Out of State Wedding to be closer to family?

I'm planning a FL wedding from MN because that's where my family is. I agree with Peggy, you should go out there and set up some appointments to meet with vendors. I had to take some trips to FL to meet with my vendors and go meet with my vendors. However, I booked and communicated with most of my vendors over the phone and email (DJ, photographer, ceremony musician), but had to meet the caterer and our baker for tastings, and go to the venue to talk more in detail on our vision. Good luck and happy planning!

We planned a wedding in Colorado (south of Denver). My family & friends are mostly in CA. We gave them 10 months notice with save the dates, and over 50% of our guests were from out of state (125 guests total). Even our in-state guests had to stay in hotels and drive at least one hour (more for a lot of them). We did a ton of work to be super accommodating with multiple hotel blocks, a ton of questions answered on our website, helping with travel plans, etc. Our wedding was 1 hour from our house and it was still a TON of driving to plan it. I think you could do it in NM if you had several weekends you could go down there to see venues, then meet vendors in person (at least the caterer & baker), because the other vendors you could just talk to on the phone and email/text. You'd also have to think about driving/flying with your dress, presents, decor, etc. if you do a destination wedding.

We planned a wedding in Massachusetts from Maryland, without ever visiting there. But we kept it simple: synagogue wedding followed by restaurant reception. We were lucky enough to meet the photographer in person, when he happened to come for a family vacation in DC. The restaurant was part of a chain which had several local restaurants, so we were familiar with the food. Otherwise, we just went with finding vendors online and using Skype, phone, or e-mails to interview them.