Weddingbee boards

I'm in a similar situation. Trying to find a middle ground of a venue (country) that isn't too ridiculously far and expensive for our guests to travel to. I'll write more later, pinky promise, but I'm tired right now and just figured at least a quick reply was better than nothing.

@robishen: Ok hi again. So here's our situation. He has family spread out in India, somewhere in Europe, and somewhere in America. My family is in Jamaica and mostly on the east coast of America, but some are pretty far west, too. We were raised in Miami so a good chunk of friends would readily travel back there for a wedding, since they'd get to visit with other friends and family that are still there. I really want a large-ish wedding and he's trying to keep it under 300 (or was it 200?). So it's really hard for us to figure out which location would allow the most amount of guests to have enough saved up to come.

We've also been looking into the visa situation for citizens with various passports, because I would hate for someone to be financially able to come, but then they are denied a visa. Plus just getting a visa is an added expense I don't want to put on people. I've been using http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/list for a list of countries each nation's citizens can visit without problems. Then going to http://www.visahq.com/visas.php for more details on each country. And we have a specific type of venue in mind (something grand and regal, a castle would be great, but any sort of villa or huge beautiful building that can hold so many people would be nice). We think somewhere "in between" India and America would be a good happy medium, plus it'd be a fun vacation and most everyone would be visiting a brand new place for the first time. However, if there is a language barrier, that would make things difficult, and if there isn't much information on the place online, that would also be asking for a nightmare to pop up.

So I know that most of what I'm saying won't exactly help you, but just know that we're both in pretty much the same boat. It's difficult trying to figure out whose life to make easier, as far as the guests' travel is concerned, because what if we keep it closer to people in country X yet they still can't afford it and now we've essentially made it harder/impossible for the people in Y that would've come if it was closer to Y. So, it'll be interesting to plan, to say the least. I'm not sure what is the best way to ask people, 2 years out, if they honestly think they'd be willing to spend the money required to travel to our wedding in country Z. It just seems like a tacky thing to ask. But the estimated number of guests will determine venue size... So many variables! It'll be rough, but I know it can be done . Maybe we'll just have to hold it wherever is prettiest at the best cost to us, then visit those who couldn't make it at a later date. We'll see!