Planning wedding out of state

I planned our entire wedding, by myself, from over 800 miles away (and had no friends or family in that area). You can totally do this! And it will be super helpful having family in the area, in case you need eyes or feet on the ground to check something out.

I booked so much out of state myself. I definitely booked our catering, dessert and my hair & makeup on pure trust without trying anything and hope for the best lol. We were able to drive the 5 hours a few times. I didn’t even get a hair and makeup trial until 3 days before our wedding because we went down a bit early. I know it can be hard but you got this! Luckily you have family and friends around where you’re getting married to help you if you need it!

It looks like you have over a year and a half until your wedding, which is PLENTY of time to schedule a few trips back for anything you'd have to do in person I think it would be a good idea to get the venue picked before you move just so you can lock in the date. You can book a lot of things remotely, but you'll need to have a date first. The only things I had to do in-person in the area where the wedding was were venue tours, tastings, and my hair and makeup trial. If you knock our your venue before you move, you could probably schedule a weekend trip and book tastings and a hair and makeup trial in the same weekend. You can meet with vendors over the phone/ Zoom, pick out your rings at a jeweler near you, dress shop in your own area, and order things online. If either your parents or your fiancé's parents have some extra space, you could even have anything you order online (like a guest book, cake topper, etc.) go directly to their houses so you don't have to schlep it all from your new place back to your home state.

There is a great App called Wedding Wire and One called The Knot. You put in your location and all sorts of things are available at your touch. If you can't meet face to face then schedule zoom meetings to interview vendors. Good luck! Congratulations!

Just food for thought:

-Be careful when a venue is "all inclusive" because sometimes they may not have the best staff, quality of food, etc. Or should you want to have a vendor that is not on their list, they may not allow it, or charge an outside vendor fee that is steep.

My fiancé and I are planning our wedding out of state. Even though I am familiar with the bridal industry, I did hire a wedding planner because I want to feel like a guest at my wedding, and I wanted a team of vendors that was familiar with working with each other. I did interview multiple vendors over the phone and on Zoom.

When it came down to venue, I am SO GLAD I did not pick the all inclusive venue. Two of my friends did not have the best experiences there as a guests of another wedding, and some of our vendors had cautioned us. Even I noticed some animosity when I had asked some questions about bringing a caterer for certain food items. In fact, their food has highly questionable as per yelp reviews.

The venue we chose does have an exclusive caterer, but given the reputation of their food, we knew that no one would be unsatisfied. We had the ability to choose all other vendors.

Although it was a labor of love, I enjoyed looking at vendors and having the flexibility in choosing.

When it comes to dresses, please, please, please try some on now in your home state (you don't have to make your final selection), and order bare minimum 10 months in advance to avoid rush fees. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you might find since styles tend to be "retired" around December/January for the new season. My dress is actually a sample, my veil is a sample, and my shoes are from Good Will. I went shopping with my fiancé a few times, and by myself too.

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Before I respond, I wanted to thank you for your input. I will consider your response when moving forward.

As dumb as this might sound, it would make sense for me to have a wedding planner because I do not know much about wedding plannings. Im just worried about money. I always am, and I see it as “something I can do myself.” And maybe it is trust issue, but I can’t confidently confirm it. I consider myself an average planner and am pretty good at being organized.
I haven’t been to a lot of wedding or been involved in any weddings. Wedding planning is not really high my priority list at the moment, so I don’t really look into a lot stuff as much as I should. Wedding planing is probably fifth on my list. I obviously have my fiancé and me as one, as well as graduating and my current job to think about. Add me moving on top of that and I just don’t think about weddings anymore. My planning is very rocky at the moment. I want to sorta “check the boxes” off so I have less priorities to worry about, and then focus on wedding stuff. But by the chance I would eliminate half the list, I am already moved and got nothing done.
We are starting with the venders we liked the most, which just happened to be all inclusive. I personally thought all inclusive venues would be easier than getting a bunch of different people to one place and coordinating all that. But I suppose you make a good point. The venues we choose are a mix of all inclusive and just being the “venue” to host the wedding.
As for dress shopping, again, sounds dumb, but I’m really scared to dress shop. Part of me wants to go by myself or just with one other person, and the other half wants like 7 of my favorite ladies there. I confidently know my style and what I like design wise, but I have no clue of what would actually look good on me. I have a feeling it is going to be very long and I can see myself feeling frustrated (which is why maybe I should just go by myself)