Since I've mentioned before that we aren't doing save the dates, we still needed a way to let close family and bridal party know about the hotel link. Basically what this boils down to is that I sent a mass email out yesterday when I got the hotel link then personally called or texted most everyone to tell them to book that instant.
There is a City Wide Convention the weekend of our wedding. And our wedding was booked first!
How dare them!
So it's been super important that all of our reservations are made. Currently I only have 20 rooms but I'm working on getting more at other hotels. Actually let me correct that statement, I've been working on room blocks since last July.... but those are just details.... ;)
I think it's going to all work out. Honestly I'm probably looking way too into it and being too conservative.
Anyway, so who did a wedding website? We did and I can send yall the link if you email me and I "know" you.
Did you all feel like guests actually looked at that and remembered how to get places that weekend?
Did you include a map in your guest welcome bag? How did you make this?
What I don't want to happen is me play hostess with the mostess and worry about where everyone will park uptown that weekend, how they will get around and who needs to be where at what time. I want everyone to know that wayyyyy ahead of time. And I'm doing everything in my power now to make that happen. We shall see...I'm not good at letting stuff like that go. I'll probably still do it. :)
We did a wedding website, and I think it was a pretty good resource for guests, but I am pretty sure the main use of it was for them to find gift registry info and links.
ReplyDeleteI opted not to do gift bags at the hotels. Instead, I made a nice list printed on heavy gray cardstock with our wedding logo at the top with our favorite restaurants, bars, and coffee shops around the area. Each place listed had a fun little quip under it, such as "Best burgers in town -- featured on the Food Network!" or "Ask for Kevin at the bar -- he'll take good care of you."
We gave these out to the front desks of hotels and asked them to pass them out to anyone with our wedding party.
Good questions!
ReplyDeleteWe did welcome boxes for our guests, which being a *slight* destination wedding, every guest was from OOT. We included a booklet made by our stationer, but it could easily be DIY. Like April, it included our favorite bars, restaurants, and things to do, and another page in the booklet detailed the schedule for the weekend, including addresses to everything. We gathered those free visitor maps from the nearby Visitor Info Center and included them in the boxes.
I assume your hotel blocks are downtown since the wedding is downtown - so you shouldn't have to worry about parking/transportation for your OOT guests. (Local guests will know where to park or hire a car.) One of our hotels was outside of a comfortable walking distance in Charleston heat, so we had the trolley we rode in after the ceremony (it was a four hour minimum block, so it worked out well) pick up those guests - that was included in the welcome booklet.
We did not do a wedding website, but I think it is a great idea.
75% of the people who came to our wedding travel from out of state so we did it all.
ReplyDelete- Save the Dates - with the wedding website plastered on the front.
- Wedding website - a lot of people used this. I actually had a link to my blog on there too and I know for a fact alot of people accessed it that way.
It still exists
http://www.mywedding.com/deannaandbrad/
-I did gift bags at the hotel. It included maps and a book from the Visitors Center. You can call and ask them for them. It had an agenda, a note and food and drinks in it.
Everyone appreciated them. I sort of EXPECT a welcome bag these days if I travel in from out of town.
Also, b/c we did everything in Uptown. Rehearsal dinner and wedding everyone was able to walk everywhere. It was ideal and it cuts costs when it comes having to shuttle people to and from places.
ReplyDeleteMy sister has a wedding website, and I think they are much more useful than a save the date! I mean, when the S/D arrives, I mark it down, but may lose place of it, whereas the website can be updated frequently, and then emailed to people. She has also posted it on facebook, etc. I can send it to you, if you'd like!
ReplyDeleteHey! We did a wedding website, but also as a reminder put in a map and activities they could do around Roanoke. Here's my blog post about it so check it out. http://justrainbowsandbutterflys.blogspot.com/2011/09/out-of-town-gift-bags.html
ReplyDeleteI saw this at a friend's wedding and it was super helpful for us so I made one for mine.
We did a wedding website using Wedding Wire. I love it and we get so many compliments on it. We did Save the Dates and included the website but I think it's fine just to let your guests know how to find it. We included all the information about our hotel blocks, the airport code, and links to things for guests to do. We're providing shuttle bus transportation for out oftown guests so they dot have to worry about cabs, etc on the day of the wedding. The majority of our guests are out of town - so we're skipping welcome bags since they can get really expensive.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll get everything worked out and you still have lots of time to iron out the details!
My goal for the next week is to finalize save the dates and get our website up. Since our wedding will be over a holiday weekend and at least two thirds of our guests will be out of towners, I think we will do a welcome bag and some places to go, but most people are staying where our wedding will be, so that will be easy. ;)
ReplyDelete