Photo by my Father in law to be
Planning our Baltimore wedding from New Orleans, has it’s challenges. The next time I’ll be back in Maryland it will be three days before the wedding. This is how I’m coping with the challenges of long distance planning:
Transporting Wedding Things:
My dress is waiting for me in MD, and I’m hoping it fits like it did last month, three months from now. The upside is that I won’t have to get on a plane with a huge bag of crinoline, but the downside is that I won’t be able to make last minute adjustments. Laura is taking the opposite approach because her dress is way easier to travel with and she wants a few fittings. The dresses are just the beginning of the wedding stuff that needs to make it to MD. Planning long distance means that I have to be creative with how to get decorations to the wedding. I’m making paper flowers and mailing them to my mom for the paper flower balls that will hang above the dance floor; she is handling the assembly. I’m also forgoing favors, special toasting flutes, signage, and other extras that we don’t feel strongly about and would be difficult to travel with.
Delegating to Friends and Family:
Some wedding things can’t be easily transported, which means letting go and delegating. I gave the task of thrift store shopping for cake stands to my in-laws-to-be who found the perfect set of mismatched antiques (pictured above). I also plan to delegate the making of our huppah, displaying of escort cards, and the buying of booze. The best advice I have is to just let go of control a little and let your community help you. You might be surprised by how happy people are to help. And even if they don’t nail your aesthetic exactly, when you look at the results you’ll see the love of your friends and family.
A Venue that Doesn’t Need Decoration
We are getting married in a wild flower garden in front of a wooden sculpture at sundown. We decided we didn’t need any decorations or flowers given how pretty the venue is on it’s own. Instead, we hired a lighting company to light up the huppah and aisle, set up a microphone, and that’s it. The barn where we are holding the reception doesn’t need much except some nice looking tables for dinner.
Hiring Help:
Our family will help us get all of our wedding extras to the vendors, and the vendors with take care of setting everything up the day of. I’m so glad I finally let go of the guilt of spending a little more money, and realized how invaluable my wedding day sanity is. We plan to spend the morning of our wedding hanging out and enjoying some time just the two of us. Because the wedding prep, coordination, and cleanup will be handled by our awesome vendors, we can use our short time in Maryland to visit with guests, have some moments alone, and take in our wedding weekend.
Speaking of sanity, the best thing about long distance planning is the need to plan ahead. That might be challenging now, but a week before the wedding either the DIY projects will be done, or they aren’t getting done- there will be no rushed, last minute crafting the night before the wedding.
I will have to remember this. We’ve decided to have our wedding in MD too. Just a lot of stuff that I constantly think about, while trying my best to manage it into chunks that make sense.
i don’t encourage anyone to get obsessive about hir measurements, but you might consider measuring your bust & waist (and arms if there are sleeves) once a week or something until the wedding. that way you’ll know immediately if there’s been a change and be able to plan accordingly (add a couple of workouts or have someone make dress adjustments in MD). just a thought. it would suck to not realize you’d had a significant change until it was too late.
Wasabi,
Erin and I are having the same challenges with the wedding in Seattle and us in Maryland. We have decided that Erin is going to drive earlier and I will fly out the following weekend. Then part of our honeymoon will be driving back across the country after the ceremony. : )
Mary- Sounds like Erin going to Seattle early will be very helpful. That’s a good way to do it! I love road trips, so building that into the honeymoon sounds pretty good to me.
InfamousQBert- You are genius! Thank you for this tip.