Thinking about having our wedding in Mackinac...but family lives all over the state.

thecousinos

Hello Knotties

This is my first post yay!! So I'm new to this. My fiance and I have been searching and searching for vendors to have our wedding ALL over the state of Michigan. The majority of his family lives in the Monroe area and the majority of my family lives in the Metro-Detroit area (ie: livonia, ann arbor, novi, canton) We wanted to have a outdoor ceremony as well as reception but cant seem to find something we love. Or we would just love to have a outdoor ceremony, indoor reception but in a beautiful vendor, which seems hard to find at a resonable price. Our quest list is almost to 300 right now as well and most is just family. So we are trying to find really reasonable prices but in a nice enough place. We recently found a few places in Mackinac that are BEAUTIFUL and we are considering having our wedding there. Any thoughts or suggestions?!? Have any of you knotties had a wedding 4-5 hours away and still have a awesome turn out??

Thanks lovelys, comments are appreciated!!

sunkissed212

Hello and welcome!!

I considered Mackinac Island for our wedding too. However, you have to remember that having your wedding in a place like Mackinac Island forces your guests to make a "trip" out of it, which some people unfortunately can't afford...especially right now with our less than stellar economy. While I think that Mackinac is a great (and beautiful) place for a wedding (I've been to 2 there actually, and they were fabulous), it was very expensive for us to go up for the entire weekend. For one of them we stayed on the island and the other we stayed in St. Ignace. But, we dropped a few hundred dollars both times just getting there, and staying, ferry tickets, etc. Some people won't be able to afford to do that and therefore won't come to the wedding, sorry to say. 

What other (local) areas are you looking at. The girst here will have tons of suggestions of beautiful locations for ceremonies and receptions that might be a little more reasonable for a guest list of your size. I would just hate to see any bride go through all of the planning and expense of having a wedding on Mackinac Island and not get a good turnout because of the cost and distance for guests.  Defnitely check out the sticky post at the top for other suggestions and I'm sure others will chime in here too soon.

Happy Planning!!

ms nobody

ditto kim. While it's beautiful, the island is not a reasonable place (in distance or price) to have a large wedding when your family all lives about 45-hour apart. 

There are a lot of beautiful places to get married in and around Metro Detroit. Check the sticky and make sure you go through those venues, and see if you cant get some propics. 

Also, search the photographers that shoot in the area, you'll see some beautiful venues and inspiration there.

Sue-n-Kevin

Welcome Cousinos. (Did you graduate from Cousino HS? My son did, and my daughter goes there now).

I agree with the prior posters. For most Michiganders, Mackinac Island would have to be thought of as a "destination wedding"...... meaning you would end up with far fewer family going than you'd like, because of the fact it is only open for a brief part of the year, and hotels/motels book up fast, in spite of the fact they are very expensive.

It would help to know more info about your wedding: how much are you budgeting per person? Who is paying? A fairly inexpensive wedding, with a LOT of DIY, would be $50 per person including EVERYTHING (flowers, food, alcohol, attire, centerpieces, linens, DJ, officiant). Your wedding then at this point is at $15,000 without any friends in the guest list. We are having a wedding for 100, and I've made/purchased or am planning on making the centerpieces (including candles and candleholders), invitations, favors, flower arrangements, table runners). We have a budget of $5000, and are expecting to stay around that and we haven't booked a photographer or caterer yet.

Let us know more and we can help. I agree with the prior posters, look at the top sticky/post it and see where others have booked. For the size wedding you are planning, you are most likely looking for a golf course/country club with an outdoor option, or a large park, with the cost of tent rental.

Good luck.

rmdewey

We are in the same boat! Most of FI's family lives in the Livingston County area, and some of mine live in the Genessee county area. We wanted to get married up north, and we're getting married at the Headlands Beach House in Mackinaw City. We rented the 500 acre property for two nights for $800-- the two homes on the property sleep approx 40 people, so we just opened the place up to people who didn't want to spend money on a hotel. There's more info on them in my bio.

The thing is, most people are making a long weekend out of our wedding-- they're coming up on Friday and staying until Sunday or Monday. And, most of our invited guests are attending.

Our total budget is approx $10,000. Send me a private message if you've got any questions!

sunkissed212

FWIW - FI's family and my family live about 100 miles from each other.  All of my family is from the downriver area (and a handful are sprinkled out on the west side: Northville, South Lyon, etc).  And all of FI's family is from the Flint/Flushing area. So, we had this same issue with people being all over the place.

We chose a location that was at a 'halfway' point, if you will, for our guests. We chose Romeo. It is about 50-60 miles for everyone. This way, one side doesn't have a super long drive, and the other side just a few miles. Yes, it's more inconvenient for most, but it was the best "happy medium" we could come up with. You're not going to make everyone happy.

Melgor78

This was where I originally wanted to get married too.  But looking into cost for us and our guest we didn't find it the best fit.  With most of our guest having children a weekend get away isn't always the easiest and I just couldn't have imagined have 60-70 children there.  I know we would have had a lot of declines because of that.

Julz629

If you want an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception, I think you can find plenty of venues in the area that will satisfy this.  I am getting married outdoors at Kellogg Park in downtown Plymouth and my reception is at The Meeting House in Plymouth which is beautiful and full of charm (of course I'm biased).

I can't speak for your guests, but I know that I would be less likely to go based on the drive, overnight accommodations, and as other have said...the fact that I would most likely need to make a weekend out of it.

Also, keep in mind that a wedding in Mackinac will require a lot more planning on your part -- places for guests to stay, transportation, meals, etc.

thecousinos

Thank you EVERYONE! for your input. My fiance and I have decided not to have our wedding in Mackinac because it would definitely be to expensive for everyone.

We still haven't decided on a location yet but we move back to Michigan in three weeks and the looking will seriously start then.

Again, thank you soo much. Your opinions really helped

Good Luck with all your planning