Comments on: How to plan a wedding from afar: part I (by Shrie)

By: jenna

jenna — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:51:55 +0000

Thank you for posting this. It's worth repeating that your greatest tool as a long-distance planner is a trusted set of eyes and hands in the venue area. For us (planning a wedding in upstate NY…from Taiwan), it's my parents, who are fortunately extremely excited and happy to help. This means I have to go on their timeline – I'm a Type A "GET IT DONE GET IT DONE GET IT DONE" sort and my mom is a former hippie, so…err…haha. It also means I have to trust my mom's taste even though our styles differ, but she's doing her best to stick to what my fiance and I like. It's definitely brought us closer together. I used to email mom maybe once every 1-2 weeks. Now we correspond every day.

I, too, am a bit frustrated by wedding resources that assume you live near your location. So many couples don't – I don't even mean across continents, but couples who live far from the hometown they've chosen to get married in – that you'd think there'd be more advice and tools out there. But hey, since there aren't, we long-distance couples get to create them and innovate ourselves, which makes the whole process a lot saner and brings it back to what WE want, not what the wedding industry tells us to want. A huge upside to not having a gaggle of professionals waiting and wanting to 'help'.

By: Ewa

Ewa — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:17:53 +0000

I feel you Wildstyle!! In Japan it's a 16hr time difference. Lots of staying up late (2-4am) to make calls. If you are overseas, there is an amazing thing called a "MAGIC JACK". It has saved my life in wedding planning!
Throwing my wedding together in 5 months from overseas has definitely been challenging, but your advice is pretty legit Shrie! Keeping calm is for sure #1. Thank you!

By: Fannyb

Fannyb — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:06:33 +0000

My husband and I were a little bit involved in Shrie's and Bretts wedding and we were absolutly amazed how efficiently they and the Momz and non sappy father pulled it off. Shrie made all the mexican flowers and they were gorgeous. She handled the whole thing with such grace and was very organized and able to express exactly what she wanted with firmness but was always appreciative for everything that anyone did. She had an ability to make everyone want to do more for her because they could not believe that she was as calm as she appeared. She was able to delagete and allow that person to use their own abilities to get their part of job done. Shrie and Brett are very creative and most special. The whole wedding was most original and unique but we enjoyed it greatly and had a wonderful time.

By: emilykate

emilykate — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:10:22 +0000

We're getting married in Florida (not the Miami/Keys), so it's harder than it would be if we were doing it in one of the states that's more supportive. But I will definitely look into the BLGT group suggestion! Thanks so much!

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:18:20 +0000

Oh I'm so happy you tackling this topic1 I live in Chicago and I'm planning a wedding in Italy. I'm sure the pay off will be worth it but damn some spots were har pullingly stressful. there's still 6 months to go and lots to be done so I'm looking forward tomore advice in part 2! Thanks!!

By: Shrie

Shrie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:13:28 +0000

SHRIE ROCKS. LOVED THE ARTICLE AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR #2 EITHER. BUT REMEMBER IF YOU DON'T ENTER THE INFO IT DOESN'T GET SHARED.
THE MOMZ

By: Mandi

Mandi — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Yay!!! Just what I needed… it gives me hope and doesn't make me feel like I going to far by planning a wedding in Alaska that is going to take place in the Midwest. Thank you for this. This post came at just the right time.

By: Kristjana

Kristjana — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:57:51 +0000

Wow, its good to see there are others suffering along with me! I'm in Scotland planning a wedding either in Colorado or California…we haven't been able to stick to one plan yet!
Thanks for the info I didn't know about the google spreadsheets!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:12:17 +0000

I'm very interested in your second part as well, partly because I can't imagine the difficulty in planning long-distance and I admire you keeping your sanity. I'm also totally selfishly interested because I'm getting married at the same venue next year! Your wedding was lovely (and I second everyone about your dress!) and I can't wait to see more pictures! Thank you for sharing on what seems to be a seldom-covered topic on wedding sites.

By: Krista

Krista — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:53:50 +0000

This is a great topic that you don't find much on wedding websites. I'm in the final months of planning a Washington, DC wedding – from Bangalore, India!

Not everyone can do this, and if I was more organized I might not need to, but I've decided to spend the $$ to fly home for a quick trip in order to be able to see the ceremony site in person and to meet (face to face) the officiant and caterer. I think it will be worth it to feel more settled with the arrangements before the big day.