Thank heaven for three day weekends! Rob and I are…
Wedding Wednesday: Little Details
With 73 days left until the wedding, most of the major jobs are finished and I can focus on the smaller things. I’m looking for your input:
What small detail have you appreciated at a wedding?
I’m not talking about “I’ll have my wedding planner bake vegan brownies in the shape of my initials to put in the guest’s custom embroidered tote bags” details…but small, inexpensive details that you noticed and liked at events you attended.
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Not sure if you’re having children attend the wedding, but we had goodie bags with some activities for the kids, so that they wouldn’t get bored. At my sister’s wedding we also hired a friend’s teenage daughter to babysit the younger children in a separate room at the reception hall (as an option for the parents, even though the children were more than welcome to attend the reception party).
I just went to a wedding this weekend where the ceremony started with a “Ring Warming” ritual. The couples rings were tied to a beautiful porcelain dish (from etsy, I think!) and were passed from guest to guest (starting with the bridesmaids and ending with the groomsmen) to bless. It was sweet, though some of the guests kept the rings to take pictures of a bit too long, and threatened to hold up the ceremony!
This probably isn’t for everyone/every reception, but at a very small wedding I attended the couple had replaced the paper towels in the bathroom with several really nice hand towels, embroidered with their new monogram. I thought it was really sweet.
One thing that our guests really enjoyed at our wedding was the basket of noisemakers (clappers, kazoos, whistles) that we placed at the entrance, by the seating cards. It was fun and helped set the tone for the party. Instead of tapping their glasses, they used the noisemakers to “demand” that we kiss. So many people mentioned how fun that little detail was. They were cheap, too – we got the metallic jewel-tone ones from Oriental Trading Company.
Just thought of another thing – for a wedding that we are going to in two weeks, the reply cards included a section asking for your favorite song to dance to. I imagine they will play most or all of those songs. Since you are doing the show format, maybe you could include songs that are particular favorites of family members or close friends.
One thing I wanted at our reception, was a 5X7 wedding day picture of each of my married family members on both sides of the family (for us, that was 12 pictures). It was a nice reminder about what marriage and family are, and to be surrounded by that family support, and it was especially nice to feel like my grandparents (who had passed away) could “be there” in spirit. Our photographer caught a picture of it, and it’s still one of my favorites!
The place where we got married in Sonoma had an old bell that they rang when the ceremonu concluded and we kissed. Very romantic and everyone just loved the touch.
I know this is nothing new but I went to a wedding that had a butterfly release and it was just precious! (But I guess u gotta be outside) the butterflies stuck around for plenty of pictures and landed on the bride’s bouquet and peoples heads…too cute!
I’ve seen it done a lot, but never been to a wedding where they put out “dancing shoes” usually flip flops to wear while you dance. I know I would definitely make use of those! I also love when the program is chalk full of good info about the couple, the families and the wedding party!
Rather than depending on flowers to add color to the reception my friend place bright simple pashmina shawls in their colors and placed them on the back of every other chair for the women. She worked with a street vendor in NY for a great price – I think about $5 each. For $25/table it packed a huge bang for the buck and made for great pictures when summer evening cooled down and the women were wrapped up in the wedding colors.
Mocktails, non-alcoholic cocktails. Just offering coke or juice is fine, but you can find really fun mocktail drinks. 🙂
Also, water to take for the drive home, esp if it’s a summer wedding. You can buy costco kirkland bottled water for cheap, and tear off the label, then put your own on with your names, a quote, date, etc.
I also appreciate with the bride/groom has a wedding website. I’ve lost invites/directions so many times, that it’s scary to think of what I’d do without running to the internet. Plus, I usually get the info on where they’re registered off the website.
Good luck!
I love a menu card. Either one at each place setting or just one or two on each table. I think it adds elegance and let’s people know what to expect.
we had coasters made at http://www.foryourparty.com and loved them. and they made a nice keepsake.
I had the photographer take a picture in the chapel of everyone that attended the wedding. It is by far my favorite picture and I know that when I look back years later – I will still be smiling and remembering special moments with each guest.
I think you are pretty darn close to doing the best thing you can do, which is make your wedding as personal as possible. People really will appreciate all the work and individuality that you guys are putting into it.
Are you making a program for the reception performances? That could be good.
I always loved the idea of a table with family wedding pictures. In our case we had 7 parents between the two of us, so that just gets a bit weird, ha.
I went to a wedding recently where the bridesmaids carried fans – like Chinese fans – instead of flowers – it looked beautiful. Also, they had parisols for the guests to shield themselves from the sun as the wedding was in Sonoma.
i had a friend that got engaged via a scrabble board game – so the groomsmen all wore cufflink scrabble pieces. i love humor at a wedding.
its also great to keep disposable cameras at every table – i have loved to see how pics turns out from a guests point of view at friends weddings!
having fun notecards or postcards where people can write either advice or their congratulations is always nice. and when it’s all over you can put them all in a book for the years to come. hmmm…a mad libs type card could be fun! good luck!
Old family wedding pictures!
Ditto to the old family wedding pictures. We had framed photos of all of our grandparents and great grandparents.
2 other things we really liked:
1) We named our tables after significant places in our relationship- Central Park, Grove Street, etc- with little details about why the place was significant.
2) Our wedding was relatively small (around 80) so we wrote a personal note to everyone who came, with some personal details, etc. The notes were also their placecards. It was super time-consuming, but I’m so glad we did it.
This might sound silly, but a wedding is long day. I have been to quite a few. What makes a wedding is if the Bride and Groom are enjoying the festivities.. keep your smiles on even if you get stuck talking to old aunt so and so.. 🙂
Some things we loved at our wedding: Fishbowl on a table with squares of linen paper for folks to write their marital advice upon (the set came with envelopes which we later pasted in a book with a comment each in them), polaroid camera to take a picture of each couple or guest, sparklers at each place setting (summer wedding)to light at the farewell. And finally: instructions to the caterer to hunt us down with a plate of all the passed hors d’oeuvres so we didn’t miss anything. I hope you have the most lovely wedding imaginable: best wishes!
The bride and groom had a Bible verse from Psalms (i cant remember which one) written on the isle. It was written in cursive and silver. It was really elegant and not gaudy.
Coffee with to-go cups and lids by the door for people on their way home. Also cute to have some donut holes or cookies alongside!
Let’s see…I’m a huge fan of a little snack to eat while you’re on the way home. If I lived in a bigger city that had street food, I would have a taco truck or a hotdog vendor outside giving away food! I love a midnight snack. I also love weddings where there is great music to dance too. I love to dance and weddings are so much more fun when people are out on the floor breaking it down. LOL
At our wedding, we wanted to let people know how glad they were a part of our lives, so we found old pictures of family and friends that would be at the wedding and strung them on twine with mini clothes pins above the bar where cocktails were served. People loved seeing these funny pics from childhood, college, family reunions, etc. and it was a great icebreaker too for folks who didn’t know each other!
At a reception I attended last spring, the caterers brought around pizza cut into little (2″ square?) pieces about half an hour before the dance was scheduled to end. It really helped to have a little snack, plus a reminder that somebody was going to have to drive soon!
I’ve also been to a couple weddings lately where the bride has worn a sash in the bridesmaid’s dress colors, once she gets to the reception. In both cases it was just a silky, scarfy thing tied around the bride’s waist, and it looked so pretty.
My two favorite wedding details… a DIY favor bar with lots of different candies to fill into glassine envelopes (Martha Stewart style) and instead of placecards the bride and groom wrote a personal note to each guest about how excited they were to have the guest attend. It was really sweet and the bride told me later that it helped her through the hectic times remember what was most important about her wedding day… being surrounded by the people she loved to honor and celebrate their marriage. She said it wasn’t as hard as she imagined either because when she got an RSVP back she’d sit down that night and write the note.
Favorite thing #1: the bride and groom greeted everyone as they walked up the aisle post-ceremony, letting the guest go as they did so. This insured they actually, if only briefly, greeted each guest while avoiding an actual receiving line. Favorite thing #2: cold water bottles distributed at a hot outdoor afternoon wedding. I didn’t care that each bottle wasn’t wrapped with the wedding “logo” or initials, I was just thankful for the water. Favorite thing #3, at the same outdoor wedding, paper parasols and simple fans to shade ourselves and fan ourselves.
The genuine smiles on the bride and grooms faces are enough. It makes all the planning worth it, the pictures more beautiful and the guests enjoy themselves more!
Congrats!