So our dilemma is probably a common one with some.
We (my wife and 2 kids, have PR). So Canada is calling anytime we choose. But... We have a decision to make.
My wife's brother (also a close frend of mine) is due to get married in mid 2017. Do we hold off our original plans of emigrating next year and wait till summer 2017 in order to attend this event, or realise this is the unfortunate reality when you decide to emigrate and move away, that you may well upset a few people, including yourself maybe, by not being able to attend every 'special' occasion..

What choices did you have to make? What sacrifices did you make and was it worth it? Are you comfortable in hindsight with the choice you made?

(I'm not expecting someone to tell us what to do obviously, just shooting the sh#t)

If you add between now and then to the period you've already not been in Canada aren't you putting PR at risk?

Only activated PR recently. So currently have the max 'time'..

Oct 2018 I think would be our absolute final call to go. But we won't leave it that late.... He says lol

I think you need to realise that this will be a side effect of emigrating - there will likely be many other occasions that you are going to miss out on.

Yep. Mentioned that to my wife. There will always 'be something' on the horizon I'm sure..
Bloody hate weddings anyway! Lol.

Right, so then both of you need to decide if you are ok with this. There's no point in emigrating if your wife is going to be uncomfortable missing out on these occasions, imo.

So emigrate earlier and send your wife back for her brother's wedding on the premise you can't get the time off work or whatever excuse is feasible. Your wife will be pleased to see her sibling get married and you will be fulfilled by missing a wedding you'll hate anyway.

Over 11 years since emigrating I've missed my brother's wedding, haven't met various nephews/nieces, several cousins weddings, my parents 50th wedding anniversary etc etc.

It's just a fact of life living abroad.

We tend to take this approach. Generally I go back alone for major events, it's too expensive for us all to go to everything. The major family ones aren't so bad as I do make the effort to get to those, it's the other stuff I miss, like friends from school getting together for a weekend away, or a group of them celebrating big birthday years together.

Just missed my Brother in Law's latest wedding last month. We went to all his other ones so we'd already got the gist of what was likely to happen.

We are in a similar situation, we had intended on going this year but then my sister announced she's getting married next year. The wedding is in March so we don't have to put our plans back too far & my husband wants to go in May, problem is my mum wants me around for her 40th wedding anniversary in June & her 60th birthday in August. I'm a bit caught in the middle & feel I should make the effort to be there because we will hardly see them & will miss other big events. My husband says there is never a good time to go as there will always be something going on.

There are daily flights available back to the UK for such events....

When planned in advance or via strategic credit card use, they can even be quite cheap. Usually cost less than flying across Canada anyway...eg just booked two return Business Class flights YVR-LHR next October for about 900 quid plus a sh*tload of points!

Cash price of those tickets was between a quite crazy $11500 and a rather more crazy $25000 (closer to the latter as they are cancellable/refundable)....

Invite them over to yours

3 pigeons and a goat.

That can get messy.

Missed a few major things now, worse ones were parents passing, now the next phase of new babies is starting, we are moving closer to family in the next couple of years.