Day 277 – “Am I Invited” – The Guest List

Bonjour from Project Wedding HQ

Like most bridal couples family politics and finances play a huge role in determining who receives an invite to your wedding, unless you have unlimited funds.

Chris and I are very lucky in respect to he does not have a lot of family, however on the flip side I am Italian and that is the complete opposite, I know the world.  For me I have had to consider family, friends and my colleagues in the Wedding Industry on my side of the guest list.  This has become really difficult as we have already completed our non negotiable guest list, but I am just trying to trim back where I can due to finances.

However only recently I was placed in the predicament when a someone I know said to me “Oh you will have to let me know when the wedding is so I can place it in my diary”.  Oucchhhhh, did I feel so bad, I was not inviting this person due to number restrictions and many other issues.  So now what do I do, this person is expecting an invitation to my wedding and I know there will be others that will expect one as well.

This is where as a Bridal Couple we will need to tread lightly so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings.  Here are some things you may want to consider if you are having diffiuclties in selecting who to go on your guest list that I found very useful:

• Does this guest know your engaged.
• Have they met your fiance.
• When did you last speak.
• How often do you see them.
• Would you be offended if you weren’t invited to their wedding.
• Will they be a part of your lives forever.

Until next time.

Au Revoir, The Savvy Bride

Day 278 – Location Location

Bonjour from Project Wedding HQ

Today we take a step back as I refine some of the details about our Wedding Reception location.  Naturally before you can have a wedding date you need to check with your ceremonial area/church, etc and your wedding venue to see if they have the date available that you require.

Planning well in advance will assure you get the date you want and minimise stress.  Due to the popularity of a venue and if it is peak season you will need to book a venue at least 1 – 2 years in advance.  That’s why as soon as Chris and I got engaged and we knew roughly when we wanted to get married we started investigating dates immediately.

We had a basic idea of the look we were going for and we also wanted to actually get married and have the reception all at one place for the convenience of our travelling guests and also have nearby accommodation for them.  Even though we would have loved to have had our wedding on a Friday, so we could party all weekend, we had to consider our guests travelling from interstate, therefore we had to remain with a Saturday wedding.  So silly me has booked our wedding for one of the busiest times of year in my industry.  I have weddings leading up to my wedding day and weddings straight after.  So no honeymoon for me.  Oh well.

WHEN SELECTING YOUR WEDDING VENUE HERE ARE A COUPLE OF VERY IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Capacity – Your venue must be able to seat the number of guests you are considering inviting.  A lot of people do get this wrong and what you have to also consider is that a lot of venues have a minimum number of guests for smaller affairs.

Car Park – Is there enough parking for my guests. Do they need to park a mile away from the location or will they have to pay for parking.  Your guests will not be impressed if they have to pay for parking, just speaking from experience.

Package Costs – When comparing venues look closely at what each venue’s packages include, they will vary hence the reason in price.

Terms & Conditions Hire – Read these very very carefully as you don’t want to be hit up with additional costs that you didn’t read about in the beginning, which will certainly add more stress to the budget closer to the wedding and to you in general as a bridal couple.  You would be surprised at the types of things that can easily be missed on your contract.

Events Manager – Straight away you will know if you are going to have a great relationship with this person who is going to be looking after your wedding reception on the day.  This is vital as is all of the wedding suppliers who you hire on the day, however this is the most important one. Simply for the fact you will be spending a large majority of your time here with your guests and this is the largest portion of your budget.

Chris and I reviewed some of these checklist points above and others and we have ended up booking a lovely vintage style venue, Topiaries Beaumont House at Samford.  It is everything we want for our Wedding.  Have a great day all.

Au Revoir, The Savvy Bride