Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: Long Distance Bride

iStockphoto courtesy of ThinkStock.com.

An initial aspect of my wedding planning organization was deciding which parts I wanted to travel to Philadelphia to do, and which parts I could do from New York. I know many brides plan from much farther away, but planning a wedding from out-of-state, regardless of the distance, still has its challenges. Of course, the very big things like the venue and the ceremony site required more than a few train rides down the Northeast Corridor. For the rest, it all comes down to convenience, but not just convenience for me—for the vendors as well.

I decided that an easy way to figure this out was to have all of the day-of vendors be local to Philadelphia, to decrease travel cost and time. So, among other things, the caterer, photographer, videographer, cake baker, florist and band will all be local. I also considered a) that there are so many great vendors in Philly who I am familiar with (since most of the weddings I have attended have been in Philly), and b) that navigating the NYC wedding world is not a task I am ready to take on.

The “wedding prep” items, like the invitations and our Pre-Cana sessions, we will be doing in New York, for convenience’s sake. The dress and bridesmaids dress-shopping is a little trickier. I plan on starting the search in New York—I have dress appointments this week!—and then doing a little comparison shopping in Philly, if necessary. Oh, and the little things, like accessories, favors and small decor items, I will order online, so who knows where they will be located.

I am not a stranger to traveling back and forth between cities for reasons other than visiting family and friends. Until very recently, I still traveled to Philadelphia to get my hair cut and colored. (I was very loyal to my hair stylist for ten years before I cheated on her in NYC. I felt pretty bad about it, but realized that planning trips home based on when my roots were showing was just getting impractical.) Splitting the wedding-related tasks between locations allows me to really enjoy those trips back to Philadelphia, and fit in some family and friend time as well.

Any other long-distance brides out there? How did you decide where you would find each vendor?

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