In recent years Nashville, Tennessee has become one of the top locations in the nation for destination weddings. If you aren’t convinced on whether to hold your own wedding in here, check out my article on top 5 reasons to have your wedding in Nashville. If you have already decided to hold your wedding here, then the very first thing you need is a planner, and I am here to help! Many people wonder what it looks like to plan a destination wedding verses a home-town wedding, so this guide will serve to explain the wedding planning process from start to finish and what it will be like when you book with Kelsey Gray Events.
First, know that destination weddings are not only for those who live in other parts of the country or the world. Perhaps you recently moved to Nashville for work or other opportunities, but your family and friends live elsewhere. It’s still a destination wedding for your guests, and you want them to have the same awesome Nashville experience! Just know that although I’m often talking to couples who live out of state, this destination wedding planning package will work well for some local couples, too!
No matter where you are located, we can plan almost every aspect of your wedding from afar. I can work with across time zones and work schedules, as long as I have advanced notice of our meeting. For virtual meetings, I prefer to use Google Hangouts, which allows me to share my screen. Anyone who has a Gmail based email account can use Google Hangouts, but if this doesn’t include you, then I can meet by Facetime, as well.
Ideally you would book your planner before any other thing for your wedding. I understand that you’re all excited and anxious to book your venue, but a destination wedding is so much more than the main event. Since your guests are making a special trip for your wedding, many couples like to give their guests an awesome experience by turning it into a wedding weekend. This could mean multiple activities in one weekend, such as the rehearsal dinner and a post-wedding brunch, or even booking some tourist attractions and buses to take guests around the city. This brings an added piece of complexity to the planning process, as we need to adequately budget for multiple events. So, we typically start the planning journey by discussing your vision for the weekend, the guest experience, and the wedding itself. Then we divide out our budget by event and expected expenses for each event. After we work out of a few of these logistics (we’ll get it done super quick, I promise!) THEN we are ready for one of your most anticipated parts of the wedding planning: venue shopping.
When choosing a venue, I’m looking for not only the right style for your dream wedding, but logistical components that can have a big impact on the day. If you can’t be here for venue tours, that’s okay. We can Facetime the whole way so that you still meet the venue manager and get a good feel for the layout of the venue. And if you have already booked your venue before booking a planner, don’t fret. Half of my clients don’t realize that they should book a planner first, and it’s okay, we will make it work!
Once the venue is booked, we get to dive into my favorite part, which is the final design and vendor booking. I will style your space in a way that utilizes your Pinterest inspiration while also including new ideas that blend into a design that is totally unique to you and your finance. Then we will book vendors that fit this style. Each vendor has their own style, and we want to make sure that the caterer, DJ, photographer, videographer, etc., is a good fit for your unique wedding. I have a list of vendors that I’ve worked with in the past and can highly recommend, but I’m also happy to work with new vendors if you find someone you love. Some venues and planners require you to use their limited options of approved vendors, but you won’t find those restrictions with Kelsey Gray Events.
We can book all of your vendors with the use of online meetings and contracts. However, some couples really want to enjoy the experience of planning by being in person for things such as tastings and picking out linens. If you want to come into town, that’s great! I suggest that we book a planning day where we can do catering and cake tastings, pick out your rental items to finalize the design, and even schedule a venue tour if needed. Many of these things are going to be closed on the weekends, so I advise that you take a couple of days off work and come into town for a long weekend. I also strongly urge you to plan this with me a month or two in advance so that we can be sure to schedule everything we need to do. We’ll make a planning day of it, and we have so much fun together that this day is typically our couples’ favorite part of the planning process.
Depending on the length of your engagement, we will typically meet monthly up until the last month before the wedding, where we may meet weekly to finalize all of the last-minute details after guests have RSVPs. I will create a shared online drive, and this is where we will store all of your vendor contracts, seating charts, floor plans, and other wedding-related info so that we can both access at any time on our phones or laptops.
During the last month we will finalize details of the guest experience and the wedding itself. Then on the weekend I will be there every step of the way to make sure the entire event goes off smoothly. My goal is for you to have not only an amazing wedding, but for your guests to see the best that Nashville has to offer. Check your date now to see if I’m available for your wedding!
*** Kelsey Gray Events works with couples from all over the country at all levels of service (full planning, partial planning, or coordination) for destination weddings. When couples want the total wedding weekend experience, they typically book the full planning package and then add on services for tours/activity planning, rehearsal dinner coordination, day-after brunch coordination, and more.
