Boston to Geneva (to San Francisco): Behind the scenes of planning a wedding from abroad

WARNING! WARNING! The following blog post is entirely dedicated to only a discussion of wedding planning details. Sorry boys....better luck next time. Enjoy, girls!

Many people asked us how we put together an entire wedding from across an ocean, so I decided to feature a blog post on the topic. Although it sounds like it should have been complicated, we were able to manage it fairly easily by using four fundamental principles: (1) letting go of my inner control freak, (2) frequenting Amazon and Etsy, (3) a little bit of creativity to think outside of the box and (4) the help of our families and friends.

Major vendors: The first step in wedding planning, was coming to the realization that I wouldn't be able to investigate or view every detail before making decisions. For those that know me well, you know this is a difficult thing for me to do. Case in point, we booked the venue without ever having actually seen it. We found everything online, read reviews, decided that it fit what we were looking for and my mom stopped by to check it out and verify. All of our other major vendor decisions basically followed this same trend: research online, read reviews, have Mama K check it out and confirm, then book. In fact, we never had a conversation with vendors in person until the week of the wedding, everything was done via e-mail, internet, or Skype.

Wedding dress and bridal party outfits: The wedding dress posed a puzzling problem because the price differential between a US and Swiss wedding dress is astronomical so I knew I wanted to buy it in the US. Accordingly, on one of my trips back home to the US, I went to a bridal store, purchased a sample dress that I could take home that day, and had a tailor in the US work her magic on it via 3 fittings all in one week. Also, the bridesmaids chose their own dresses within a certain color spectrum and we purchased and shipped Tommy Bahama shirts for the groomsmen online.

Save the dates and invitations: We created the save the dates and invitations entirely online and selected options such as online RSVPs and automatic address labeling via paperlesspost.com and minted.com. As a result, we didn't see our invitations in person until the wedding week but we were able to complete the process remotely, track RSVPs from Switzerland, and save money all at the same time.

Decorations: On the decorations side, I gave up control in wanting to "see" things and had to trust our vision. A beach destination wedding also allowed us to go with minimal decorations and just focus on the beauty of the scenery. Pinterest.com, lover.ly, Amazon.com, and Etsy became our new best friends. We looked at pictures of various decorations online (everything from starfish to my veil to koozies to guest bags) and ordered them to my parents' house where they were stored in the newly dubbed "wedding closet" in a spare bedroom. My mom and sister also crafted various decorations and sent us photos of the progress. As a result, we hadn't actually seen any of our decorations in person and the only things we brought from Switzerland were ourselves, vacation clothes, a few print outs like ceremony programs, signs, place cards, menus, etc. and a 2 HUGE bags of Swiss chocolates for guests, nom nom!

Help of family during the week of: After we arrived in Florida, our families were instrumental in helping us run errands, tie up loose ends in preparation for the weekend, and helping us during the actual events. We also had one "crafting" night in the beginning of the week where we assembled the majority of the decorations. Thank you again to our families for all of your help!!

So while we didn't see 95% of the elements that comprised our wedding until the week of, this process of planning a wedding from abroad forced us to focus on what was really important... each other, teamwork, family, having a good time in both the planning process and the actual wedding weekend, and the comfort in knowing that even if the decorations didn't match or something went wrong due to our planning from abroad, what really mattered was that we were getting married and spending time with our family and friends!

Saying yes to the dress in summer 2013

Visiting the tailor in October 2013

Many Facetime calls with my mama to discuss decorations (including the lanterns from Ikea)

The semi-finished signs at home in Switzerland

Images from my bridesmaids as they started purchasing their dresses

Some of the results of crafting night

Hair and make up trial on Monday of the week before the wedding - I'm glad I asked her to tone the make up down on the day of, this was a little extreme!