What to do? HELP

cgbales

The person that I am going to marry grew up on the west coast and I was born and raised on the east. We can't decide whether or not to do a destination wedding... like in Mexico and have two reception type things in both places. Or just get married where I am from and then have a reception there? What would you do as a bride?

SarahPLiz

My FI grew up in Romania and Fl. His parents live in FL. I grew up in Louisiana, but my family is spread out in about 8 other states.
We are getting married where we live, right here in Texas. I guess its like a DW for most of our guests, since they have to travel, but for the most part they don't mind.
As a bride, I am inviting all the people we want to be there, and if they can't come, then we are sorry and we will miss them. There is no reason to have a reception anywhere else.

corinnemarie22

My seperation between familys was not quite as bad... however theres an 8 hour difference from my family to my FI's. Most of his family are within an hour of where we live, but my family being the 8 hours away and much larger. We considered a desination wedding... but then I realized how hard I personally found planning a desination wedding. So we chose to do it in Los Angeles... (where we live). Which now after planning I think is the best decision we ever made. Because I can actually veiw the locations, meet the vendors, and do the planning close to me. I tried to plan for nothern califonia first but not being able to do all of those things and making a special trip just to do so felt like even more stress then I think the planning needs. So I say stay close to you... but thats just me

Pirata13

Maybe consider doing like PPs and getting married where you live and let everyone come to you.  My brother got married in Virginia. Aside from his wife and her immediate family (parents & sisters) and a handful of friends from Virginia, all of us had to travel.  Family & friends traveled from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. 

Either have it where you live or in your hometown. Perhaps consider which location may have more "to do", as some people may make a vacation out of it.  I vote have it where you live.

goheels05

I agree with Sarah's sentiment.  I strongly discourage two receptions.  Planning can be hard and stressful, and you don't need to put yourself through that twice. 

trix1223

You plan your wedding where you want it, and you invite your guests.  If they can make it they come.  If they can't they can't.  And you'll miss them.

But I'm always surprised by people who think that they have to have two (or more) receptions sho that they can make it easier on everyone else (guests) while making it twice as expensive and time consuming for themselves.

You don't OWE people the chance to see you at a wedding reception.

lifeizbeachy

We had the same issue and are considering doing it where we had our first vacation together in The Smoky Mountains.
 
We love it there and think our families could make a little vacay out of it since there is so much to do there. If not we will do it where we live, so everyone has to travel, and there will be no hard feelings about choosing his moe town or mine.

kaynix21

Where do you live? East or west?

My FI is from South Carolina and his family is all over the south. I'm born and raised in California, and we live in Nevada. We're only about two hours away from where I grew up.

We decided to do the wedding in my hometown. There is no way in hell I could have planned a wedding for a different coast. I have a hard enough time planning when I'm two hours away by car from our venue....I am ready to cry thinking about doing it five hours away by plane. It would not have been my wedding because someone else would have had to plan it for me. I couldn't have done it.

So do it where you live or close to it, IMO.

notagirlikeme

My FI lives in Ohio as does his entire family.  I live in Vegas and my extended family is all over the place.  We wrestled with the idea of planning two receptions.  In the end we decided to technically make it a DW in Vegas because people love to come here.  We are also going to do an informal catered bbq in Ohio once we are situated there.