Planning from afar can be stressful! Austin is a hub for destination weddings for a variety of reasons, and we love it! We work with remote clients all the time, so we wanted to provide some suggestions on how to manage planning remotely! We recommend planning three trips throughout your planning process, and we’ve broken them down below!
First trip – Venue
It’s hard to really understand the look and feel of venues until you’ve seen them in person. We recommend taking a look online and determining your favorite look and feel, then narrowing it down to five or fewer venues to tour. Any more than that, it’s hard to keep them straight – and it can also be pretty exhausting!
With our full service planning package or by adding the venue selection addition to our smaller packages, we do the legwork for you, and tour the venues with you and provide some additional thoughts to consider as you visualize your wedding in the space.
Second Trip – Midway Check In
Kati Maxwell Photography
This trip is to get some of the details checked! We recommend grouping your catering tasting, hair / makeup trial, engagement photos (and / or bridals) and any other vendors you consider must-meets in person. Sometimes this may be your officiant, florist, or rentals depending on your priorities and styles.
Third Trip – Details
J Bell Photography
Generally, the final walkthrough is about four weeks from the wedding, but if that’s too close to wedding travel, it can be shifted forward a bit (six weeks or so) in order to do the final details meeting and walk through the venue space. This is where it all comes together, and we work through the layout and final details and visualize how you and your guests will move throughout the day. It’s important that you get your marriage license during this last trip (Texas law requires that you get your marriage license 3-90 days before the wedding). A lot of couples travel in for the wedding just a few days before – and this can cause some stress on getting you both to the marriage office before the 72-hour deadline.
After that – it’s wedding time! If you have a lot of family traveling, it is a good idea to consider planning to come into town a couple of days early to get settled before the family comes pouring in! You should always feel comfortable asking your planner for information and advice regarding rehearsal dinner locations and for other tips to keep your wedding weekend (and the time leading up to it) running as smoothly as possible!
