Venue - how did you decide?

For us we had a few options: Thunder Bay where we live, London my hometown or Leamington his hometown.

For Thunder Bay, everyone would have to fly up, and we both have some people in our lives who are terrified of flying so that was out.

Leamington is where all his family is, but all mine plus our friends would have to travel, and there's not as much accommodations as London.

We went with London since it is a more central location for a majority of our guests, our venue is a hotel so guests can stay there overnight, and it's all-inclusive so we didn't have to worry about renting tablewear/chairs/cutlery/bar ware/catering/ etc.

Go with your gut on this, If Cape Breton has a great place (from the photos it looks gorgeous), and it means some people don't have to travel, and you want to get married there, do that!

Thanks Ladies, it’s great to see what we’re your thoughts when choosing a place.
For my family it wouldn’t matter as they are coming from outside of Canada and his family lives there.
I agree that having to plan a wedding there would be difficult but let me tell you, with the price we were willing to pay in Vancouver I believe we could do a wedding there with full support of a wedding planner and more.

I feel that doing a local wedding would benefit mostly friends that are not that close to us, but that we would have to invite. And what I see is that sometimes so many people attend your wedding but you only speak to 50% of them afterwards. I don’t want that.
I will be a risk having it at a place outside my comfort zone for sure, but that also helps my need of “controlling everything”, and might be the best option as it would be different and full of cultural elements other than just a “fancy party” in downtown. I hope to find some venues there, thank you so much for your support! Everyone says it’s beautiful there, so will def follow my gut!

For us, we decided to get married in the city we live in (which also happens to be the mecca for weddings around Toronto). We’re central for our guests, it’s affordable, and it’s close to home.

I think you should definitely go with your gut on this one... but I will add that it is very difficult to plan/have a wedding in a location other than where you live, without a lot of attention to detail, strategics, and help. We were initially planning to have our wedding in L.A. where my FH's elderly grandparents live, to make sure they could be present, but once we started looking into the actual logistics, we had to change our plans and settle for a local wedding.

My biggest suggestion, go with your gut. It is YOUR (and FH) day!

Which route is going to make both of you happier in the end? Which location is your family closer to?

For us, we were about to book a destination wedding, but then some of my family who I couldn't imagine my day without would not be able to make it. So we changed and are doing the traditional wedding here.

When looking for a venue and picking "the one" you have to make sure its a place that you can see yourself getting married in and partying at.

I say it really is up to you and your FH's biggest priorities.

If having family and friends be able to attend makes your wedding worth-while then I would say to plan the wedding in Nova Scotia. Of course, by doing so you will be either having lots of communication online and through phone rather than in person unless you spend $$$ to travel there to finalize things.

I'm sure that if you take a deep look you would be able to find a venue in NS that suits your wants and the needs of being close to his family. Is your family at least closer to NS than Vancouver?