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When Mr. Crepe and I first got engaged, we were faced with two options for the location of the wedding—New York or Nashville. This was a toughy for many reasons, and one of them was that because we went to school in the Northeast, we have many friends who’ve settled in the New York vicinity. However, Mr. Crepe’s father is a pastor and we had always assumed that he would marry us, but this could only work in Tennessee.
Mr. Crepe and I are both self-employed, so budget was/is absolutely paramount. The first thing we considered were the costs between the two locations (lodging for the guests, flowers, food, music), and we realized that while there were many good reasons to have the event in New York, Tennessee made much more sense.
After that decision, I breathed a huge sigh of relief because our first wedding decision was made. And everything after that was going to be fun, shopping, and DIY projects. Easy like Sunday morning.
Hilarious, right? I was quickly yanked back into reality with our next decision: venue.
The church that FIL Crepe ministers to is a great big, beautiful open space with a large rec area that is used for receptions. It was a really lovely place, but your homegirl is an avid blog follower, so naturally I had my heart set on something like this:
How many of us have dreamed of a barn wedding, thanks to the internet? Hands in the air!
Planning a Tennessee wedding in New York was proving difficult, since I was limited to finding places online and was spending too much time Googling “rustic barn wedding Nashville affordable.” Nerves were also setting in because we had about seven months before the wedding and I wanted to make a decision now!
It was also becoming clear to me that my fantasy was probably suited to a more outdoorsy kind of girl who could run around in super tall, spiky grass, muddy up her dress, and ignore gnat clouds. Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE taking in sunshine…I just prefer mine from behind a large glass window.
It was time to look into alternative locations.
1. Belle Meade Plantation, 2. Nashville Zoo, 3. Belmont Mansion, 4. Cedarwood
I came across so many really beautiful/fun/interesting places, but in the end they were either over budget or just not us.
In the end, practicality won out, and we decided to go with the original, least costly venue, especially since this made much more room in the budget for all the other fun extras we wanted to include in our wedding. We probably could have made that decision from the start but, after shopping around, it feels much more like a perfect fit.
Were you a long-distance bride? How did you find your venue from afar?
great post! and for other brides out there - you can marry someone in another state if you are an ordained minister - you just need a “sponsor” from the state in which you are marrying to sign off on it. (my father is a minister and does it all the time for other folks, and would have done it for my wedding if we had gotten married in DC).
I’m kind of a long distance bride. We’re having our wedding only a 1.5 hour ferry ride away, but its too expensive for us to go over all the time so I’ve had to plan everything so far using the internet. Its annoying!
Our venue is his grandparents’ backyard, so that was easy… its the rentals and caterer that will be more difficult. I’ll be watching your entries to see how you deal with all that…..
@spaganya: That’s a great tip! We would have looked into doing that, had it come down a little closer between the pros and cons, but I hope that info is useful to other bees in a similar situation.
Toats a long-distance bride. Planned our Napa wedding from Guam. Not as hard as I thought, but we found our winery pretty quickly upon visiting the valley for a few days. After that, the internet was my co-coordinator!
@Mrs. Barrettes: Haha I think you just totally schooled me on the long distance front. All of you international brides have me throwing major props your way~
I hear you - we live in NYC also and are getting married in South Carolina (and neither of our parents live there, either!) My parents have a beach house there, so we’ve spent tons of time in the area, but even being familiar with the area generally it’s definitely tough to do most of the work online with only a few actual trips in.
Not a long distance bride, but as someone in the Nashville area looking for an affordable outdoor (but not TOO outdoor) venue, I definitely feel your pain.
Being a long distance bride myself, I really enjoyed your post! My fiance and I live in Dallas but he is from New Orleans I am from Michigan. We are having the wedding in Michigan and another reception in Dallas. That is the only way we can make it work.
Good decision on your part. Good luck with your planning!
I feel your pain!! My fiance and I have been doing long distance since we first got engaged. He is in NJ and I am in RI, so since I am doing most of the planning, (ok, let’s be serious- all of it haha) I have been planning everything from a different state. And now, he is moving up to RI to live with me, so we both will be out of state planning our shin dig. I think we might actually be the farthest people coming to our wedding! Miss Crepe, I look forward to following your blog!!!
Altho it was not as far for us we chose to get married in my hometown of NYC. So I definitely understand the hardships of researching everything online. For that I’m truly grateful! Can you image trying to plan a long distance wedding without the internet?
My biggest advice is research research references references meet meet meet!
Don’t worry, it’ll all work out!
We planned most of our upcoming Sydney wedding while we were living in London, it’s NOT easy but it’s certainly a whirlwind - every visit counts!! It’s much easier now that we’ve moved back to Sydney, so we can follow up the last few months in person. 
I’m also planning a long-distance wedding. We live just outside of Memphis but our wedding is going to be in Central PA. We had actually looked into eloping just because of how much easier it would be. Eventually we opted for the real deal, but the place we were going to elope at was a bed & breakfast outside of Nashville called Butterfly Hollow. They do all types of weddings, not just elopements, and the location is very rustic and romantic. It may be what you’re looking for.
Me me me!!! We live in NYC and are planning a wedding in Houston. My family lives there but everyone is such a worker bee. I broke down and hired a coordinator even though my venue comes with one too. I was running crazy!! Thank God for the internet. I wonder what brides did before now??
I live in Mississippi and getting married in Las Vegas February 26th, 2011 (yes two weeks away!) He wanted a Vegas wedding and I wanted a southern-plantation type wedding. He won out because most of my family lives on the west coast and he didn’t feel inclined to have most of his family there (just immediate and a few friends), so logistically and financially speaking for my guests, Vegas won. Having lived in Vegas and having family who live there is what saved me. I researched places and had my cousin check them out. She was/is my eyes and ears throughout the whole process!
I live in TX and getting married in FL. I found my venue through google then did a couple checks online (the knot, google reviews etc) and then sent my mom and dad to check it out. They put a deposit down on it then called me to “let me know”
It’s really difficult to plan everything long distance!! I am very happy with the choices that I’ve made, but I can’t help but feel it would have been different if I’d actually been there to check out everything in person, as online it’s always difficult to really have a sense of the places / vendors…
yes, i suppose i was a long distance bride. i live in columbus oh but our wedding was in the cincinnati area, specifically northern kentucky where my husband is from. he moved to columbus right after the wedding, so our relationship was long distance for a while too. but really it’s not that long, only a 2 hour drive, so it wasn’t too hard to come into town to plan the wedding.
We live in NYC, but are getting married upstate in my hometown. Not too big of a distance, about a 3 hour drive, but enough that it’s totally a pain to schedule meetings with vendors. Every trip upstate is based around another meeting. Can’t wait to be done with that part of the planning!
(Venue hunting was deff the WORST!)
Ohhhh yeah. We were in Japan and had to decide on England or America first of all. And then when we decided on the good old US of A we still had to decide where. We contemplated Vegas for a while just so that we could have it easy, before ultimately settling on my parent’s backyard. Which was equally hard as it was easy to plan from afar! But my secret dream wedding was.. a barn. Great minds think alike!
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Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TN Age and Occupation: 28, Jewelry Designer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation Director Engagement Date: September 28, 2010 Wedding Date: May 2011 Venue: A church in downtown Nashville About Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
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