Hey Joel and Amber!
My fiancè and I are planning our wedding during a long distance relationship. I know you guys did that, too. Do you have any advice for us?”
{Image by our friend Erin Lindsey Images!}
Sweet bride, I’m glad you asked! It’s something that so many couples are going through right now, so we decided to share our answer on the blog today!
We totally get the challenges of a long-distance relationship, first of all. And number two – trying to plan a wedding in the middle of it! We dated and were engaged long-distance for 3 1/2 years before our wedding. It’s tough, but it works! :)
Here’s our top 3 tips for you guys!
1. Ask your groom if there are any pieces of the wedding planning he would enjoy being involved in! Depending on how far apart you are, it’s probably not feasible to try to include him in every part of the planning. If food is his thing, you can try to schedule your catering tasting at a time he can come be a part of it! He doesn’t know the difference between a lily and a ranunculus? He probably won’t mind skipping out of the floral design session.
2. There are some wedding vendors that are much more hands-on during the wedding day than others. While you’re going to be spending a lot of time with your photographers, wedding planner, and DJ, many of the other vendors will be doing their work behind the scenes. For those vendors that will be spending the day at your side, encourage your groom to take some time to connect with their websites and social media before making the final decision. He’ll be spending the entire day with them, as well, so see if you can find vendors that you can both connect with!
If it’s possible to schedule meetings with both of you for those vendors who will be by your side all day, do it!
Tip: Looking through the “About” section on a website, scrolling through a few blog posts, and following on social media are easy places you can start! If you can find someone you both connect with, it will help relax you both on the wedding day!
3. When you’re together, don’t try to cram in the wedding planning. Wait, what? It’s true. :) When we planned our wedding, we lived either 6 or 12 hours apart. On the once-a-month weekend we got to spend together, I realized that I didn’t want to spend all my time with him talking about our wedding. I wanted to spend time with him, not the wedding.
Long distance relationships are tough. When you have those sweet, precious weekends together, let yourselves focus on your relationship and the marriage you want to build. It’s an amazing time for dreaming about your new lives together. There are lots of big changes coming (one of you is probably going to be moving) – for us, we were just ridiculously excited at the thought of living in the same zip code! ;)
Schedule a coffee date where you guys can sit down and talk about wedding details to your hearts’ content for a limited amount of time. After that, give yourself space to just enjoy being together and focus on each other!
We hope this gives a little insight into the challenges of planning a wedding during a long distance relationship. Hang in there! :)
*hugs*
Amber
Do you have a question you want to see answered on our blog? Send us an email at contact@joelandamberphotography.com with your question, and we’ll do our best to answer it on our “Hey Joel and Amber!” series! :)
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