My absolute number one tip would be to hire a wedding planner if you can afford it. By nature I am a very organized person but I just really felt like I needed someone in Minneapolis who knew all the ins and outs of the industry. Since I have very limited time in Minnesota to meet with vendors, having a planner who I really trust has been essential. She's been so great at giving me recommendations for everything so that even if I'm not able to meet with someone I know that they'll be great because they have her stamp of approval. I'm working with Emily from Simply Elegant and I absolutely love her! I think even having a day of coordinator will make a huge difference. You're working with so many different vendors and there are a million details to keep track of that having someone coordinate and orchestrate everything will give you peace of mind.
I would also recommend that you be very strategic when planning trips home or to wherever your destination wedding is :) I talked about everything we did last weekend when we were home in Wednesday's post but we really packed it all in. Try to plan several meetings in a day. We had three different meetings in one day and the trick was just to make sure the meeting locations were within a couple miles of each other and to give yourself at least a half hour buffer in between meetings for travel. After we set the date we were trying to map out how many trips home we would make before the wedding so that we could start to get a sense of what would need to happen over each trip. Our planner has been really great for letting us know who we definitely need to meet in person and what kind of timelines we should be following. We were home in September to look at venues, we went home both for Thanksgiving and Christmas which gave us lots of time to check things off the list! Then we planned a trip around the tasting last weekend, we'll be home in June for a wedding so we can get some things done then, and then I'm sure I'll have to go home one more time for a dress fitting. So overall six trips home, which I know is probably way more than most people get, especially if it's in another country! So we're lucky in that sense.
Get organized! Like I said, organization comes naturally to me, but wedding planning will definitely test your organizational skills! I couldn't recommend the Google Suite more. It makes it so easy to share docs with your partner, family, and planner. I've got a whole folder in my Gmail with wedding related emails and then a folder just for contracts too. Google Calendar has been a godsend because after I schedule meetings with people I'll immediately put all the details in the calendar and can invite Mark and then if my mom or sister are coming I can put it on their calendars too. I just need to always remember to make sure I'm setting up meetings in the right time zone!
Put your family to work ;) we haven't had to do much of this yet since we're still a ways out but I'm sure once we've got a month or so to go that there will be lots of errands to run. So make sure you can find some people who are willing to pick up dresses, mail invitations, etc.
In the end I just always have to remember that planning from out of state isn't ideal and I won't get to meet everyone I want or see all of the things in person, but that's okay. Sometimes you've just got to go with the flow. Harder said than done for those of us who are type A, but I'm trying to just enjoy everything and not let anything stress me out too much. I'm actually having a ton of fun planning, so it doesn't feel like a burden.
Have you planned an out of town wedding? Would love to know if you have any more tips for me since I still have another seven months to make it through!
xo Catherine
All photos by Kayla F Photography.
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