Great Ways To Make Your Guests Feel Included In Your Wedding

Your wedding is, of course, mainly about you, but why wouldn’t you want your guests to feel included too? After all, they are your loved ones and will have been involved in a lot of your life, so your wedding is a great way to give back to them, and let them know that you care. There are lots of ways that you can honor your friendships in your wedding and show your appreciation, but if you’ve got wedding brain and are struggling to come up with any, then here are a few great suggestions that you can steal.

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Provide Welcome Bags

This is an especially important idea for destination weddings, or if you have a lot of guests arriving from out of town. Give each of your guests a bag with a few snacks in, a bottle of water, and a little welcome card. You could also include information on the bride and groom (that’s you), the wedding venue, the timeline for the day, local attractions and places to eat, and anything else that an out-of-towner might need to know. Don’t forget to pop in some wedding confetti too.

Have A Hashtag

These days it’s hard to escape phones and social media, so if your guests are going to post pictures, videos, tweets, and statuses about your wedding, you might as well make it so that you can look at and read them all once your big day is over. You can do this by asking your guests, either on the day or on the invitation, to add a specific hashtag to their posts.

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Make A Playlist

Music is a big part of any wedding. You are going to walk down the aisle to it, and then dance through the night to it at your reception. You might think that your music taste is the bee’s knees, but your guests might not agree, so why not ask for their input? When you send out your invitations, you could ask your guests to rsvp with three songs that they want to be played at the reception, and pass this onto your DJ. You could even send them a link to a collaborative Spotify playlist (although you’ll want to check what songs people are putting on before you start playing it).

Photo Fun

A picture says a thousand words, and while you might have a great wedding photographer, their pictures might not be able to truly capture the fun of the evening as your guests see it. For this reason, lots of couples choose to have a wedding photographer for part of the evening and then give their guests take their own pictures on disposable cameras for the remainder. You could even find a photo booth hire so that your guests have some pictures of their own to take home as a keepsake.

Remember A Group Photo

It’s great to have lots of pictures of your guests throughout the night, but I doubt that any of these photos are going to have all of your guests in them, which means that some could get missed out when the pictures are being taken. To make sure that all of your guests feel appreciated and included, as your photographer to take a group photo of you and all of your guests. You could even have one just after the wedding and one during the reception in case there are any outfit changes or extra guests.

Create A Wedding Capsule

Wedding books are a beautiful keepsake from your wedding, but when all of your guests are simply signing their name, you may as well be reading a school register. To make this idea a little more meaningful, and get your guests a little more involved, hand out slips of card, and ask them to write some words of wisdom or a thoughtful message and post it into a capsule. Then you can take out a slip or two whenever you like, and relive your wedding day.

Tell Them You Care

Who says that the guests are the only ones that should be writing on your wedding day? The simplest way to include your guests at your wedding and show them that you care is to tell them. To do this, you can write them all a small note thanking them for attending and telling them how much you appreciate them. Each note should be to each individual, rather than giving them all the same. Of course, this won’t be easy, and will take a lot of time if you have a lot of guests, but will make a big impact, and I’m sure that plenty of tears will be shed.

Have A Sing Song

Partway through the night, you could get rid of the DJ or band for a bit, and whack out the karaoke machine. Start with a song yourself to get the party going, and then get your guests to join in. If you plan to do this, you could ask for song requests on your invitations, as I mentioned for your playlist, so that all of your guests have their signature song available. Also make sure that there are a few microphones, in case any large groups want to have a go.

Don’t Forget Favors

Giving your guests wedding favors is a lovely way to show your appreciation one more time before they all head home. They don’t have to be fancy or cost you massive amounts of money; They just have to be personal to you. If you got married on the beach, then you could send them home with a small jar of sand, a pebble, or a shell, for example. None of these ideas is going to cost you an arm and a leg, but they are something that can be cherished forever.

Your wedding guests will have helped and supported you through thick and thin, so your wedding day is the perfect time to show them that you love them just as much as you love each other.

Contributed courtesy of Sam.

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