Wedding Mistake: Overlooking guests

By Sweet Dreams Weddings and Events
Portland,

Your guests may not remember what flowers were in your bouquet, or in the centerpieces, but they will remember if they had a good time. Here are 10 ways to ensure your celebration is as memorable for your guests as it is for you.

1. Give Them Plenty of Notice: As soon as you choose the date, set up a wedding website and send out save the dates. There is no such thing as being too early on this, as your guests will need time to ask for vacation time and budget for the trip, this is especially true if it is a destination wedding.

2. Know Your Guests: When choosing a wedding location and hotel, think about the people your inviting and whether they’ll enjoy your destination as much as you do, and if they can afford your location.

3. Consider Your Guests Finances: Right now, the dollar is weak compared to many currencies, and with the soaring gas prices flying can be pricey. Consider whether your guests will have enough disposable income for flight, hotel, and entertainment.

4. Lock in Discounts Early. Make sure to ask about group rate discounts for the hotel and lock them in. Check airlines for group rates, most major airlines give discounts for parties of 10 or more. Make sure when you setup your discounts, that you put all the information on your wedding website for your guests.

5. Do the Research: Sometimes when a trip centers around a wedding, the guests don’t do as much research as they would if they were planning a vacation of their own. Help them out by doing it for them by making a destination information letter. Include websites and contact info for the tourism board, airlines, and host hotels. A list of the activities in the area, public transportation, driving directions, hospitals and pharmacies, and weather conditions for the time of year you are marrying.

6. When Planning Your Event: Consider all your guests and their points of view, looking for any details that may need tweaking. Such as, if you have lots of elderly guests you may want to reconsider getting married on the sand at the beach instead maybe try moving the ceremony to the boardwalk next to the beach.

7. Enlist A Point Person: Even if you’ve overloaded your guests with plenty of information before the wedding, you should still expect some issues once people arrive. You will be busy with last minute details of your own, so make sure you have your wedding planner available or you will need to enlist someone as their point of contact for questions.

8. Welcome your Guests: Make sure to give your guests a warm welcome, by arranging a special greeting when they arrive. If you have a large group arriving consider arranging a bus or minivan to pick them up at the airport and have a cold beverage on hand for the ride. Make sure to let the hotel know when your group will be arriving so that they are ready for your guests. Make sure to have your welcome baskets delivered before your guest’s arrival to the hotel.

9. Rethink the Welcome basket: Couples can spend a lot of money putting together elaborate welcome baskets with souvenirs, t-shirts, favors. But loading up your guests with lots of take home treats may not be the best thing. Instead, include things such as bottled water, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray, aspirin, handheld fan for the ceremony, a disposable camera, a map of the area. An itinerary just incase they forgot theirs.

10. Entertaining Your Guests: Entertain your guests but don’t go overboard, of course you want to show off your locale and the group activities like golf outings, sunset cruises, wine tastings. Leave your guests some down time to just relax too. Experts recommend planning only one or two events per day during the trip to avoid schedule overload. This will leave your guests time for a little R&R or to do some exploring on their own.

Happy Planning!


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