Being BiContinental Means You Must Have Cash

Money.

Yup that stuff. (I heart Pink Floyd.) It's something that's been plaguing Mr. Fox and I from the start of our wedding planning. Every time we brainstorm about how to include as many members of our families as possible, the numbers following the $ and € signs just keep going up and up. His family is relatively easy to include... as long as we have the wedding in France since they all live relatively close to one another. My family, however, is difficult to include even if we have the wedding in the US since they are scattered all over the country and its territories. We must also consider that neither of our families are rolling in dough, so the decision was tough.

Initially we decided that in order to include as many people as possible, we would have the actual wedding take place in France (since we plan to live in Europe afterward) and then have a great reception in the US with everybody invited to everything.

Here's where one of the first stumbling blocks entered: US Reception Location. I would be moving to be with my honey in Europe sometime before the end of 2011. This meant that I would not be stateside to help with the planning of the event leaving the majority of planning go-sees and such to my mother, sister or other bridesmaids. We thought this would be an insane request for all but my mother, so the location was then narrowed down to Colorado Springs, CO.

Colorado Springs, CO. Pretty right? Source.

Not a bad start, or so I thought.

On to selection of the date and the venue. The date was not so difficult because it really depended on the date of the wedding... which had not yet been set. See? Easy. The venue was a bit more challenging. When I started trolling the internet looking for great places to have a reception those daunting $ signs popped up everywhere. It seemed that even if we decided to have our little soiree in CSP that we would easily spend an additional $5k on top of the wedding expenses, not including our travel costs. Yikes.

This revelation prompted some serious soul searching for me. Stumbling block number two had arrived. I remembered our first Family Reunion back in 2009 held in Colorado where many of my relatives struggled to attend (and many did not) due to the expense and time commitment. In actuality, the real reason to have the reception in the states was to be able to have my family present. What use would it be to spend so much only to celebrate with a small fraction of my family?

Mr. Fox and I then discussed dropping the domestic portion all together and just have a bigger wedding in France for everyone. It seemed like we'd have similar problems. First, it would require all the American invitees to fly internationally. Second, they would probably be unable to just come over for the weekend. Third, they'd have to plan much in advance especially if they needed to get a passport.

In summary: Big Cost + Big Planning + Big Time Commitment = Not Able to Attend.

After talking it over with a few family members, we decided it was a wash. Either option would force people out of their comfortable spending zone since either choice was going to be expensive for many, including us. Ultimately our backs were against a wall. Sadly, we scrapped the idea of having a US reception. The silver lining is that now we Foxes only have to focus on one destination venue instead of two, and in only one currency.