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Planning an out of town wedding in less than four
months!! Everyone said it couldn't be done: planning a wedding in less than four
months that was to be 600 miles away. I was on a mission to prove them wrong!!
First things first, we had to pick the wedding site. We couldn't choose the date until we had confirmed the site. Luckily for us, our location was to be at a resort, with the ceremony held outside, the reception to follow inside. Since it was at a resort, the caterer was already picked and there was a baker on staff to make the wedding cake to our specifications. And they had the date we wanted! What a relief... As soon as we had arranged the location, the hunt was on for the rest of the wedding necessities. I put my mother (who lives in the city where we are getting married) on phone duty to have various vendors send me brochures, and called my friends to ask for recommendations. The resort also sent us a list of vendors, and that was where I started. I kept a document of people I had called, where I had left messages, and information I had received. The easiest decision was the dj, because they were the only ones left available on our date we had chosen! Little did we know when we picked our date that it was every high school's prom date also!! Next on the list was the photographer. After calling around and getting huge amounts quoted to us, we decided to use my mother's friend who has done photography for many weddings. The officiant was the hardest choice, we talked to three before one could commit to the date and the style we wanted! And last was the florist, not on purpose - but because I actually wanted to meet these people in person when I went to Tucson for a weekend. Everyone else I hired over the phone. During all of this time we managed to also perform some tasks from our end of the country. I decided I wanted my dress made, and so interviewed three seamstresses, of course choosing the first one I talked to!! The dress is taking her four weeks to make, and she is also doing my veil and garter. We decided on our colors, invitations and guest list early on in the game, and ordered those as soon as we had picked the date. Most of our guests were coming in out of town, so we wanted to send the invitations off immediately. I picked out my maid of honor dress and she went to a location in her city to order it. We also ordered our rings in our city, and attended a bridal show to get some ideas on tuxes, flowers and cake designs. We ordered the wedding favors, napkins, bubbles and cameras over the internet and through catalogs (all being shipped to mom of course!!) and did some honeymoon research. We finally selected a cruise as our honeymoon destination and put a down payment on that. We also did our registry at Macys so that everyone around the country could have access to it via the internet or their home town. Everything has come together perfectly, and I couldn't be happier. Oh, and how long did all this take you ask?!? Six weeks. Now look how much time I left to sit back and wait for the wedding! Oh did I forget to mention the last minute decision to hire a harpist to do the ceremony, and the decision to add more guests to the guest list? My only advice to any couple who is doing what we did is this, the internet is a great resource, but it can only do so much for you. If your friends and family are as great as mine, use them as much as you feel comfortable, they are probably more willing to help than you think! Oh and also, keep organized! I have everything in a spreadsheet, and have my costs calculated down to the penny! Guest lists/RSVP lists/ Gift lists are all prepared and just waiting for responses! Have fun, and enjoy it. It should only happen once!
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