Planning a Wedding from Long Distance
Are you planning a wedding from long distance? Whether you’re getting married in a hometown, have a temporary job in another area, or maybe you just want to get married at your dream spot in another city. This blog is for you!
My love story was all about the long distance. I had just moved to Kansas City from Birmingham when I met my now husband, Tim. He was living in Springfield while I was living in Kansas City which is almost a 3 hour drive. That was not a bad drive. When we got engaged, we had agreed to get married in Birmingham Alabama.
Now Kansas City and Birmingham is about a twelve hour drive. I actually have only done that drive once and once was enough, ha. Delta and I were basically BFFS. But when you tie our jobs in, we couldn’t do the traveling all the time – which is what brings me here with all the tips!
Three Steps to Planning a Wedding from Long Distance
- Have a designated wedding planner in the area. I definitely recommend budgeting for a wedding coordinator, but you could also have some help from a family member or a friend. The perk of a wedding coordinator is this is what they do – they are familiar with vendors in the area and they see a lot of weddings – they know what works and what doesn’t!
- Schedule at least one trip to your wedding destination. You’ll want to see the venue in person, you’ll want to taste the food and cake, etc.
- Have a timeline ready a week before. Your photographer (it’s me, hi) will have a photography timeline prepared, but it’ll be a breath of fresh air to have a timeline of all the other little details that everyone, both vendors and bridal party, can have on hand.
Vendors to hire local to your wedding destination:
Most of your vendors are going to be hired where you are getting married, and these are probably obvious. Just bare with me, I’m sure it helps to be looking at a list!
- Venue
- Coordinator
- Caterer
- Cake
- Florals
- Hotel Accommodations
- Transportation
Vendors to hire locally to you:
Not many, but still HIGHLY recommended – ESPECIALLY the wedding dress!! If nothing else, at least find your wedding dress local to you – trust me. It’s easier to attend your fittings locally then traveling with it. You don’t want to wing the fitting or travel all the time for fittings!
- Wedding dress
- Wedding bands
- Engagement ring (unless your man got the right size 😉)
Vendors that can be hired from anywhere:
This doesn’t mean you’ll want to for all of them, and that’s OK. Just another helpful list!
- Photographer (that’s right, I travel!)
- Videographer
- DJ
- Officiant
- Stationary
- Hair/Makeup
- Accessories
- Favors
- Bridal Party Attire – Let me explain this one. While I am all for supporting small businesses, I highly recommend a national formalwear shop. Chances are, not everyone in your bridal party lives in the same city. This saves them trips, saves you the risk of formalwear mishap, and saves the day with having a retailer near the venue in case anything went missing.
