As y’all know, we are working with several lovely people on our wedding that are not from the town where we’re getting married. They’re not even located in Connecticut! Tanja is in California, and MacKenzie and Philip and our officiant live in North Carolina. I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but I feel like bringing wedding vendors to you is becoming more and more common. As we all increasingly do research and find vendors online, it’s easy to fall in love with a particular photographer before you even realize where she’s based.

Of course, flying in a vendor isn’t the right choice for everyone, and might even seem a little ridiculous to some. That’s okay, I don’t mind :) If, however, you are hoping to make this work for you, I’ve gathered a few tips over the last few months!

Let’s break this down…

1. Though most vendors charge (either a flat fee or on a cost-by-cost basis) if they need to travel a distance to your wedding, some do not. My friend, photographer Meredith Perdue, is a great example – she is based in Maine, and generally does not charge travel fees for New England weddings. If you haven’t yet fallen in love with a particular vendor, but know you aren’t satisfied with the vendors in your hometown, looking for a vendor whose work you love and who doesn’t charge travel fees could be a great option!

2. Once you’ve hired your vendor and know where they’re based, start doing research! I knew Tanja would be flying out of either SFO or SJC. So almost as soon as we hired her, I set up city-to-city alerts on Airfare Watchdog. This helped me get a feel for the average prices of flights from those cities to mine, so I would know what was a good flight deal and what wasn’t.

3. At around the 8-month out mark, I began checking flight prices through Kayak at least once a week. And then, one day, I saw it: a round-trip cross-country flight for $301. BAM! Done and done. (Note: Make sure you okay the flight’s date and time with your vendor before you book it!)

4. Once you’ve booked the flight, enter the details into another website, Yapta. Yapta will then track the price for you, and alert you if the fare dips below the re-booking fee, for FREE. Then you can call the airline to claim the credit. Bonus: If you book on Jet Blue, you can be refunded for ANY price drop!

5. Okay, you’ve got your vendor in your vicinity, and now you’ve got to get them around town! If you’re getting married in a big city, public transportation will probably do just fine. If, however, you’re out in the boonies, like we are, a rental car will probably be necessary. (Some vendors might be willing to be chauffeured for the weekend, and if you have a willing volunteer, then that could be a cheaper option. But make sure it’s okay with your vendor, and make sure your chauffeur is very responsible – you don’t want your photographer to be late to the church because your cousin didn’t pick them up on time!)

Y’all, rental cars can be EXPENSIVE! I didn’t really realize just how expensive until a few months ago. Thankfully, I found AutoSlash around the same time. This site is amazing!! Book through them to find the best rates (they search for the web to apply every applicable coupon), and then after you book (similar to Yapta), they’ll continually search for offers and codes to lower your rate, and automatically apply any they find. The day after I booked Tanja’s rental, they emailed me to say my rate was now $30 less!

6. They’re there, they can get around town, and now they just need a place to stay. If you’re getting married in your home town, and have lots of eager-to-help family friends with empty guest bedrooms, one option might be to have your vendor stay with one of them. HOWEVER, for this arrangement to work, your vendor has to be 100% on board, and you need to choose your family friend VERY carefully.

If your vendor will be staying in a hotel, my best recommendation is to book EARLY. We booked rooms for Tanja and our officiant just under 12 months out from our wedding, and we got an amazing rate: $84/night on Thursday, and $95/night for Friday and Saturday at a Hilton. By comparison, the same hotel is now charging $169/night for the same room. Most hotels have a 24-hour cancellation policy, anyway, so if you find a better deal a few months later, it’s no trouble to cancel your first reservation!

Whew! I know that’s a lot of information, but I hope you find it helpful! If you’re getting married, have you hired a vendor from outside your state?

P.S. I realized as I was writing this post that these tips don’t just apply to transporting wedding vendors, but to anyone who’s traveling, so enjoy! :)

I love them. We are going to have one at our wedding. This makes me happy :)

So very classy, don’t you think? And — good news! — the black and white checkered dance floor was no more expensive than the regular old dance floor from our rental company!

First three images from Southern Weddings: here (by Veil & Bow), here (by Adam Barnes), and here (by Abby Jiu). Last image by Christine Farah via Grey Likes Weddings

We’ve got less than six months to go until W-Day, and I’m starting to feel the pressure. Let’s recap the last month, shall we?

Arrangement and photo by Poppies & Posies

Since my last update…
— We finalized our registry picks
— We finalized our invitation design and are waiting on a few elements to come back from our calligrapher
— I did yet more waffling on bridesmaid dresses. I don’t know why, but this decision has made me second guess myself more than every other wedding-related decision put together. UGH! I am hoping to place the dress order next week, so PLEASE cross your fingers for me! I will recap the whole saga once the dresses are purchased.
— My sister and I made the first test blooms for a big DIY – paper flowers! I’ll write up a full tutorial soon, but you can see a sneak peek right here!

Next up on the list?
— We have got to get at least the groom’s attire nailed down this month, since he needs to have it ready to go for a friend’s wedding in June.
— Bridesmaid dresses. Done and done.
— I think we’ll be ordering our invites this month!
— I’m so hoping I’ll get to have my first dress fitting soon!!

On another note, apologies for the sparse posting lately! We’ve had a steady succession of house guests for the past few weeks (and have more scheduled for the next few weeks!), so I’ve been concentrating on enjoying their company instead of blogging. BUT, I have several fun posts in the queue, including one about the awesome shower invitations I made for my future sister in law (!), a practical one on my tips for booking destination wedding vendors, more about our wedding day timeline, and all about my accessories (jewelry, clutch, veil, oh my!). More soon!

Y’all, we still don’t have bridesmaid dresses. It’s true – more about that saga soon. In the meantime, though, let’s talk about mother of the bride fashion.

Can we talk about how much I love my Mom for a minute? I love her. A lot. I am so thankful for the relationship we have, and so happy that she will be at my wedding. I don’t often stop and give thanks for something as “simple” as having my Mom at my wedding, but I know that there are girls out there that would give anything to have their Moms by their side on that special day, and can’t for some reason or another. But I can, and so I will be thankful.

But on to fashion! My Mom will be visiting in a few weeks, and we’re planning to go look for dress options together. I thought I’d get the wheels turning ahead of time, and here’s what I turned up in my search:

These first three options are all classic, flattering black. Though the models are not MOB age, I think these styles are all “appropriate” while still being “youthful.” Those descriptions sound ridiculous, but you know what I mean! From left to right we have a silk one-shoulder column gown from Banana Republic ($250), a silk chiffon empire waist gown by Robert Rodriguez from Rent the Runway (rents for $100), and a black crepe one-shoulder gown with pleated a-line skirt by Halston Heritage from Rent the Runway (rents for $125).

I think my Mom looks great in navy, so I’m loving these choices! From left to right, we have a chiffon gown with ruched bodice by Robert Rodriguez from Rent the Runway (rents for $100 – same as above, just different color!), soft trumpet skirt gown from Nordstrom ($194), and one shoulder ruffle gown in navy crepe by Carmen Marc Valvo from Rent the Runway (rents for $125).

Finally, from left to right, we have a navy jersey ruched gown by Badgley Mischka from Rent the Runway (rents for $100), a plum chiffon wrapped gown by Diane von Furstenburg from Rent the Runway (rents for $100), and a jersey gown with crisscross bodice from Nordstrom ($168).

You’ll notice that I included several Rent the Runway dresses in my finds. I’ve never personally used them before, though a good friend has. I just can’t help thinking that it makes a lot of sense to rent a dress, especially for a highly-photographed event like a wedding. My Mom is not likely to wear the same dress to my younger sister’s wedding as she did to mine, and other than that, she doesn’t attend a lot of black tie events.

What do you gals think — would you rent a dress for a formal event? Have you used Rent the Runway before? Any other sources for MOB dresses you can recommend? Which one of the above options is your favorite?

P.S. My apologies if the RTR links in this post don’t work! I think you might have to be signed into your account to be taken to the exact dress. If you don’t have an account but would like one, you can sign up with my link here!