My husband and I chose to get married in Tuckaseegee, North Carolina at Castle Ladyhawke and before booking the venue we made sure to make a trip and see it for ourselves. We instantly fell in love with the mountains and remoteness of the castle; so without hesitation we said yes to the venue and that ended up being the only time we visited the location before our wedding day. But it worked out, because our wedding couldn’t have been more perfect! These are the 5 tips I have for you when planning a long distance wedding in no specific order…
1) Check all reviews.
I can’t even tell you how many websites I went to and
reviews that I read for all the vendors I chose. I even incorporated social media in my
research to make sure that the vendors were legitimate with a great track
record. It is amazing how much
information is online if you dig through all the websites. We were able to see the good, the bad, and
the ugly. Needless to say, I have no
complaints about any of my vendors because they had countless positive reviews
all over the internet. The more positive reviews the vendor had, the more
inclined I was into learning more about them.
2) Phone Interviews are a must.
With that being said, once I narrowed it down to two or
three vendors based on online reviews the next step was to email them and setup
a phone interview. You would be
surprised how much of your deciding factor can be influenced based on a simple
phone call. My photographers were a
perfect example. After narrowing the
choice down to two; I set up the interview with the first photographer. He
seemed to be in a rush and not very interested in what I had to say, which made
me feel hesitant, because I wanted someone who would make both my husband and I
feel at ease and comfortable in front of the camera. My second interview was the complete
opposite. Once I spoke with Revival Photography, I knew instantly they were
the vendor I wanted on my wedding day.
They were cordial, sweet, and actually listened to me. The deal was sealed as soon as I got off the
phone, and because of them I have the most beautiful wedding pictures to
treasure forever.
3) Send lots of photos!
Pinterest literally becomes your best friend. Every time I had to decide on something I
made sure to send pictures to all my vendors.
Food vendor, flower vendor, cake vendor, table setting vendor, wedding
planner, EVERYONE! And because of that each vendor was able to nail exactly how
I wanted everything to look like.
4) Get familiar with the law.
I can’t stress enough how important this is because we
learned the hard way. Make sure you have
everything you need for your marriage license and what the steps are. In most
circumstances, you will get your marriage license in the county that you are to
be married in, not necessarily where you live. So, for us, we had to get our
marriage license in North Carolina, not Florida and the requirements are
different. Find out if you need a liquor license for the venue. Liquor license
requirement are very different in North Carolina than Florida. Do you need to do certain things at certain
times because of noise compliances? Some
of these things we didn’t look into advanced and ended up doing them literally
the day before the wedding which can be VERY stressful!
5) Consider vendor travel cost.
Our venue surprisingly was a very great deal! But little did
we know our budget would go up 30% because of travel cost. We had to bring in every vendor you can
possibly think of and because the venue was so remote the travel cost ended up
killing our budget. So when choosing
your venue, do some research and see where the vendors would be coming from so
you have an idea of what travel cost you can expect.
Looking back to a year ago, having a long distance wedding was
not all that stressful because I made sure to look at all reviews, have
interviews, and send lots of pictures! Just remember to breath, relax, and
enjoy the ride because before you know it, it will be your one-year
anniversary.
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