This is a guest post by Aleisha McCormack
I Love (with a capital L) seeing all the ways couples can truly express themselves with crafty wedding details (and usually a bit of a sense of humour).
All of the following projects are simple to produce…no glue gun required and are fairly inexpensive…saying that, you can go to town with anything, so if your budget is high, attach diamonds to everything, or use nicer card.
1. Ask your guests to send in their favourite party anthems on their RSVP cards
This is a 2 for 1 tip. If you aren’t having a DJ or band then this request helps you compile a song list that guarantees that everyone coming to your wedding will have a tune that will get them up out of their seats and grooving. The old will be happy because one of their songs might get a look in and you aren’t having to come up with a list (if that isn’t your bag).
Free printable and image: United With Love
2. Use free printables
There are some wonderful free printables going around on the interwebs that are editable and super fun. One idea that I really have been digging is the quirky FAQ and fact lists about the couple that are being put on the back of menus and ceremony programs. This may sound pretentious but done in the right way, it can be a lot of fun, particularly if you reveal some little titbits about yourselves that even close friends might not know. Cheryl has 469 teaspoons from around the world. Michael has seen Ace of Bass in concert 6 times. OK, Cheryl and Michael are losers but you get the picture.
Image: Etsy
3. Go old school with handwritten details
A handwritten anything…well except some sort of ticket or death threat is really nice. A very personal (and perhaps time consuming idea but lovely nevertheless) is to write little hidden handwritten notes, tucked behind napkins or on the seats for your guests to discover.
Karen, STG’s founder,and her husband, Jeremy, wrote personal notes to everyone at their wedding which they printed underneath their guests’ names on their menus / name cards. Whilst we didn’t do this for our wedding, I did pick funny quotes about relationships that were printed on the back of seating cards and matched them to friends. Some were very naughty, some were tame, but they all made us giggle.
Image: Earthy Photography
4. Cookbooks baby!
I was very lucky to receive an amazing cookbook for my hens day filled with a compilation of my friends favourite recipes from our time together. I LOVE it so much and use it often. With this in mind I believe you could create a super stylish mini cookbook to give to your friends and guests as wedding favours. Using my favourite free (and so very easy) graphic design website Canva.com, which has lots of templates and drag and drop functions, you could whip something up in a flash and have it printed inexpensively.
Image: Style Grace Events
5. Go hipster with Polaroid
Polaroid was saved by hipsters…they were nearly gone but then all of a sudden people remembered how gosh darn fun it is to take polaroids and wave the photo around, waiting for the image to be revealed. So that brings me to…instead of a guestbook, have your guests take Polaroid selfies, add a little note to the back and after the wedding add them to an album.
Image: Ruffled
Aleisha McCormack is a comedian, author of the wedding planning guide Smart Wedding and Host of the #1 Podcast about all things wedding-y, Save The Date.
Top Image: OneWed.com
Hipster with Polaroid – cool 🙂
Hi Karen,
You wrote such a wonderful article.Now i can suggest this article to my friend.She is worried for her wedding. Great job.
I am loving the idea of writing their favorite party anthem on their rsvp cards! That is absolutely a great idea. This could be a great thing because our guests would absolutely have a good time with their jams playing! Though they color of the music could be so much differ from one another, but as long as the guests are having fun and we are all having fun, why not?? More information on great wedding performers please do visit us at http://www.jellekuiper.nl/. Thank you.