Leaving for Your Destination Wedding – 5 Simple Steps to Help You Prepare

You may feel a little anxious thinking about leaving your home for an extended period of time. Your destination wedding is going to be one of the best trips of your life and you want to feel completely worry free going into it. To make sure you leave no stone unturned we’ve provided a few simple to-do’s so you can enjoy your wedding trip with no reservations or worry. 

1. Have a plan and backup plan for your pets

This may seem obvious, but you may not have considered what to do with your pets because you’ve been so busy wedding planning. Some pets, like cats, are simple in that you can just have a neighbor come by to check on them every couple of days to make sure they’re fed and clean. 

Dogs, on the other hand, will either need a sitter or to be taken to a boarding house while you’re gone. If you haven’t taken your dog into a boarding facility at all, you may want to practice with a few days of daycare so they get used to it. Make sure to start vetting places in your area and check their availability during your wedding trip. They can get very busy around the holiday season.

If you plan on keeping your pets at home and having someone check on them make sure to give them a list of the vet you use, their favorite toys to play with, and how much/how often to feed them. 

2. Place a hold on your mail

This is a simple to-do before leaving for your destination wedding that some people don’t know is available. We lived in an apartment at the time we got married and only had a small box for our mail. We knew that what we’d accumulate in the 8 days we were gone wouldn’t fit and didn’t want to risk any mail getting misplaced or lost.

Check out https://www.usps.com/manage/hold-mail.htm to complete this to-do. It can be done online and ensures that the post office will hold your mail while you’re gone and upon your return. Once you are back home you’ll just have to go to the post office to collect all the mail and packages you received while you were gone. 

3. Adjust utilities accordingly

Depending on which area of the country you live in, you’ll want to set your AC or heat at a financially comfortable level while you’re gone. If you have a smart thermostat like Ecobee or Nest, this can be preprogrammed on the app ahead of time. Even if you forget, you can go into the app while on your wedding vacation to adjust as needed.

If you don’t have a smart thermostat you’ll just have to remember to set it before you leave. If you live in a warmer climate and will be adjusting the AC you can let it get up to 80 degrees and still prevent any excess humidity from entering. For heat, we recommend not going any lower than 60 degrees to prevent the possibility of frozen pipes. 

For those with smart thermostats – don’t forget to let it start warming back up BEFORE you get home. Coming home to a 60 degree house isn’t very fun. 

4. Leave a light on

Although you may already have someone checking on your house, it’s always a good idea to leave a light on somewhere in the house before leaving for your destination wedding. Unfortunately, if others know you’ll be gone, or burglars keep an eye on places who have been vacant a few days, they may notice you haven’t been around in a while. 

You can get smart plugs like these in which you can easily set up a timer for a light to turn on at the same time every night and shut off in the morning. It saves on energy instead of keeping it on 24/7, and gives you peace of mind as well. 

You can get up to 4 of these for a great price. One for the living room and one for a bedroom can really make it look like someone is at your home while you’re gone. 

5. Have a neighbor keep a watch out

If you’re close with your neighbors and trust them, it’s a great idea to give them a heads up about how long you’ll be gone and ask that they keep an eye on your home. You can even give them a spare key if you want them to go into your home and make sure everything is okay once or twice while you’re gone. 

Of course the possibility of anything dangerous happening is very minimal, it’s just another peace of mind action step for you and your fiance to fully enjoy your wedding trip.

What did you think of these ideas? Any brides out there come up with any other safety measures they plan on taking while on their wedding trip? I hope every bride has peace of mind leaving for their destination wedding with these simple to do’s. Comment below or contact me here so I can be sure to add any other tips you have!