I need to get to a wedding quick. Im afraid my thermostat may stick causing hot engine and ultimately stall leaving me stranded till the car cools. Don't have time to fix it right now. Im thinking I can just run the car today without thermostat. Its about 75miles to the wedding. The needle never goes in the red but engine is definitely hot

You've probably made the decision and done your thing by now. OK as a temporary workaround - like running that little donut in the trunk when you have a flat.

But, extended running without a thermostat - even in hot weather - will result in poor fuel economy (computer sees the engine as always needing cold enrichment), increased emissions, including unburned hydrocarbons which can overheat and damage the cat converter, and likely increased sludge deposited inside the engine, due to condensation resulting from the lower internal temperatures.

Volvo wanted the engine coolant to run at 87C-92C and they had good reasons.
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Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 240, 89 745 (V8) and XC60. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

It depends on the temperature. If you're going to remove the thermostat, it's no more work to replace it.

If it's too cool, your car will never warm up and your mileage, power, and emissions will suck. If not, it should be fine, but there's no controlling the amount of coolant flowing to regulate the temperature.

you say "engine is ''' hot"? and you attribute it to the thermostat? make sure that's the case and not something else... that said, it's perfectly fine to run without the t-stat especially in summer... (i have done it).

Hello,

Running without a thermostat is ok for short while but for prolonged duration your fuel economy would suffer and combustion deposit would accumulate in engine as it is not hot enough to burn.

Amarin.

No problem at all, especially in the warmer weather. It will take longer to warm up, that's all, and may not reach ideal operating temperature. Safer than running a thermostat that's questionable and appears to stick, if that's indeed the problem and not a bad head gasket.
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1992 745, >500k km