I planned our wedding from Phoenix. We only did one visit, and it was a year prior to our event. It was a tour with then Sales Manager Lynn - she is an EM now. Lynn and then Jan who took over were both wonderful, full of great ideas. For our custom wedding we scheduled a series of phone conferences, never longer than an hour, and we knew a week or two ahead of time what we were going to talk about that day. Both have excellent meeting skills, and we talked about what was on our agenda, discussed options (they both had great ideas of where to cut corners that wouldn't be noticed) and then at the end set up the next meeting and told me what information I would need to look over. By following their plan I got everything arranged and it was exactly what I hoped for.
If I can make one suggestion for planning from far away - make a list of what you are going to review, go over that list, and move on. If other things come up make a note, plan for them later and stick to your agenda. It is by far the easiest way to plan an effective meeting.