Today
is going to be all about planning a destination wedding. I always
thought the term “destination wedding” only applied to people who were
flying to Jamaica and getting married on the beach with all of that
particular place’s flowers, food, reverend, etc. What I have realized
since deciding to get married in Michigan when I live in Illinois is
that, this wedding is going to be classified as a destination wedding
(even though we are picking out everything ourselves and doing
everything ourselves) and it is also going to be much more difficult
than I originally anticipated.
I’m not technically
complaining. Okay, I am but I’m really not trying to be a brat. I am
simply trying to share with you all that I’m in over my head and
hopefully you will read this post and the future posts on weddings and
they will be able to help you (aka: save your sanity) if you ever plan a
wedding similar to mine.
Let’s get into it…
For starters, it is very
difficult to set up meetings with all of the different vendors when you
are 2 hours away from all of their locations. Clearly, we have to find a
DJ, bakery, florist, reverend, photographer, etc. that reside in or
around the area we are planning our ceremony in. This is kind of a hard
task because we currently have time scheduled to be in Michigan for July
18th-21st and are trying to book appointments with 7 different places,
without overlapping meetings and all of that technical stuff. Anyways, I
would suggest if you are planning a destination wedding-don’t schedule 7
meetings in one weekend like yours truly, the overachiever of the
century, did.
The next thing I would suggest is a wedding binder!
You can store all of your ideas and inspiration here. I’ve done a
little of that. I have some DIY things I want to do for the reception
and ceremony. But I also have all of the vendors I am meeting with,
questions I want answers to from them, and their prices if applicable. I
plan on bringing the binder to all of our meetings so I don’t forget
anything! You could also put a notebook in the binder to jot down notes during the meetings as well.
Next, I was trying to find
and order color swatches of the wedding colors we decided on. Number 1,
it was nearly impossible to find what I wanted. Number 2, it was way
more money then I planned on spending for color swatches. My fiancé and I
went to the fabric store and found the EXACT colors we were looking
for. We bought 6 inches of each color and I cut them and put them
together to give out to the bakery and the florist so they would have
our colors on hand if they needed them.
I’m really hoping that I haven’t scared you away and totally halted all your dreams for a destination wedding…
Another thing you really need to be sure to do is shop around. Don’t book a meeting and put a deposit down on the first ANYTHING
you talk to. You might really like a photographer initially so you get
ahead of yourself and book him/her right away without scouting out your
other options…only to later on find out you like another photographer
just as much if not more and they charge a few hundred less than the one
you booked!
I’m not saying to hold off on everything because if you find someone
you like at a price within your budget you should be good to go, you
don’t want to miss out on the chance to work with them by taking too
long...just be wary of jumping into things too fast. Especially if it
screws with your budget.
Those are the tips I have
for destination wedding planners thus far. I’m sure I will learn plenty
more things during these next 13 months of planning!
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