Everything has changed for weddings this year and it’s even more uncertain as it changes all the time. We accept questions about all things weddings via laura@beourguest.app and a number of couples have asked us about having fewer guests at their wedding.
As you know, because of the COVID-19 restrictions, wedding guest numbers have been decreased. This is particularly stressful if you were planning a bigger wedding. This is also changing from place to place, from day to day, leading to a feeling of uncertainty and a need for flexibility.
Many of you have had to postpone your wedding and now, as this continues, you are looking for an alternative option. Hence, the rise of the Micro Wedding.
What is a Micro Wedding?
Micro Weddings have been around for a long time, but this year they are becoming much more popular. With the restrictions around guest numbers in place, 2020 and 2021 will definitely see an increase in Micro Weddings. A large number of people in Ireland and the UK have postponed their weddings, but for those of you who still want to go ahead, the micro wedding is on the rise.
How many guests at a micro wedding?
A micro-wedding is defined as any wedding where there are less than twenty guests. Anything between twenty and sixty people is considered a small wedding.
Casual Wedding
This type of wedding is often (but not always) a more casual event. It usually is shorter than a traditional wedding, with far fewer formalities. With such an intimate group, the atmosphere changes. Couples often forgo activities like speeches, live music, dances and throwing the bouquet. These can be replaced with storytelling, passing the bouquet around as a talking stick, sing songs. As it costs less per guest, there is often a trend towards gourmet meals and delicious treats for guests.
Tight Budget Weddings
As for 2019, the cost of the average wedding in Ireland is 28,000. That’s quite a lot of money. What’s more, around 14,000 of this goes to the venue. For many people, this is too much money to spend on one day.
If you are on a smaller budget or you would prefer a toned-down occasion, micro-weddings are an excellent choice as they give you the wedding experience on a more intimate scale.
Wedding Restrictions
With larger weddings on hold at the moment and the number of guests allowed changing all the time and since these numbers can be changed with little or no notice, the micro wedding is becoming an excellent choice.
Our advice for a brilliant Micro Wedding
Whether you’ve always planned on having a micro wedding or it’s an adaptation to the COVID-19 restrictions, we are here to help you to reinvent the Micro Wedding for your dream day.
Guest List Cuts - Digital Weddings, flexibility and consideration
Can you reduce your guest list down to twenty people? If you can choose twenty guests you want to be at your wedding, then a micro-wedding is certainly an option for you.
Choosing is difficult and it’s a minefield trying not to offend people. We will be adding ‘unvite due to restrictions’ feature to the Be Our Guest app that gives you some handy templates about what to say when uninviting guests. The main pointers are to remind guests that this is a health-related crisis, that there are government restrictions in place and that you apologise for any inconvenience they might experience. It might also be good to talk to your venue about refunds for guests who have booked accommodation and relay this information to them.
Flexibility is important. That’s why we recommend our Wedding Journey app Be Our Guest. You can download Be Our Guest for free from the home page (www.beourguest.app) and use our fantastic wedding journey app to send unlimited, free digital Save the Dates, invitations and RSVPs. This helps with uncertainty as it provides you with the flexibility to let guests know about restrictions, change your invites or your wedding details at any time.
However, if cutting your guest list down dramatically gives you a sense of dread, then perhaps waiting it out and postponing your wedding is a better choice for you. If your wedding must be postponed due to COVID-19 in order to have the day you really want, then postponing is best.
Choose a Micro Wedding Venue
It’s quite easy for any venue to provide the guests with an appropriately sized space for a medium or large wedding. It becomes a bit harder with small or micro weddings. The venue might not have spaces that suit a small group.
But don’t fret, there are plenty of options. Picking the right type of wedding venue is so important. You want to select a place that gives your guests the space they need to relax. On the other hand, it needs to be a small enough space to create the type of intimacy that can be experienced with a micro-wedding. This doesn’t have to be a traditional hotel-style venue, you could look at having it in your back garden, a restaurant, a local hall or a specialised venue catering to small weddings.
Essential Parts of the Micro Wedding
With a typical micro-wedding, couples opt to cut out many traditional parts that you would experience at a bigger wedding. However, depending on your budget, what you have or don’t have is up to you.
Our top tip for a micro-wedding is making a list of all the must-haves, the essentials, that you see as part of your wedding day. Perhaps you would like an amazing wedding cake, an expensive, talented photographer, a designer gown, full hair and makeup, a live band, or a luxury meal. Decide on the things that you and your partner aren’t willing to compromise on.
With bands, one couple we talked to mentioned that they were worried about the impact of having a more intimate wedding gathering. Their big fear was that the dancing just wouldn’t be fun with fewer people or that the dance floor would be empty all night.
They thought about getting a smaller band or asking less of the band members to play, some people are opting for a DJ instead or even just having a sing-song session.
What I would say to this – is know your crowd. Remember that wedding bands do get people up dancing but it depends on the guests you are inviting and how likely they will be to join in. Perhaps another type of entertainment would suit better? Personally, I feel that a good wedding band makes the evening and that you would be surprised at how many people get up to dance.
Get Wedding Suppliers
If you are ready to plan your micro-wedding, the first step is downloading Be Our Guest – the wedding journey app. Use the app to invite your guests, keep them informed of all the wedding details and any changes as they happen and search our app-based directory for local venues and suppliers that cater to micro weddings.
Hope you have a fantastic wedding! Remember to send all your questions to laura@beourguest.app and download our Wedding Journey app for free from our home page www.beourguest.app
If you’d like a free copy of our wedding guide ‘150 Steps to Wed’ send us a quick email entitled 150 Steps to Wed and we’ll send it on to you.
Weddings are a celebration of love and life. And what better way to celebrate these values than by making your day as sustainable as possible. I won’t go into climate change facts or the reasons to reduce carbon emissions because you know that already, that’s why you’re reading this. As much as we love the jubilant excitement of wedding celebrations, we have to be aware that weddings can be really wasteful events and the wedding sector has a major impact on carbon emissions. Between the travel, food, paper stationery and all those little, disposable extras, weddings can be expensive for you and for the planet. You don’t want to skimp on your big day or feel like you are missing out on anything and we get that. So, here are some eco friendly alternatives that can help you to have it all while still being sustainable.
1. Opt for a pre-loved dress
Instead of buying a brand new dress that you will wear once, what about getting a pre-loved alternative? This can work really well as you can get a designer gown at a better price and also reduce waste. And the money you save could be spent on some vintage accessories.
On a practical level, Oxfam offers a wedding section where you can make an appointment and try on dresses. There are also a growing number of vintage wedding dress suppliers. There is something lovely about giving a beautifully and carefully made garment the chance to shine again. You can have it all – the perfect dress at the best price and help the planet.
2. Go paperless for your wedding
Weddings involve a lot of paper. It may not be the first thing you think of when weddings come to mind, but that wedding stationery really adds up.Wedding stationery goes way beyond Save The Dates. There are… Save the Date cards, invitations, info sheets (often included with invitation), RSVP cards, thank you cards, envelopes for all these posted cards… and on the way there are ceremony booklets, menu cards & seating plan cards. When you add it up, that’s a lot of paper.
Eco-friendly, sustainable wedding invitations are key. Paperless wedding invitations are becoming more popular both in Ireland and around the world.
If you want to go with a paperless alternative that goes beyond invitations and Save the Dates, check out our Everything wedding app ‘Be Our Guest’. Our app is a mobile platform for you to communicate with your guests at every stage in the run up to your wedding and the big day itself and among our 75 (and growing) features, we’ve added a digital, paperless alternative for all the wedding stationery.
This is also a flexible option. We are living in uncertain times. Many weddings are being postponed. If you need to send Change The Dates, it’s free and easy to do this with Be Our Guest.
3. Opt for an Eco friendly venue
There are a growing number of wedding venues who go above and beyond to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. These venues are run with sustainability in mind and this comes across in every aspect of the venue and their policies. They aim to reduce food waste, prevent the need for disposable plastic and they often come with a verified list of eco-friendly suppliers whom they’ve worked with in the past.
4. Advice guests about single-use, disposable items
Ban single use items like coffee cups or water bottles at your wedding – or at least mention that you’d prefer guests to use sustainable alternatives. A good reminder can often be more effective than imposing a ban on anything! Many eco friendly venues already impose this ban. Personally, I hate the idea of banning something and I doubt it’s effectiveness. Instead, I’d opt for advising and reminding guests about the problems associated with disposable bottles, cups, plastic food containers, cameras, etc. This is where communication is key.
5. Have guests order food in advance – (guests can do this with beourguest.app) or opt for a banquet style meal to reduce food waste
One way to reduce the waste impact of your wedding is to reduce wedding food waste.
There are a few ways to do this. First, you could have a buffet or banquet style wedding. This can be great in terms of reducing food waste but it could be challenging for any guests with allergies or dietary requirements as it can lead to cross contamination. It can also be uncomfortable for guests if they feel that they have to compete with other guests to get to the food!
Another option is to ask guests in advance what meal options they will choose. Yes, this removes the element of surprise, but for many guests, it also helps them to relax and enjoy the wedding better as they are not worrying about whether they will enjoy the meal. This can really help to dramatically reduce wedding food waste.
As well as the sustainability impact, pre-choosing meals makes the event less stressful for the wedding venue and this can give the waiting staff the opportunity to dedicate more time to every guest as they are not as run off their feed, leading to a better guest experience.
6. Go local
Get locally grown flowers, chair covers, wedding cake, foods, favours, etc. If you can source it locally then you are reducing carbon emissions from transport and helping your local businesses too.
For sustainable weddings, you can’t go wrong when you source stuff locally. Carbon emmissions from transporting and storing foods, flowers and other items can really have an impact on the environment. Many florists now offer locally grown flowers and the same goes for other wedding components. Shopping local also helps to keep our economy going and ensures that we still have our little, homegrown businesses which enrich the tapestry of our lives.
7. Offer shared transport for guests to and from wedding venues
For example you could provide a bus from your wedding venue to your ceremony location and back. There are many benefits to providing guest transport between wedding venues. This is particularly useful if your wedding ceremony and reception are in different locations and if many of our guests are staying at the same hotel.
Providing a bus to transport your guests means that they can leave their cars at home. If your reception is in a different location from the guest accommodation this also provides guests with the opportunity to drink alcohol and they don’t have to worry about booking taxis.
The wedding bus experience can also be an awesome bonding experience for your wedding guests and provides them with a unique way to get to know other wedding guests. With Be Our Guest, you can collect guest names for group transport and share this with your transport provider.
8. Provide vegan options, in-season options and local foods where possible
Always give your guests a good meal and try to cater for everyone, that’s a given. But, if you’re vegan or just open to vegan food, why not have a vegan main meal, evening buffet or welcome reception? Vegan food can be delicious, full of colour, texture and flavour and is often healthy too.
As well as this, vegan food tends to be much better for the environment.If you have vegetarians, vegans or flexitarians attending your wedding, provide them with vegan options. This is a no-brainer. But you can also incorporate more vegan options into your wedding meals as starters, sides and evening buffet. This makes your meal more inclusive and also reduces carbon emissions as many vegan foods, especially those made with locally grown, in season fruits and vegetables. If you can afford to go organic, that’s brilliant too!
9. Travelling to your honeymoon
Trains, boats and fantastic staycations are becoming more popular, especially with train transport getting better all the time.
Trains are the new planes. We often think of honeymoons as beach paradises that we can only reach by airplane. There is an expectation placed on couples to travel to far flung, expensive destinations. But your honeymoon can be anything you want it to be. If you would prefer a luxury glamping holiday at home or a train journey adventure stopping in fascinating places, that’s up to you.
If you have enough time, travelling by boat or train can be really pleasant and you can incorporate the travelling into your honeymoon as something enjoyable by booking luxury cabins or getting first class train tickets. Getting to the same destination via land or sea travel is much more sustainable than air travel and can be a lot more relaxing too.
10. The little things
Opt for less hen or stag night decorations, especially throw away stuff, go for favours that are usable and won’t simply become waste. Send digital thank you cards or messages to your guests. Choose reusable plates and cutlery. You can even get seed packets to your guests as favours!
Remember that it’s your big day. Have it your way. If you can’t do everything on this list, pick what can do and make that happen.
Check out our 75 FEATURE Wedding App Be Our Guest. Save the Date and save the planet with ‘Be Our Guest’.
You’re getting married! Congratulations and yippee! Now you need to tell everyone.
It’s important that as many of your guests as possible are able to make it to your big day.
Although everyone wants to make it, there are things that they need to do well in advance to make sure that they’re able to be there.
They might need to take time off work well ahead of your day. If they are travelling they’ll need to book train/plane/boat tickets.
And if you’re big day is in the middle of summer time (or any holiday time) it’s essential that early holiday bookers haven’t booked a non-refundable, unchangeable week away for your wedding day.
So you want to let people know well in advance but at that stage in your wedding planning you might not know all the times, the day plan, the food menu, etc.
You might not even know where exactly your venue will be. Don’t worry, you fill in these details at a later date e.g. Using our ‘Be Our Guest’ app or sending out traditional invitations.
But that very first contact with your potential guests to make sure that they are free on your chosen day is your ‘Save The Date’.
When to send your ‘Save The Date’?
The general rule of thumb is to send your ‘Save The Date’ between a year and 8 months before your wedding. Where you place your timing within that framework depends on a few things.
Where your wedding is (is it a destination wedding? If so, add more time) and where your guests are determine how much time and planning they will need to get to your wedding.
If quite a number of your guests will be travelling a long distance to your wedding, give them about 1 year to prepare. They may need to save up and budget for attending your wedding as well as booking their transport and accommodation.
Another point is that if you are having a smaller wedding and everyone invited informally knows about it, you can leave your ‘Save The Dates’ a bit longer, sending them around 8 months.
If you are having your wedding in a location with limited accommodation or transport options, it’s best to give people a bit more time, especially if it is expensive to get their. In this case you would be wise to veer towards 10 months to a year.
Important to note that if you are booking your wedding for the middle of summer or a holiday time it’s best to let guests know earlier as they might end up booking holidays that are non-refundable and land on your wedding day!
Finally, if your wedding guests will not need to travel and your destination has plenty of accommodation you can leave it closer to 8 months.
How ‘Save The Date’s work with the ‘Be Our Guest’ App
If you’re opting for our ‘Be Our Guest’ app, invitations & Save the Dates are easy!
With ‘Be Our Guest’ you invite your guests by adding them to your app.
Each guest is automatically sent a digital ‘Save The Date’ and a link to their own copy of ‘Be Our Guest’
With their app, they can view and communicate with you on your wedding journey.
The following information is necessary on your ‘Save The Date’
The day you are getting married
Your name and the name of your betrothed.
The general location (if you don’t know the venue yet) of your wedding.
Nice to Haves
You can mention at this time where the venue is (this is not needed but adding it is a personal choice)
You could mention here that your invitation will follow.
If you’re using ‘Be Our Guest’ your guests will get a link to their own app which will later contain (once you add it) your venue and ceremony times and locations.
Wording
Aside from these details ‘Save The Dates’ usually come with the words ‘Save The Date’ and a little message from you to your guests.
You can be as formal or informal as you like with this message. Here are a few ideas…
Some formal choices
X and X invite you to celebrate their marriage on Aug 1st 2020
X and X would like you to join them in their wedding celebration on Aug 1st 2020
Save the Date of August The First Two Thousand and Twenty for the Wedding of X and X
Kindly save the date of Aug 1, 2020, X and X will be united in Holy Matrimony
Please save the date of Aug 1, 2020 for a wedding uniting X and X
Your presence is requested at the wedding of X and X
X and X request the pleasure of your company
Some Casual Choices
She said yes!
We’re tying the knot
Save a place for us. Put it in your calendar.
You’re invited to our wedding celebration
Save Our Date. We’re getting married.
Cute Wording Choices
It all began on a night out…
Finally… He asked me & I said yes
Something big is coming.
We’re getting married, you’re getting an app (if you use ‘Be Our Guest 😉
He put a ring on it.
Love truly, drink deeply and dance badly
These two kids are getting married.
Something a bit different…
Presenting WedFest 2020
Come for the beer, stay for the wedding
What are you doing on Aug 1st 2020? Nothing! Come to our wedding.
Shit just got real – we’re getting married
Woah. Things just got real – we’re getting married
It’s a match
Come crash our wedding
Until Death do us part
Now act surprised like you had no idea this was coming
CTR and S the date
Destination Wedding Choices
Pack your Bags
Bon Voyage
Take a trip with us
Love is in the air. Will you be there?
Come fly with us
Interesting ‘Save The Date’ ideas…
How Digital ‘Save The Dates’ work
When to send out ‘Save the Dates’
If you are not using ‘Save The Dates’, when do you send invitations?
Digital ‘Save The Dates’
Using ‘Be Our Guest’ to go beyond digital ‘Save The Dates’….
Your wedding theme and your ‘Save The Date’
The colour scheme, font and images for your ‘Save The Date’ will optimally match the rest of your wedding communications to create a coherent theme.
Of course, this is up to you, everyone is different and some people prefer a more eclectic collection.
But if you are going to have a colour scheme and theme to your wedding or your wedding communications now is your opportunity to set the scene and choose your theme.
Check out our blog on wedding themes…
Our eco-friendly, recycled matched paper stationery
As a companion to our paperless wedding app, we provide matched, small batch recycled paper stationery. Our eco friendly offering is handmade using our own in-house acrylic, watercolour, oil pastel and chalk pastel artwork. We make this in our Donegal based home studio.
With ‘Be Our Guest’ you invite your guests by adding them to your app. They are automatically sent a digital ‘Save The Date’ and a link to their own copy of ‘Be Our Guest’ where they can view and communicate with you on your wedding journey.
We have over 40 features including guest RSVP, guest photo sharing, private chat wedding countdown, digital ceremony booklets, accommodation concierge, suggestions, advice space, gift list, seating plan and much, much more. Perfect for destination weddings – each guest receives their own personalised wedding event itinerary with each venue on a map.
‘Be Our Guest’ is really affordable and much better value than traditional wedding stationery.
But your data is secure too – we charge for our premium app, this pays our bills. We do not sell your information or your guests information OR push paid 3rd party ‘partners’ onto you or your guests (unlike certain free alternatives which may make their money by using you and your guests as the product!)
We try to make ‘Be Our Guest’ accessible to everyone by keeping our pricing lower than the traditional alternative. This is especially true during our Winter Sale where we have packages for as little as 5 euros (lifetime ownership for you and your guests!).
Want to try before you buy? No problem, you can download ‘Be Our Guest’ from iOS or android stores and try our fully functional, free demo mode. Get your copy of our demo here.
Thanks for Reading
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog post. Please check out our other blogs for wedding planning advice, our 150 step wedding planning checklist, real life wedding stories and tips and more!
As soon as you are engaged and in that WOW moment, it’s time to get some photos taken. The awe of those first few weeks of engagement are something that needs to be captured on camera. You can even use your engagement photos as a background for your wedding invitations.
Contact photographers that also do wedding photos. This is a great way to find out which photographer will do a good job on your big day.
PRO TIP – A lot of photographers will offer discounted engagement photos to get their business for your wedding. Get a few samples first, if possible, and see what styles you like.
2. Have your engagement ring insured
Your engagement ring probably cost a bit and you don’t want to take any risks with this. I think that this is one case where insurance really gives you peace of mind. You should get a valuation certificate when you buy your ring. This is used by the insurance company to value your ring. If you don’t get this, ask for it!
PRO TIP – if you are planning on getting wedding insurance, try to get a deal by buying this with your engagement ring insurance and using the same company for both.
3. Celebrate this moment with an engagement event – but do it your way
You are on a natural high, in love and all loved up. It’s a moment to celebrate. Most people throw engagement parties soon after the proposal.
It’s a wonderful chance to make the people who will be part of your wedding feel involved, share your proposal story and have a lot of fun.
Not big into parties? Well tough, you’re having one… just kidding :P, honestly, this is about doing something to mark the occasion together with the people that you love.
It doesn’t have to be a wild party, follow your heart. You can just as easily plan a scrabble night in, a days hiking to a beautiful lake, a festival camping weekend, an art course, a cookery lesson or an adrenaline fueled adventure sport day.
4. Tell your family and friends
Reach out to your loved ones and share the good news. Phone calls are still the best way to reach out for this moment. Update your social media AFTER you call your family and close friends.
PRO TIP – Reach out to your family and your betrothed’s family at the same time or as close as possible. Don’t risk having someone feeling upset because they were the ‘last to know’. Make a list of the key people that you want to be part of your ceremony at this time.
5. Discuss your wedding ceremony beliefs
You may be that couple to are both exactly the same – totally religious, authentically humanist, definitely atheist or personal and spiritual. If this is something that you haven’t talked about, now is the time to get to the heart of what you really believe and want for your day. Be honest from the start and keep and open mind. See our tips on blended ceremonies for more information on this hot topic.
PRO TIP – Printing out ceremony booklets is time consuming, awkward and/or expensive. Why not go digital with our ‘Be Our Guest’ app digital ceremony booklets. Want to have an unplugged ceremony? No problem. Our app will ask your guests to put their phones on silent and on airplane mode before they see the ceremony booklet. It’s the perfect way to ensure that there will be no phone calls or message buzzes during your ceremony. You can even add an optional message to ask guests not to use their phones as cameras during the ceremony.
6. Discuss your guest list – get rough numbers
Decide roughly who you will be bringing. First question – is it going to be an intimate gathering with close family and a few chosen friends or a bigger affair?
For a bigger wedding will you be inviting first cousins? Second cousins? Neighbours? People from your family neighbourhoods?
PRO-TIP
I would be missing an opportunity if I didn’t shamelessly promote our fantastic wedding guest app here. With ‘Be Our Guest’ you can add your wedding guest list, automatically send digital ‘Save the Dates’ to your guests by email, manage your guest list, guests can RSVP through their copy of the app, and you get notifications when they do, plus you can manage your RSVP responses, guest dietary needs and create a seating plan which you share with your venue.
When you consider the cost of invitations, save the dates, stamps, RSVP cards, stamps for RSVPS and info sheets, you can save a ton of money with ‘Be Our Guest’.
7. Buy your beloved a gift to show your appreciation
He or she has just proposed. That takes guts and often a bit of planning and consideration. Show your caring side by choosing a personal and meaningful gift for your beloved.
PRO TIP – Check out our blog on engagement gifts for your beloved that we love
8. Talk about your wedding budget
Wedding budgets change over time. Often they get more elaborate. Things, plans and limits get forgotten about and that’s okay. Be flexible and bear this in mind. However, on the other side of the coin (haha, see what I did there :D) if you do need to stick to a budget, write it down somewhere, record your initial budget meeting decisions and keep this so that you can both look back over it as you go through your journey. Know what you agreed on, be aware of what you spend at any moment and make changes to your budget together.
PRO TIP – With ‘Be Our Guest’ (the wedding guest app) we’re adding a budget section to our planning tools so that you can update your budget and have the per guests costs automatically increased as guests RSVP or decline.
9. Decide on when you want to get married
Will you have a long or short engagement? A lot of this depends on budget and how long it will take you to save up for your wedding day. Another factor is venue, ceremony and celebrant availability. If you are hoping for a short engagement then get in touch with potential venues ASAP as many of them have a long waiting list.
10. Discuss whether you want to get married at home or abroad
Getting married at home has benefits – you can invite more people, it avoids family members or friends being unable to attend because of the journey/fear of flying/incapacitation/no passport/costs. It is usually more expensive but you will be able to have more control over the hands on, day to day, planning. It’s also more sustainable.
Destination weddings have their champions too. They are better value, you often get more for your money, the weather can be amazing, you can have an outdoor wedding and you can get a little holiday for you and your guests too.
PRO TIP – If you are planning a destination wedding think of any family members who might not be able to attend and perhaps offer them help in getting there (financial help, emotional support, practical help).
11th thing…. Purchase ‘Be Our Guest’!!!
Save money and be eco-friendly by opting for our wedding app instead of digital stationery. ‘Be Our Guest’ gives you over 40 features for yourself and your guest from wedding planning, guest wedding RSVP and event information, photo sharing, chat, wedding countdown, blog, guest management and more.
Best part, there’s absolutely no coding or setup required, it’s 100% secure and private and the themes are based on real artwork!
Continuing in our series, we will now look at planning 14 months before the big day! Of course every wedding is different, so feel free to start doing these planning tips when ever you like, the earlier the better!
Key Suppliers
Start gathering names
Gather a list of potential key suppliers who will be available in your chosen location – focus on photographers, wedding planners, the band and caterers if needed.
Negotiate with venues
Ask for discounts and special offers
Once you have found venues that are available for your chosen dates, you can reach out to these places and ask for extras such as discounts, reduced corkage charges and free accommodation for your parents.
Bookings
Book your ceremony and reception
Pay your deposit and pencil in a date for your wedding. At this point you have a date and location!
‘Be Our Guest’ events
Add events
If your using ‘Be Our Guest’ create event cards to show the detail and location of your wedding for your guests.
Refine Guest List
Get a more accurate list
Start really fine-tuning your guest list and reach out to family at this time to get anyone who you’ve forgotten.
Wedding Planner
Hire a planner
If you are having a wedding planner, hire this person.
Theme
Select your theme
Choose your ‘Be Our Guest’ theme. Remember that you can change this at any time!
Save The Date
Customise your ‘Save the date’ email
Send a sample email to yourself to see the digital ‘Save the Date’ email in person
Proposals
Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
Ask your bridesmaids and groomsmen if they will take up these roles
Proposal Boxes
Prepare or purchase boxes
Give your wedding party proposal boxes with gifts to each member of your wedding party
DIY Wedding Items
Plan those creations
If you are making DIY decorative items, find out what you need – what materials, skills and storage space, for these creations.
Following on from our first post we will now look at planning 16 months before the big day! Of course every wedding is different, so feel free to start doing these planning tips when ever you like, the earlier the better!
Guest Numbers
Gather a rough estimate
Start talking about the number of guests who you wish to invite to your wedding. Is it going to be a large wedding or an intimate affair?
It’s good to get a general number at this stage in the process as different wedding venues have minimum or maximum guest numbers that they can cater for.
Type of Ceremony
Religious, spiritual, humanist or civil
Explore what kind of wedding, handfasting or sand blending ceremony you would like to have. Discuss this with your betrothed.
Themes
Share your findings
Discuss themes and colour schemes and show each other examples of what you would like. Consider how much work/time you will have for more elaborate features and consider things like the climate where you are getting married.
Wedding Party
Key Roles
Choose people for key roles such as your bridesmaids and groomsmen
‘Be Our Guest’ wedding customisation
Customise your Guest Experience
Customise your ‘Be Our Guest‘ couple story, wedding countdown and add basic wedding information.
Guest List 101
Start gathering your guest list.
Get names together for your family members, friends and any colleagues or acquaintances that you would like to invite.
Guest Groups
Start organising your guests
Create guest groups and start placing guests in groups so that you can personalise their experience, particularly the events they are invited to and your chat messages.
Proposal Gifts
Order gift boxes
Purchase your bridesmaids and groomsmen proposal boxes with gifts for each member of your wedding party or make your own using items that your chosen wedding party members like.
Ceremony
Explore options
Have a look at some different ceremony locations in your area and start gathering a potential list of celebrants.
Reception
Gather potentials
Get a list of the possible venues that match your desired location and work well with your theme, guest numbers and budget.
Available Dates
Find out what dates are available
For your ceremony and reception, reach out to possible places and ask about availability for your chosen dates.
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Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
