Hometown or elopement wedding

What are the pros and cons?

I definitely kept going back and forth on having my wedding in or out of town. We made a final decision to do a small backyard wedding at my husband's aunt and uncle's beautiful home.

The biggest deciding factors for me with a destination wedding were 1. cost.. do I want a large portion of my budget to be traveling? 2. Am I ok with people declining to come because of the travel? 3. I wouldn't have been able to do a honeymoon on top of a DW, so am I ok giving up that time with my FH?

Hope that helps!

View Quoted Comment Pros of destination is were a couple that loves traveling to the mountains any chance we get so it would mean something to us to get married there, it's beautiful, would allow us to go straight into our honeymoon, a family trip for those willing to travel.
Cons ppl declining or not able to be there bc of travelling, cost, planning a wedding in a place ur not, having to take everything with us for the wedding

View Quoted Comment

Gotcha! I do have a few more questions:
-Do you plan on having a big or small wedding?
-Are the majority of your guests living in your hometown as well or are they living out of town?
-Is there a venue you had already looked into that does weddings in the mountains (perhaps a vendor that helps with setting up at the location or a lodge/cabin)?
-Have you asked a few guests that you plan on inviting on what their thoughts are if you do plan on throwing your wedding in a different town?
-Do you plan on hiring a wedding planner?

Does budget come in to consideration? Is it cheaper/more expensive to do it at home or away? That would probably be a big thing in making a decision and also like already mentioned - who can come is probably your other biggest criteria. It's tricky trying to make a decision like this isn't it.

We got married locally.

I generally think if you want to do a destination, plan it as an elopement/honeymoon and focus on prioritizing yourselves vs having many guests present. If you want a big wedding surrounded by family and friends, I vote hometown. It's a great opportunity to connect with those you love and share with them the place you call home.

Can you do a small wedding in CO then a bigger party back home? Best of both! We did that due to cost for us & guests for a destination wedding.