4 Pre-Wedding Ways to Ensure a Great Wedding Guest Experience
You want your wedding day to be fun, stress-free, and memorable, but not just for yourself but also for all of your guests who are taking the time to celebrate your special day with you! This is why thinking about your wedding guest experience is so important! Here are some tips to ensure a great experience for your guests even before the wedding day comes.
1. Make sure your wedding details are crystal clear
Kamp Photography
It is so important to provide detailed information about your wedding day, starting right from your save the date cards to your formal wedding invitations! You want to include the basic information such as date and time, but you also want to include a response card with a pre-stamped and addressed return envelope so they can mail back their response at no cost to them. Itinerary cards are great so guests can plan for the weekend events if you have any pre-wedding day or post-wedding events. Including directions to and from your wedding venue are also so important as you want to ensure no one gets lost on the way to your big day! You should also include your wedding website URL so guests know where to head to stay up to date on all the important information!
2. Create a wedding website and update it regularly, including accommodations
Tea Maric Photography
Having a wedding website is always a good idea as it ensures that you have a centralized location guests can check to stay up to date on all things your wedding! They can easily check for event updates and it allows them to easily access your wedding registry to find you the perfect gift. Misplaced wedding invitation? No problem, guests can just check your wedding website to find all of the details they need to know. This also helps you by saving you the time of individually contacting each guest if there does in fact need to be a change in the plan or schedule or answering questions when guests do misplace information they need. If you really want to help take the load off yourself you can also designate a member of your wedding party or a close family member to be in charge of keeping the wedding website up to date so you can be confident your guests are getting the information they need and you can be stress free!
Another great thing you can easily add to your wedding website which helps your guests out is accommodation recommendations! This is very important for guests that are travelling for your wedding or even those who just want to stay close by after a full night of partying with you! Even if you don’t reserve a room block for your guests, you can certainly give them information on the best and affordable accommodations nearby as you know the area in which you’re getting married. This isn’t just for hotels either, you can also suggest Airbnb homes and other vacation rentals by giving them all of the details and directions from these accommodations to your wedding venue. If you really want to go above and beyond, also suggest some of your favourite nearby restaurants, coffee shops, and local attractions so that your guests, especially those coming from out of town, have some ideas of things to do leading up to and after your wedding day!
3. Schedule transportation to/from hotel accommodations for your guests
Xandra Photography
Scheduling transportation to and from your wedding venue either to hotel accommodations or a meet up location is essential, especially with out of town wedding venues! This helps ensure that your party can go on well into the night and everyone will surely be able to fully enjoy themselves without having to worry about how to drive home safely. This is also helpful for older guests who may not be comfortable driving late at night once all of the celebrations are complete. Alternatively, even with a wedding inside the city, if there is limited parking around your venue guest transportation just removes one more barrier that your guests will not have to worry about!
4. Have a rehearsal dinner and/or drinks
Megan Steen Photography
Having a rehearsal dinner is such a fun and important event! It doesn’t have to be a big expensive night or meal, it can be as simple as having your wedding party and key family members come over to your house or go to a nearby restaurant even just for a few drinks. It is such a nice time to celebrate those wonderful closest people to you. This gives you the opportunity to thank them for everything they are doing for you both leading up to and on the wedding day.
Mandy Wright Photography
Guest experience is truly so important because you want your loved ones to enjoy your special day with you. Here are some other great ideas we found to make your night a memorable one for guests! We can make sure nothing gets missed and your guests have the time of their lives, so reach out to us here for all your planning needs! Loved these pre-wedding ideas of things you can do to ensure a great wedding guest experience? Stay tuned for 4 ways to ensure a great wedding guest experience ON your big day!
