So you’ve just been invited to a wedding OR been invited
to be a part of the wedding party. Oh,
no! What should I wear? What will my
friends be wearing? Are the wedding
events dressy or casual? Is the wedding
at a church, hotel or country club? What
about the reception? I don’t know what
to buy OR what to pack!
Have
you ever been in this situation? I know
that I have! I’m sure you’ve been
through this, especially when traveling to an out-of-town wedding with lots of
events – like the groom’s golf outing, the bridesmaids luncheon or tea, the
rehearsal dinner not to mention the actual wedding and reception itself.
Since
I had been through this ordeal before and had to call the bride and groom many
times to find out this information, I decided for my August 2007 wedding to try
to eliminate these worries from my attendants and guests. Since a good portion of our guests were
coming in to Lexington from all over the country, I knew they would be packing
their suitcases with everything in them to be dressed appropriately for all the
week of wedding festivities.
Here
was my plan: instead of providing those
adorable wedding weekend booklets in their hotel rooms upon arrival the actual
week of the wedding, I would mail them out to out-of-town guests and the
wedding party a few months before the wedding.
This would allow our guests to plan not only for the time commitment of
the wedding weekend (i.e. get approved for vacation time and make travel
arrangements), but they would see the dress code for each event and be able to
thoughtfully pack for the event. Since I
was having a vintage-inspired “Great Gatsby wedding”, the ladies in the wedding
party had months to shop for vintage attire, gloves, hats and other apparel. I know from experience there is nothing worse
than arriving from out-of-town for a wedding and finding out that everyone is
wearing something that you don’t have in your suitcase and then trying to shop
under pressure in an unfamiliar city! In
other words, no panicked guests once they arrived!
Here’s
our wedding events booklet which affectionately became known by our wedding
guests as the “pink book”.
You
can include many things, but we included a letter from the bride and groom, a
schedule of the wedding events, the location and description of the locations
of the events and why they were special to the bride and groom, dining and
hotel suggestions at a variety of price points, local attractions, contact
information (the bride and groom’s addresses, residence and cell phone numbers
and e-mail addresses), a listing of the wedding party and their relationship to
the bride and groom and several “notes” pages so the guest could have
everything in one place.
Our
friends and family were so appreciative of this book. I loved seeing it all weekend in the purses
and pockets of our guests. It was so fun
to hear that people have taken our suggestions and eaten at our favorite
restaurants and visited many of our favorite places, like Keeneland and Raven
Run Sanctuary.
Once
again, this book set the tone for the wedding and since we were having a
1920’s-inspired wedding, we could include cute clip-art images that spoke to
the spirit of the wedding.
I hope you will make your own “pink book”!
Believe me, your guests will love you for it!
~warmly~
Katherine