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How To Plan An Out Of State Wedding

Evaluate Your Guest List

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Start by writing down who you absolutely want at your wedding. Then go through the list and pick who would be willing to travel. You have to think about costs . Not only do you have to pay to get there, your guests do too. Also, is anyone on your guest list unable to travel? For instance, great grandparents who cant do long distance traveling. Of course you should have the wedding youve always dreamed of, but if important people have to miss out, you should consider maybe doing a smaller reception when you get back home. This can cut your guest list down and save you some money!

Make Sure They Know How Much You Appreciate Them

Remember the reason these intrepid travelers have come is to see you, so make sure they do. Pull them aside amid all the revelry for some one-on-one attention, or make it a point to tell them at your cocktail hour or receiving line how much seeing them means to you. Raise your glass during toasting time to acknowledge those who have come from afar, and consider setting up something special for journeyers, such as a brunch the morning after the ceremony.

Make Sure You Can Legally Get Married In Your Destination Wedding Location

Nichols said another thing to consider with weddings held abroad is whether you can actually get married there, or if you need to have a civil marriage ceremony in advance in your home country.

“Legal requirements differ depending on where you get married,” she said. “I got married in Mexico, but the legal wedding requirements caused for me to get blood drawn, and that was a no-no, as I am deathly afraid of needles. So this is something you will want to think about.”

As a compromise, Nichols said she and her husband chose to have a symbolic ceremony in Mexico instead and got legally married in their hometown the day before they left for Mexico.

“Also, on that note, because the primary language is not English in Mexico, if we would have gone through with the legal ceremony, the officiant would have been someone from the government and the ceremony would have been held in Spanish with a translator,” she said. “So if that’s not your cup of tea, you will want to look at residency requirements at home.”

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Now You Know How To Plan A Wedding

But remember, this guide doesnt cover every aspect of wedding planning. There are tons of other little details that go into a wedding, like selecting wedding favors for guests, writing your vows, choosing escort cards, and so on. Be sure to stay up-to-date with our blog for all of the additional tips, tricks, and advice to help you along the way.

Find the perfect wedding venue for your budget!

Build A Free Personal Wedding Website

Whether you

Sending beautiful paper wedding invitations is a special wedding tradition, even when snail mail is losing it’s popularity to online communication. One contemporary wedding tradition I love is building a personal wedding website with Basic Invite to enhance those beautiful paper invites.

One thing not on my list of first steps is engagement photos. As soon as I plan a shoot, I’ll add cute shots of Chris and I to our wedding website. For now, this couple is a decent stand in. Not as cute, but bear with me.

Creating a personal wedding website with Basic Invite is a dream. The URL is customizable and you can coordinate the colors, font, and layout with your wedding invitation suite. Your site can feature all of the important time and location details of the big day, even a map with directions to the venue. Basic Invite’s free address collection service is integrated with your wedding website and guests can RSVP on the site, too. One link for all of your wedding details. So simple.

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Five Tips To Help Plan Your Out Of State Wedding

The out of town wedding is the most stressful of weddings to put together because you now have added factors to consider when planning. So, to avoid the above scenario, when you decide to have an out-of-town wedding, the following are additional things you should take notice of:

Create two budgets:One for the wedding, the other for the logistics. It will make it easier to monitor how money is being spent and show you where you can cut costs from or add funds to.

Hire locally:As much as possible, try to use a local work force especially if you are working with a small budget. I know a make-up artist who got stuck when they cancelled her flight because the bride was trying to avoid paying for hotel accommodation for her or the couple whose hall decorator showed up just as the church service was ending. The chief bridesmaid was almost pulling out her hair. If you can’t find skilled personnel in the town of your wedding, then you need to make sure everyone is with you at least twenty four hours to the big day.

Start early:Don’t wait till the last minute to go and look around the town you plan to get married in. Sort out accommodation and transport issues as early as possible. You will be surprised at the hefty discounts you can get for booking early and in bulk. Always remember to budget for at least 50% more than the number of invited guests. Nigerians like to attend plus one.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun, you won’t get another day like this.

Why Do I Need A Marriage License

If you do not obtain a marriage license, your marriage will be deemed illegal according to the law. While you can choose to be married in name only, or through a religious organization exclusively, the state will not permit you the rights typically reserved for legally married couples, such as certain tax breaks, social security benefits, joint healthcare plans, and inheritance rights.

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Don’t Forget To Provide Welcome Bags

Comfort the jet-lagged and travel weary with a little something left in their hotel rooms. Imagine their delightwalking into their temporary living quarters and discovering a basket of fresh fruit, a tin of local chocolates or a bottle of chilled bubbly. What you choose to give depends on your resources, and can be as lavish as a free massage at the hotel spa or as simple as a plate of homemade chocolate-chip cookies. The purpose is to let guests know you appreciate their effort to join you for your special day.

Create welcome packets of relevant information to leave in guests’ rooms with another copy of your wedding itinerary, plus local brochures and sightseeing maps. Enlist the aid of your wedding crew to assemble and distribute all these treats. Finally, add that finishing touch and pen a personal note thanking each guest for coming to celebrate with you.

Set Your Wedding Budget & Stick To It:

How To Plan A Budget Friendly Wedding In Under 30 days

Before you get into the fun stuff, you need to tackle your finances first. Thats why this is our #1 Wedding Budget Tip! Your wedding budget will guide all of your decisions about your wedding. Setting a wedding budget that makes you feel comfortable will only help to guide you to make the best decisions you can make, while also not going into debt. Make the time to crunch those numbers and get a realistic figure before you move into any further planning.

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Check Out Flight And Hotel Pricing

Youre going to want to know the best options for travel, as well as your guests. Do a Google search or download the app Hopper to find out what is the best time to buy tickets. Dont forget to check out all the hotels in the area. Make sure none have a stay minimum for your guests that dont plan on staying long.

Do I Need To Help Guests Book Travel

You don’t need to book anyone’s travel, but it’s a nice gesture to make the process easier. Enlisting a travel agent can help lighten the load by taking over group reservations, inputting everyone’s travel info, and scoring the best deals. They may also be able to snag upgrades and luxury treatments. Start a Facebook group or group chat so everyone can share flight deals or make plans to travel together. Providing a wedding itinerary will keep everyone on schedule and fully informed.

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Dreaming Of A Destination Wedding We Don’t Blame You Few Things Can Compare To The Thrill And Romance Of Jet

But, reality check: If you’re planning an international affair, your wedding planning challenges just got taken up a notch. Tack on a few thousand miles, language barriers, and regulations in a foreign country, and things can get pretty tricky.

Luckily, we’ve put together a comprehensive Destination Wedding Checklist to help you navigate through the logistics and smoothly sail to Happily Ever After.

Expect To Run Into Your Guests During Your Honeymoon

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“When we said goodbye to our guests after the wedding, we meant it,” Davidson said. “What we didn’t expect was for their extended vacation plans to be identical with our honeymoon itinerary.”

For example, Davidson said she and her husband weren’t expecting the guests to join them scuba diving on the third day of their honeymoon. Nor were they expecting to share a breakfast with them at a remote beach restaurant.

“It was amusing and pleasing at first, but every time we ran into a familiar face from home, it kind of felt like less of a destination wedding,” Davidson said.

On a similar note, Nichols said to keep in mind if you want your wedding to be family-friendly or for adults only.

“Will you stay at the same resort for your honeymoon or honeymoon-hop to a different resort or island?” she said.

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Tireless Energy & Enthusiasm

I don’t think I could ever find enough words to adequately tell you how much we appreciate your help. Over the past several months, you’ve been our guide, our confidante, our right hand , and our new friend. We never would have made it without you! Thank you for all of your organization, your amazing ideas, your tireless energy and enthusiasm, and your electric cattle-prodding as necessary. And thank you for listening, advising, laughing and crying with us.Lynn & Peter

Manage Formalwear With A National Franchise

Bridal gowns, groom attire, and rings should all be arranged in the place where you live so that itâs not difficult to make alterations. But when it comes to bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen tuxes, itâs better to work with a national franchise. With these companies, the members of your party will be able to try on outfits where they live and then order them for pickup at the wedding destination.

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Ultimate Destination Wedding Planning Guide

Getting married away from your home turf can be an intimidating process to start. While there is plenty of information about destination weddings available out there , it can still feel overwhelming jumping into the planning process. But not to worry! Well walk you through our simple guide to planning a destination wedding, so you can put any pre-destination wedding jitters behind you and focus on the excitement your day will hold.

A Lot Of The Planning Will Be Out Of Your Control

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Davidson said she’s a pretty obsessive person when it comes to planning things.

“You can only imagine the extra effort and energy I gave to planning my wedding,” she said. “Before flying out to our venue, I was confident I had everything covered, from the hotel accommodations of relatives down to making sure the local caterer does not serve anything that our guests are allergic to. But that’s never the case with a destination wedding, it seems.”

She said she had guests who missed their flights, or got their flights delayed and canceled, and her father-in-law’s bag was lost at the airport.

“Plus, the local band we hired backed out at the last minute,” Davidson said. “My husband-to-be spent the whole day before our wedding arduously consoling the Bridezilla-me.”

Jabali, too, said to expect that you won’t be able to plan or manage every change.

“While we loved our destination wedding and would do it all over again, we were surprised by how some of the vendors made changes without our consent,” she said. “For example, our cake maker changed the flavor of our cutting cake and the gift boxes of cookies were much smaller than the samples they provided when we booked them. And, the ‘highly recommended’ videographer literally fell over during our ceremony and didn’t edit the crash out of the video.”

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Choose Your Wedding Invitations

Consider picking out your formal invitations while your save-the-dates are top of mind. You dont have to send them until about 6-12 weeks before the wedding, but theres no harm in getting them ordered early.

Its traditional to send out cardstock invites, and its lovely to have a hardcopy invite to frame after the wedding. Visit a stationery store, or browse invite websites online. Select invites that reflect your wedding style and theme. The words you select will also set the tone for your wedding. For example, use traditional language for a classic wedding and opt for laid-back wording for casual, rustic, or beach weddings.

If you want to buck the traditional trend, there are many lovely digital options for invites as well, including Paperless Post, Greenvelope, and evite. These are perfectly acceptable, and , theyre eco-friendly and usually more affordable. You can even give invitees a link to your wedding website and have them RSVP there.

Pro tip: As people RSVP, add them to a free wedding seating chart tool so you can begin to assign seats, add in dietary restrictions and meal choices, and make special notes for your catering team that they can reference as you plan your menu.

Research Meet & Book Wedding Vendors:

Your wedding date, venue and location, budget, and style are all important factors to know as you contact more wedding professionals. Theyre all some of the first questions you will be asked, and its helpful to be able to answer them. We recommend booking vendors who can only work one wedding on a particular date first. So, have a game plan in mind for pros such as your photographer, videographer, caterer, florist, officiant, band or DJ, and day-of wedding coordinator Having a coordinator can be a big help with organizing things like rehearsals, your wedding day timeline, and overall logistics on the big day. Once you have decided on which pros to hire, start to consider other details, like stationery, transportation, etc.

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