I don't think it would feel that way as much if we weren't all getting together in one place.