Posted by Patti Wellington on Mon, Sep 06, 2010 @ 12:22 PM
The faces that line the aisle on your wedding day should be special to you. Making your wedding guest list is a challenging process because you don't want to forget any essential guests or succumb to the pressure to invite (and pay for) nonessential guests. Here are some guidelines to follow for building, managing and trimming your wedding guest list.
Making the Wedding Guest List:
Your wedding guest list should everyone you would ideally like to invite to your wedding. Think about all of the people you would like to share this special day with.
1. Determine the number of wedding guests: Knowing what kind of wedding you want and how much you have to spend, use that information to decide how many guests you can invite. Keep in mind that the headcount at your wedding reception is the biggest expense in your wedding budget.
2. Make the A-list: The bride and groom should sit down with pen and paper and make out their wedding guest A-list, which should include essential wedding guests and anyone and everyone who should bear witness to your marriage.
3. Get the financial contributers' guest list: Parents of the bride and groom, especially if they're helping to foot the bill, should have some say about who's invited from each family. Decide how you will divide the wedding invitations. (Hint - a couple of options are to divide the invitations in half between the bride and groom's family or, if you share friends, give each set of parents one third of the invites to send to family and close friends).
4. Make the B-list: put together a short list of people that are somewhat important but that arent' going to be on the first list - coworkers, your boss, third cousins and children.
How to cut the Wedding Guest List
Once you've made a wedding guest list of everyone whom you would like to invite, you're going to have to make some adjustments to the list to fit your budget and venue restrictions. This is not an easy task - keep only the wedding guests whose presence you will really appreciate.
1. Consult the list against the party budget. If necessary, cut the wedding guest list down by removing non-essential guests.
2. Make objective standards for inclusion and exclusion, especially if you're having trouble cutting the wedding guest list on a name-by-name basis.
Here are some popular suggestions for cutting the wedding guest list:
a) Decide whether or not you will invite children.
b) Ask single people not to bring dates. This is a good way for your single friends to meet.
c) Do not invite people to reciprocate for invitations or gifts that they've given to you.
d) Cut anyone you haven't spoken to in a number of years.
e) Cut all co-workers you do not socialize with outside of work.
f) Cut the heavy drinkers. You'll spare yourself some drama and a hefty bar tab.
3. Once you start getting back responses of people who may not attend, consult the B-list and send out a few more invitations for these people, seeing there is some room now. Try to do this in a timely manner so these people don't feel like last minute invites.
Follow these guidelines and you'll find that the daunting task of creating a wedding guest list won't be as bad as you originally thought.
Posted by Patti Wellington on Tue, Jan 19, 2010 @ 09:48 AM
Having a modern wedding is one of the big trends this year. A modern wedding would be defined as an event that has a lot of personal style injected throughout. This is accomplished by using non-traditional wedding sources - things that people haven't seen before. One of the best ways to set that tone and style of the wedding is through the invitation.
Let me explain - when someone receives your invitation, they open it up and look at it. From the first glance they should be able to tell many things - the style, colors, modern or traditional - the invitation says what type of event this is going to be. It should also send a message about who you are as a couple. So when you choose your invitation, don't just do it because you thought it was cute; think about the type of wedding you're having and try and define it through your invitation. I know that when I see an invitation that is modern and whimsical with a splash of bright vibrant colors, I think of that couple - and I expect the wedding to mimic those things.
I found a great internet site with some really modern wedding invitations - Fabulous Stationery. This company has a fantastic on line catalog for couples to choose from and they even have invitations for your engagement, the bridal shower, save the date and any other special occasions. When you look at their work, its easy to start to see exactly what I am speaking about. I think I'll let these examples in the blog say it for me.
Posted by Patti Wellington on Sun, Dec 27, 2009 @ 09:50 AM
I have a great working relationship with Tasha Rae from Tasha Rae Designs in Colorado. I have been referring her wedding invitations to all of my clients to her for the past couple of years and I think her work is fabulous. I found her products at a Association of Bridal Consultants convention I attended and fell in love with her work.
I contacted Tasha for some information for my blog, and here is the edited copy for your enjoyment:
Tasha was born and raised in Minnesota, and for the past 19 years, has called Colorado home. She lives with her husband and 2 daughters (one human and one canine).
She loves her jobs... being an Artist and a Mommy and finds them equally as challenging and rewarding. She studied art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and The Art Institute of Colorado.
When talking about her business, here's what Tasha said - "I can't say that Tasha Rae Designs really has a "Mission Statement" because each 'mission' is different. Every day is a new day and things are forever changing. I guess my business philosophy is something like this: You know that feeling you get when you find the perfect gift for someone and you can't wait to give it to them? That's how I try to run my business. My gift is my art, and I want it to be just what you wanted and imagined. If I can do that, then mission accomplished."
Samples: Unlike a lot of other companies, Tasha does not charge a fee for invitation samples; instead she asks that you donate a few dollars to your favourite charity and help those who are in need (if you need suggestions, see the attached link below) She also asks that people imit sample requests to 3 designs; here's a for a list of great charities - http://www.tasharaedesigns.com/charity.html
And here's a few pictures of her wonderful work:
Do you have any questions or want more information about wedding planning? E-mail them to me and I'll contact you with an answer. Who knows, I might even write an article on it and post it in my blog. weddings@occasionsniagara.com