How to show your wedding guests you care
Your wedding day is usually all about you and the partner you’re about to marry. But, if you really think about it, there are other people present. People you’ve gone through an entire elimination process to personally invite to your wedding and to celebrate this beautiful day with you. You can’t forget about the people and it’s important to let your guests know that you appreciate their support and are going to take care of them.
And there are a few small and cute ways to do so.
Blankets
If you’re having a winter wonderland wedding, first of all, your photos are going to be amazing and, second of all, you and everyone else at your wedding is going to be cold. Even if your wedding falls in the middle of autumn or the early days of spring, there’s still a bit of a chill in the air.
But that’s why you have blankets for your guests “to have and to hold for when it gets cold”. Grab a few baskets, roll a few blankets and have them ready for your guests to just walk passed, pick one up and start warming up. These will be handy if you choose to have an outdoor ceremony or when people need to step outside for some fresh air during the reception. You want your guests to be comfortable and enjoy themselves. And freezing to death is not the ideal way to enjoy oneself.
Paper fans
For the warmer seasons and times of year, you can offer your guests paper, hand-held fans to keep themselves cool in the heat. Place them on the chairs of the ceremony and make sure the colours correspond with your wedding theme.
Dancing shoes
When it comes to the reception and party celebration, your guests are going to want to ditch the heels and fancy shoes and get onto the dance floor for hours on end. But you can bet that they won’t be packing in a spare pair of shoes (because who would actually do that). So, to show them you’ve been thinking about them, have a basket of flip-flops for those guests who have been waiting all day to bust a move.
Multiple general sizes for men and women is all you really need, unless you know of a guest with extremely large or small feet. Something like this will also encourage them to join the happy couple out on the dance floor and have a good time.
Next-day party helper
You make vows to your partner during the ceremony, but there’s no reason why you can’t translate those vows into a little something for your guests. With a little water bottle and two tablets of disprin, you can vow “in sickness and in health” for all your guests. Having these at the end of the evening or the next morning (whenever they remember to take it) will show them that you have their best interests at heart after a great party.
Playlist power
The DJ won’t always be able to please everyone and even though you tell them what you and your partner would like to hear, your guests also need to enjoy the music. Something you can send out with your wedding invitations is a “power the playlist” card where your guests can put in their requests in advance. This will also give you an opportunity to review these requests and remove any songs that you know your parents won’t appreciate or that you really just don’t want to be played.
Just picture your guests’ faces when their song comes on. It honestly is something they will truly appreciate.
Photo booth
Not all of your guests are part of the official wedding party who gets to have professional photographs taken of them with the newlywed couple. So, to let your guests know that you care, have a photo booth set up in the reception area or where the canapes happen so that they can take photos at the same time you’re having photos taken. Add some props so it’s more fun and let your guests print their photos out to take home.
This way everyone has an opportunity to document and remember your special day (see, it’s still pretty much all about you).
Glasses
As the ceremony ends and your guests make their way to the canape area, have a table out with drinks in personalised glasses. Or you can use personalised glasses to guide your guests to their tables. This is a wedding favour they’ll be able to take home and use after the wedding and the effort that goes into personalising every single glass will make your guests feel extremely special.
Interesting guestbook
This one's for you and your guests. A unique guestbook idea will encourage everyone to sign and write a little message. But you need to make it more exciting than a traditional notebook. Have your guests snap a polaroid of themselves and write messages of congratulations to you on there. Then you can take them all and either place them in a book or put them on your wall at home in the shape of a heart.
Another interesting idea is to have a large photo printed of you and your partner for them to sign. Then it’s into a frame and onto the walls for you to always remember and for your guests to know that you’ll always be reminded of them at your wedding day.
