Important Things to Look for When It Comes to Accommodating Wedding Guests

Wedding planning is a complicated process. It doesn’t matter if you’ve hired a highly rated wedding planner to help run your day, and the days leading up to it. But the planning can present a rewarding experience since you can personalize your ceremony and make it your own. Celebrate this new season of life, but know it’s bound to come with a few holdups along the way. In the process of choosing which silverware you will use and picking out a cake topper, you’ll have to think about your guests. There are a lot more details to consider for your guests beyond who goes on the guest list and where they’ll sit for the ceremony. Forgetting a detail could cause some wedding day problems, so you’ll want to plan ahead to help your big day run smoothly. Questioning whether or not you’ve properly prepared accommodations for your wedding guests? Check out the following six recommendations for accommodating your wedding guests.

How They’ll Get There

Unless you’re planning an intimate ceremony in your hometown with close family and friends, it’s likely your guests will travel from all over to attend your wedding. You have to take into consideration how they’ll get to your ceremony. Some might have the option of driving, while others will have to fly. You will want to provide directions for out-of-towners to easily find your ceremony’s location. You don’t want them showing up late because they couldn’t find the venue! You don’t have to worry about paying for their airfare, but you should make travel information more than easy for them to access. If you have a wedding website, post map links as well as written information about how they can find their lodging and the ceremony from the airport. You can also list taxi or bus information so they know which companies they can trust with their transportation.

Where They’ll Stay

You might have heard about blocking hotel rooms for your guests, which can send brides into a panic. First of all, don’t panic! You don’t have to pay for the rooms of all your guests. Making room blocks simply helps them out, and the hotel too. Contacting hotels about blocking rooms lets them know they can expect a large party. They’ll negotiate room prices with you so you can get the best deal possible for your guests. After that, you let your guests know the rate and the hotel you’ve picked and they can go from there. It’s important to note that not every guest you invite will say yes, so don’t book exactly the amount of rooms you’ll need for your guest list. It’s easier for hotels to add on rooms later than keep potentially profitable rooms empty.

What They’ll Eat

It’s easier said than done to imagine your guests finding great places to eat outside your reception. If they’re from out of town, they won’t know where to go. Instead of letting them rely on internet reviews, you can suggest places to eat on your wedding website or cards you send out closer to your wedding date once people have RSVP’d. This will be a great help to guests with food allergies or other needs.

Where They Can Have Fun

For your guests arriving from out of town, and even for nearby families who might host guests, you’ll want to provide them with some recommended options for things to do! If arriving early, or staying an extra day, you’ll want to keep them entertained — but you’ll be far too busy to do this yourself! Think of a few different options for small or larger parties, depending if your extended family and friends want to do something together. You can take the extra step for them by looking at events that will take place around the time of your ceremony. Let them get a taste of the area by finding local festivals, farmers markets or concerts. But include staple activities such as bowling and movie theaters too.

What Amenities They’ll Need

Even if you’ve offered them a great discount on a place to stay, your guests will still need certain amenities you should think about. Free Wi-Fi and breakfast might seem like they’re offered at any hotel, but that’s not always true. A hotel might offer free transportation to your wedding venue if it’s a popular wedding spot, so look into that too. It could change where you book your guests’ suites. A pool is also a nice touch, especially if it comes with a hot tub. Guests will have a good place to relax after a long day of celebrating.

Where Everything Is Located

It cannot be stressed enough that you don’t want your friends and family from out of town to feel lost once they arrive for your wedding. Provide as many details on locations as possible so they can plan ahead. They’ll need to know if they can walk or if they should book a rental car. Do they need to stay in a condo with a kitchen or budget to eat out? These things will matter to your guests and help them have a more pleasant experience at your wedding. When it comes to your wedding, you have a lot to think about, and even that is an understatement. It’s overwhelming to plan everything out, but there are certain things you need to devote your attention to even if you feel completely drained. Making your guests comfortable should be at the top of your list of priorities. They’ll need a good place to stay that offers them the best amenities like free breakfast and even free transportation. You’ll want to block off hotel rooms to get them the best deals and make sure everyone knows where to go for your ceremony. Thinking ahead will save you on time and wedding day worries. No one will call for advice or ask directions, and everyone will arrive in the happiest of moods. Once you know your guests are taken care of, you’re one step closer to celebrating with ease on your best day ever.   Article submitted by Kacey Bradley

Every bride dreams of having the perfect hair for their wedding. But what about having perfect hair for your honeymoon? If you're heading somewhere warm for your honeymoon, you might be looking for a way to have gorgeous hair without all the work that goes into it. There's no need to worry about protecting your hair from the sun and sea on your destination honeymoon with these new products from Alterna Haircare!

Resort- Ready Hair Care for Your Destination Honeymoon

SUN Reflection Shine Spray

Are you looking to protect your hair from the damaging effects of the sun, the pool, and the ocean? This spray is for you! The SUN Reflection Shine Spray is a lightweight mist that adds shine while providing protection. It also adds vibrancy to your hair while taming frizz and fly-aways. The SUN Reflection Shine Spray contains two key ingredients to create the perfect hair protector. Sunflower seed oil provides your hair with natural antioxidant and UV protection. It also nourishes your hair with high levels of Vitamins A, C, & E. Omega-3 fatty acids help to keep your hair colour from fading. This spray is free of any parabens, sulfates, and phthalates, ensuring that your hair will maintain it's healthy glow! How to Use: Spray evenly over dry hair after styling.

SEA Tousled Texture Spray

If you're looking to create the perfect "just-back-from-the-beach" look, the SEA Tousled Texture Spray can help! This spray will add a wavy texture, volume, and weightless moisture to your hair while protecting it from damages caused by the sun, the pool, and the ocean. Key ingredients in the SEA Tousled Texture Spray include caviar extract and Vitamin B5. The caviar extract contains amino acids and Omega-3 fatty acids that will help keep your hair smooth and shiny. Improve the elasticity, flexibility, and moisture retention with Vitamin B5. Free of parabens, sulfates, and phthalates, the SEA Tousled Texture Spray provides a great beach-side look while protecting and nourishing your hair! How to Use: Spray evenly over damp or dry hair after styling.

BREEZE Air-Dry Styling Balm

When it comes to having manageable, soft hair, look no further than the BREEZE Air-Dry Styling Balm! This no-heat styling aide can help you define and control frizz and add shine while protecting your hair from the effects of sun, chlorine, and seawater. The BREEZE Air-Dry Styling Balm has three key ingredients to keep your hair looking healthy. Tiare flowers contain antioxidants that leave hair conditioned and strong. Coconut oil contains natural vitamins and essential fatty acids to nourish the scalp. Caviar extract contains amino acids and Omega-3 fatty acids that help smooth the hair shaft and increase shine. Tame frizz and add shine with this spray that is free of parabens, sulfates, and phthalates! How to Use: Work a generous amount throughout towel-dried hair and allow to air dry. Scrunch throughout hair or wrap curls around your fingers for frizz-free definition.

Thank you to Jacqueline Vazquez from Lifetime Events by Jacqueline for allowing us to share this wonderful wedding! Courtney and Adam were married at the Church of the Incarnation in New York City, and their following reception was held at Little Beet Table. Bobbi Photography was on hand to capture these nuptials in NYC.

Courtney and Adam: Nuptials in NYC

Tell us about the moment of the photo:

Jacqueline Vazquez: If possible this photo is mostly a credit for the photographer. Here is her comment on it. Bobbi Photo Comment:   I LOOOOVE THIS PHOTOOOOO!!!!! One of my favourites from 2017! Though full disclosure, I made them walk back and forth like 3 times to get it just right! So, what made the final one good enough to not ask them to do it again? The NYC taxi cab.

Is there something special about this wedding that should be mentioned (the concept, something unusual, any challenges, etc)?   

JV: The Wedding was intimate and special to the couple starting with the ceremony taking place at an NYC Historic Church (Church of the Incarnation), and the bouquet was exactly what the bride envisioned thanks to Jay and Al from Fleurs du Mois. The venue was not the usual ballroom or banquet style, they selected a favourite NYC spot, Little Beet Table a restaurant in Park Avenue. Being in NYC, after the ceremony guests either walked to the reception venue or caught a cab. The couple's wedding style was simplistic and classy. The only challenge was knowing that the bride’s mom was a Wedding Planner herself from Indiana. I wanted to make sure that what was envisioned for the wedding was carried out smoothly and beautifully.  I love challenges and this one was a true honour for me to work with her in the details of her daughters' wedding.  What she wanted most was to be able to enjoy the wedding by being a part of it versus working it on the day of.  The mother was pleased with our services.

How did the bride and groom meet?

JV: Courtney and Adam met as neighbours.  Courtney had a crush on Adam, so looking for a way to speak with him she knocked on his door and asked for a bowl of sugar.  The sparks took off from there.  The photographer intentionally took a photo of the wedding rings in a bowl of sugar to capture "how they met"! [gallery link="file" size="medium" ids="71189,71190,71191,71193,71194,71195,71196,71197,71198,71199,71200,71201,71202,71203,71204,71205,71206,71207,71208,71209,71210,71211,71212,71214,71215,71216,71217,71218,71219,71220,71221,71222,71223,71224,71225,71226,71227,71228,71229,71230"]

If you’re in the midst of wedding planning, you might also be in the midst of a full-blown panic. Picking the photographer, securing a DJ, figuring out the timeline of the day — the details add up and become totally overwhelming to keep track of. But there is an alternative. If you hire a wedding planner, you can quickly hand off the majority of the planning duties. You’ve probably heard of wedding planners, and maybe you’ve even considered one. But do you know all the ways they could potentially help you to pull off your dream day? Here are eight things you probably never knew wedding planners include in their regular duties.

1. Help Budget

One factor that deters some couples from hiring a wedding planner is the cost. Wedding planners, of course, charge a fee. However, they balance things out by helping you create a budget for your wedding. If you’re not sure what’s appropriate or realistic to spend on your big day, your wedding planner can offer some insight. And once the budget is set, they’ll make sure you stick to it.

2. Hook You Up

Since wedding planners work in the nuptials business full-time, they’ve already forged relationships with lots of essential wedding vendors like DJs, florists and photographers, to name just a few. So not only can they make informed recommendations, but they can also probably score you some discounts along the way.

3. Take Care of the Menu

For some couples, picking the wedding-day menu is part of the fun. For others, it’s an added stress that results in bickering. Regardless of which category you fall into, you’ll be happy to have the help of a wedding planner. They can offer as few or as many suggestions as you like and even take over the menu planning altogether. Even if you know what you like, your wedding planner might have some pro tips that never crossed your mind about choosing the menu.

4. Know the Laws of Marriage

From the basics, like how to obtain the marriage certificate, to the legal implications of getting married on a municipal beach, a wedding planner is well-versed in marriage-related laws. Your planner can help you fill out all the paperwork perfectly on the first try and tackle anything you might not have thought about, like obtaining a permit to get married in a public green space, if necessary.

5. Handle Stress

If the image in your head of a wedding planner is a stressed-out person running around frantically behind the scenes, you’ve been misled. These experts are in the business of absorbing stress while remaining professional. So even if you feel totally overwhelmed on your wedding day, your wedding planner won’t — they know how to smooth over small issues and keep both brides and grooms calm.

6. Make a Master Plan

Are you worried about how you’re going to get from the ceremony space to the reception venue? Can’t figure out the right timing for photo-taking? Leave things like these in the hands of your wedding planner. They can create a thorough itinerary that leaves exactly enough time for everything, right down to the smallest detail.

7. Mail out the Invites

If you’ve been dreading the project of addressing, stamping and mailing out your invitations, you can stop sweating. A wedding planner will help you design the invitations and even address and mail them out. Then, once the RSVPs start rolling in, they’ll take care of tallying up your guests and even creating the seating chart (with some insider guidance from you). From start to finish, let your wedding planner take over the huge task involved with invitations while you relax before the big day.

8. Step in When the Going Gets Tough

One of the most challenging aspects of wedding planning isn’t hammering out the details but getting everyone on board with them. From pushy parents and grandparents to venue coordinators who can’t seem to understand your vision, everyone has an opinion. Your wedding planner, however, knows that the only opinions that matter are those of you and your fiancé. Let them take the reins when you’re having trouble with an overbearing family member or vendor. Now that you have a better understanding of the many hats worn by a wedding planner, it’s probably hard to come up with a reason not to hire one. When you include a wedding planner on your big day, you can actually enjoy the wedding-planning process. And if anything goes wrong the day of, they’ll be on hand to put out fires so that you can just focus on relaxing and making memories with friends, family members and, of course, your new spouse.   Article submitted by Kacey Bradley