If you don’t live in the area but want to have your wedding in beautiful Lake Tahoe, there are some things to consider. Planning a Lake Tahoe destination wedding is a fun, exciting experience made much easier when you know what to expect. At Epic Thyme, we love working with out-of-state and of-out-area couples to make their Tahoe wedding dreams come true. As locals and lovers of the area, we know exactly how to bring your wedding vision to life. If you’re thinking about planning a destination wedding in Tahoe, here are our best tips for helping the process go as smoothly as possible.
1. Budget Your Lake Tahoe Destination Wedding
A Lake Tahoe wedding is an investment. Before you begin planning, it’s essential to have a wedding budget in mind. While your wedding planner can help you figure out the best ways to spend that budget (how much should go to your venue vs. catering vs. florals, etc.), you need a starting number. The cost of a wedding differs based on many factors, from where you get married (state, city, and venue) to the time of year and the size of your guest list. Check out our blog post to learn more about how much a Tahoe wedding costs so you can plan accordingly!
2. Hire a Lake Tahoe Destination Wedding Planner
Speaking of hiring a wedding planner to help with your budget, doing so is definitely the second most important step in the process. Whether you’re familiar with the area or not, if you’re planning a Lake Tahoe destination wedding without being in Tahoe throughout the planning process, you need someone feet-on-the-ground who can attend meetings, visit vendors, and coordinate everything on your behalf.
At Epic Thyme, we’ve planned hundreds of destination weddings for out-of-state and out-of-area couples. We know what it takes to help you feel confident in your wedding decisions, even when you aren’t physically where they are taking place. Feeling comfortable and confident in your wedding planner makes the entire process less stressful and more fun for you! Here are 17 questions you should ask when interviewing potential wedding planners to make sure you find the best planner to help you bring your wedding dreams to life!
3. Consider the Seasons in Lake Tahoe
If you’re not familiar with Lake Tahoe, you should definitely do a bit of research about the area before setting your wedding date. There are pros and cons to marrying in each Tahoe season. We’ve highlighted everything you need to know about each Lake Tahoe season to help you choose the right one for your wedding. At Epic Thyme, we know the tourist-heavy months, the big events that’ll make booking hotel rooms hard for your guests, and the most beautiful times of the year for an outdoor ceremony. Hiring a Lake Tahoe destination wedding planner to help you choose the best date for your wedding is just another reason to partner with us.
4. Choose Your Wedding Style and Research Venues
Once you have a wedding planner, a budget, and a date, the next step is to book a venue. Even if you’ve vacationed in Lake Tahoe, you might not be familiar with the wedding venus in the area, and that’s ok! There are a couple of things to consider to help you choose the right venue for your wedding, such as your guest count, whether you want an indoor or outdoor venue, and if you want a traditional or unique location.
In 2020, many couples opted for micro weddings at out-of-the-box venues like Airbnb homes to accommodate the social distancing guidelines. However, if you want a larger wedding at a more traditional venue, here are some of the most popular in the area:
5. Visit Lake Tahoe
We recommend visiting Lake Tahoe at some point during the planning process. In fact, if you work with Epic Thyme to plan your destination wedding, we schedule time for you to visit the area, see your venue in person, meet your vendors, and more in a fun-filled, productive weekend. Not only does this help you solidify details, but it calms some wedding nerves and ensures your wedding comes together exactly as you hoped it would.
6. Purchase Wedding Insurance
At Epic Thyme, we highly recommend all of our couples purchase wedding insurance! This is especially true if you are planning a Lake Tahoe destination wedding. A lot of planning goes into ensuring a wonderful experience for you and your guests, from booking lodging and transportation and planning various wedding events. It’s essential to make sure your entire investment is as protected as can be. Wedding insurance is the way to do that. If you’re unsure where to start, here is everything you need to know about wedding insurance. The most important thing is to find an insurance provider who will protect your destination wedding and everything that’s involved with planning a wedding from afar.
7. Choose Vendors Who Understand Your Wedding Vision
To bring your Lake Tahoe destination wedding vision to life, you need vendors who understand what you have in mind. There are so many awesome vendors in and around Tahoe, but not each one is right for your wedding. And that’s ok! It’s vital to have vendor calls to discuss budget, ideas, and make sure you connect with the people who you’ll be working alongside for months.
As part of our full-service wedding planning package, we help connect you with vendors we have experience working with and who are within your budget. So much more goes into choosing your wedding vendors than just the service they offer. Chemistry, personality, and overall style and vibes play a huge role in your entire wedding atmosphere. Don’t take choosing your vendors lightly!
8. Don’t Forget About the Guest Experience
An important part of planning a destination wedding is planning the guest experience. The easier you can make your wedding for your guests, the better, giving them clear information about everything from lodging and transportation to things to do in Lake Tahoe to details about the weather. You can easily share all of this information and more by creating a wedding website and listing all the important details. As a part of our full-service wedding planning package, we make sure your wedding website looks and sounds great while providing the most important information.
9. Have FUN
Planning a wedding in and of itself can be a stressful experience. Doing it from afar can bring even more stress. But it doesn’t have to! When you partner with an experienced, passionate Lake Tahoe destination wedding planner from the start, the entire process is not only less stressful but fun too! Of course, there is much to do and decisions to be made, but it’s all to plan the most special day of your life. That’s why, at Epic Thyme, we have a streamlined creative approach to helping you plan the perfect wedding, whether you’re hours away or states away from Lake Tahoe. To learn more about our destination wedding planning services, click here!