Location, location, location?

I guess the first part of planning a wedding is the date, but that's another story, one much easier. The location was harder. The only advice I can give is this: get married where you want, family will complain no matter what. Whether you make them fly to Colorado or drive 20 minutes, someone isn't going to be happy.

You might as well be. After all, it's your wedding day.

I can't stress that enough. It's YOUR wedding day. Not your mother-in-law's, not your best man's, not Uncle-Louie-from-Cincinnati's. YOURS.

So, when my wife and I started to plan our wedding, we spent a lot of time going back and forth about where to have it. I wanted to try to make it more convenient for my family, and have it somewhere in Massachusetts (we're in New Hampshire, my family is in Rhode Island). It would certainly be somewhat less convenient for her family, but I was trying to achieve balance.

Her family bitched. They understood, but they bitched. It turned out to be a moot point; we couldn't find a place that we both liked and could afford.

But there was a winery that meant a lot to both of us. I was one of its first customers, she loved their wine and liked the owner (she works there now, helping run wedding). And, as weddings go, they were fairly priced.

So what that her family would have to drive almost an hour? For my family, it was going to be nearly three, and the elderly members of my family are certainly not better off than hers. It was where we wanted it, where we would be most comfortable, where we could have the ceremony and reception that we wanted.

The complaints? All from her family. My family just wanted to know when they could eat.