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Destination Wedding Planning, First Steps

June 9, 2020 by sfleckgrl

99% of our clients are traveling from out  of state to have their Vail, Colorado, Aspen, Breckenridge weddings, so we’re experts on destination wedding planning! If you’ve recently gotten engaged, congratulations! I’m sure you’ve been seeing all of the wedding planning checklists on Pinterest, The Knot, etc… but I haven’t seen any that really work for destination weddings. Our clients usually only come into town twice before the big day, so we need to do things a little differently.

The first step in the process is obviously to choose your venues, so you’ll need to plan a trip, and you’ll need to be efficient! Here’s what to do…

  1.  Hire a local planner to schedule venue tours for your ceremony, reception, rehearsal dinner, and room blocks, and to take you around while you’re there.  It’s ok if you don’t have the money in the budget for a full service planner, you can pay their consultation rate! A local planner will be able to choose venues for you based on your personality, style, and budget.  They will account for travel time between venues, and they will know how much time is needed for each location because they’ve been on multiple site tours at each venue before! They will also know who to contact to schedule the tours. Hiring a planning just for site tours first is great because you can feel them out, and possibly hire them later. As a planner I deduct the cost of the site tours from the wedding planning contract if I’m hired for the wedding!
  2. Hire a Photographer to do your engagement photos while you’re in town for the site tour.  You’ll need engagement photos for your wedding website, and save the dates….. Again, this is a great way to try out the photographer to see if you want to hire them for your wedding, and they will probably give you a deal on your wedding package if you do hire them because a lot of photography packages include engagement photos.
  3. You’ll want to look pretty for your engagement photos, so you’ll want to hire a hair and makeup artist to do a trial directly before your engagement photo shoot. Again, a great way to try them out to see if you want to hire them for your wedding. Also, a lot of their packages include a trial, so when you do hire them, you’ll probably get a deal.
  4. After your Site tours, make a decision on your venues! They go fast! 
  5. Do the first draft of your wedding timeline. Book than planner if you liked them….  Once you have the venues locked in you’ll be able to figure out what time your ceremony and reception with be, and you can do your timeline.  If you liked the planner that took you around on tours, you should hire them, and then ask them to walk you through creating the timeline. If you don’t want to hire that planner that’s cool too, maybe you can pay their consultation rate and ask them to help you with the timeline. You’ll need the timeline to book all your vendors.
  6. Start Booking Vendors.  If you liked the photographer who did your engagement photos  and the hair and makeup artist that did your hair and makeup, go ahead and hire them! Good wedding pros go fast!  If not, it’s ok, you can do some more research and start booking the following month!

 

Filed Under: Planning

stephanie@partygirl.events'

About sfleckgrl

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Contact Party Girl Events

Stephanie Fleck
Wedding & Event Planner
19 Vail Rd.
Vail, CO 81657
(970) 306-3381
Email

Nobody Deserves to Enjoy Your Event More Than You.

Since 2015 Party Girl Events has been helping awesome clients plan and execute weddings and events that are smooth flowing and memorable. We've been everywhere from mountain tops to farms, from back yards to swanky ballrooms. We've worked through crazy snowstorms, fixed ripped bridesmaid's dresses, air brushed a sunburnt groom's forehead, and re-stacked wedding cakes on the fly. We love planning all events. It doesn’t matter how big or small, what the budget is, or how out of the box the vision. As long as you’re excited about it, then we'd love to be a part of it!

partygirl.events

Planning Weddings, Proposals, and Events in Vail, CO and beyond
The Knot Best of Weddings Award 2021
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He put a ring on it! Victor and Katya’s proposal He put a ring on it!
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Pro Tip: If you want beautiful detail photos like Pro Tip: If you want beautiful detail photos like this, you have to plan for them. Here’s how....Plan your cohesive backdrop , get a custom ring box, and ask you florist to bring a few extra flowers when they bring your bouquets on the wedding day. Get out all your details and for the photographer before you start to get ready. Send this to your photographer, so they know you want this kind of photo.
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Posting some red, white and blue in honor of Presi Posting some red, white and blue in honor of Presidents Day! This is from a styled shoot @kelseyboothphotography and I were asked to do for Rocky Mountain Bride magazine at the Frisco Marina a few years ago. Speaking of styled shoots.... PSA for the wedding vendors who do them. They look incredible! Please be honest and let everyone know that the photos you’re  posting are from a styled shoot, and don’t imply that they are from real weddings. The problem is that my clients are seeing the shoots, and then they're telling me that they want the same thing for their weddings, but it's not always possible. This photo is the perfect example! The Frisco Marina is not a wedding venue, the table is set randomly in the woods, and the table top decor was borrowed from Gorsuch ( not a rental company, it would be very expensive to shop at Gorsuch for your wedding decor. Definitely recommend for your registry though, and maybe for the sweetheart table, and then you can keep the stuff forever). My point is, this is not reality! #throwback
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This little ring bearer pulling the even smaller flower girl in his squeaky wagon was the cutest!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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This pin light box our groom to be, Steven, had was genius!
Winter weddings in the mountains are so elite!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The perfect pair of wedding shoes do exist! Would The perfect pair of wedding shoes do exist! Would you rock wedding booties on your wedding day?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#Throwbackthursday⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This #Throwbackthursday⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This was one of the most romantic proposals we've ever planned!  Kari and Steven literally wrote a book together about "Becoming Beloveds," so the proposal backdrop was their favorite quote "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine," Song of Songs. We had Kari's favorite pastel flowers, and lots of rose petals just because Steven knew she'd love that! There were so many more sentimental details incorporated into this proposal, too many to mention on this instagram post, so check out our blog to see more. Link in bio!
Now that's a head table! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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If you're getting married in the mountains you'll If you're getting married in the mountains you'll need at least 2 pairs of shoes. One comfy pair for mountain top photos, and another pair for the ceremony and reception! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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They ski'd some diamonds, and then he gave her one They ski'd some diamonds, and then he gave her one! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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As Linny and Ryan approached the deck, Matt Lewis was there to play Linny's two favorite songs " Fly me to The Moon" and "Tennessee Whiskey", and two of their closest friends came up to join the celebration .  Later they had dinner in a yurt!
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