Blog | Planning Your Big Day From Hundreds of Miles Away
Planning Your Big Day From Hundreds of Miles Away
7/22/2015
A wedding doesn’t need to include hundreds of guests to make it feel like an extra special day for the bride and groom. Planning a destination wedding is one way to drastically decrease the number of guests who will be able to attend your wedding but that’s not to say it will in anyway decrease the importance of the big day. Sometimes smaller, more intimate nuptials with a couple dozen of your closest friends and family can make the big day a little more special. Not to mention, planning a destination wedding is often times thousands of dollars cheaper than a local ceremony and reception!
Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your special day from hundreds of miles away...
- Before choosing a destination and date, do some research.
There are thousands of options when it comes to choosing a locale for a destination wedding. Talk to your groom about the type of location that would be ideal for your wedding. Can you see yourselves exchanging vows on a private sandy beach? Or maybe in front of an iconic venue like in front of the Eiffel Tower with just a handful of guests? Once the two of you have picked your ideal location, start looking into what the weather is like throughout the year. A cliff over looking the shores of Hawaii is certainly a beautiful venue but not if it’s in the middle of the rainy season. Make sure you and your guests know what kind of weather to expect for your date.
- Once you find your ideal destination, do some more research to find the perfect ceremony location.
A lot of venues will provide tons of support and be readily available to you throughout the planning process even from miles away. Some resorts offer packages that essentially take care of all the details for you; all you have to do is show up! Since you and your guests might not be too familiar with the area, see what options are available for lodging close to the venue. The closer everyone is to the venue, the less you will have to stress about figuring out transportation and risking getting lost in a foreign city.
- You are going to have to travel with your gown, the bridesmaid dresses, and the tuxedos.
This might seem like a no brainer, but the technicalities of traveling with a bridal gown are often overlooked until a bride is packing for her trip. Since you are likely leaving a few days before the wedding, you will need to have your alterations finished and your gown steamed even earlier than you would if you were having a local wedding. At Deborah’s Bridal we can certainly accommodate for an early pick up date for your gown, the bridesmaid dresses, and tuxedo rentals. If you are going to be driving a couple hours to your destination, our consultants will give you advice on how to properly store all the dresses in the car for the journey. If you are flying, contact your airline ahead of time to see if there are any special accommodations they can make for you. Here is a link to the official TSA blog for more information on how you can keep your dress safe while traveling as well as a few other helpful tips for packing other wedding accessories.
- You can still include family and friends who were unable to attend the event.
Just because your third cousin from your aunt’s first marriage can’t attend doesn’t mean he won’t be able to share in the love and joy of your special day! There are tons of ways to make your family members and friends who could not attend feel like they were there to witness your wedding. You could set up a webcam and live stream the wedding from your wedding website or designate one of your guests to live tweet the whole event on Twitter. If you have a videographer, you can throw a big party once you get back and have the video playing on a loop for everyone to see. There’s no reason anyone should feel left out of the big day, there are countless ways to make everyone feel included.
Destination weddings are a great way to keep your ceremony intimate, beautifully unique, and often times less expensive than a local ceremony. Don’t let the guilt of not being able to invite all of your relatives and friends stop you from planning your wedding in an exotic location; there are tons of ways to include everyone in your big day. And don’t forget that your big day is just that: YOUR big day. Do whatever is going to make you and your husband to be the happiest!