Where to have the wedding?

michellep1029

After 4 years together, he finally popped the question a few weeks ago. We know we want to wait a while to have our wedding (I'm still in school), but the first thing we have to decide is where to hold it. We're both originally from Chicago, and both of us have immediate family there. We recently moved to Boston, where we hope to stay for the next few years. My extended family lives here, but we don't have a huge number of friends in the area. Most of our friends are scattered throughout the country: I went to undergrad in TN, he in IN. Also, I think my mom will be doing a lot of help with the planning as it's not my forte, and she is in Chicago.

So, before we can pick the date, we need to at least narrow down where we want to have the wedding... Any advice?

tiny speck

I agree that you can't try to please everyone, but that if there are certain people you couldn't imagine not being there, you should try to take their situations into account if possible.

This is how FI and I figured things out: I am from the west coast of Canada, and all my immediate family lives there; my FI is from midwestern America, and most of his family is there too; however, we met in England and have lived here the past four years. So no matter where we would have the wedding about two thirds of our guests would have to make a major international trip. After clearing it with our parents and siblings, we decided it would be best to have the wedding here, in England, so we can plan it ourselves locally, and in deciding this, we have accepted that it means we will be having a rather small wedding (and probably no pre-wedding parties/showers, etc), as we don't expect people to travel across the Atlantic for us. It makes me sad sometimes, that longtime family friends (both mine and FI's) won't be there, but we will extend invitations to them anyways, and we know it will still be a great wedding.

Anyways, I also agree that Chicago sounds like it would make sense for you, but if you want to have a lot of control in making decisions and planning that might be tricky if you aren't there (not saying it's impossible to plan from afar, I just know I wouldn't want to leave it up to my mom). I think doing it in Boston (assuming your immediate family would be able to make the trip) would also be a great option. Good luck!