What Weddings Guests Do NOT Care About
You’ve heard it said that your wedding day is all about YOU! It’s a day to reflect you as two unique people coming together as one unique couple. That’s true! Your wedding day is certainly a reflection of you, but most couples also want to ensure that their wedding guests enjoy themselves. Basically, you want your guests to walk away from your wedding and reminisce about how completely awesome it was for years to come, right?!
Now time for a quick disclaimer: just because your wedding guests do not care about an element of your wedding, doesn’t mean that YOU, or your photographer, or your mother doesn’t care about it. Each couple will always have some personal and unique touches that they want to focus on for their big day. Our past brides touch on what made their guests’ experiences so special in these kind words from our brides. Let’s dig in to find out what your wedding guests don’t really care about!
Here are 6 things your wedding guests do NOT care about:
Wedding Invitations
Before you go and trash all your beautiful, hand-crafted paper invites, hear us out. It is **absolutely important** to invite people to your wedding, but at the end of the day your wedding guests will likely throw away their invitation unless it’s a bespoke, quality paper suite. The majority of your guests will not hold on to that invitation once it leaves the front of their refrigerator. BUT, you might want to keep a copy of the invitation for a keepsake, to frame, or simply as a reminder of your big day. If you’re thinking, “HOLD THE PHONE!” because quality paper invitations with custom wax seals are your jam (okay, we love them too), then by all means, splurge on them! It’s your day and if this element truly reflects you, shoot for the moon. Your guests, however, will not decide if they want to attend based off of your invitation and they typically won’t keep those past your wedding date.
2. Professional Wedding Website
We are in favor of keeping it classy and professional, but when it comes to your wedding website, your guests aren’t necessarily looking for something fancy. They want to know how to RSVP, where you’re registered, where and when to be there, and what to wear. They might peruse some of your photos, but they’re just checking in for the basics and not spending hours on your site. Find a free wedding website and add your most important info, but don’t spend all your precious planning time on it. Things you’ll definitely want on your website, but often get forgotten include: directions to your venue, lodging options, and if the ceremony is being held outdoors.
3. Bouquet Toss or Garter Toss
Don’t throw us any shade for this one! We have noticed that less and less couples decide to do these traditional elements at their wedding reception. These events take time away from socializing, can interrupt the flow of a fun dance party, and ultimately aren’t very important to your guests. Your guests are there to celebrate you getting married. They would value a quick conversation with you over seeing “all the single ladies” dive for a bouquet on the dance floor. If you need to cut something out of your wedding reception timeline, this is it! Your guests will not care and many won’t even notice.
4. The Guest Book
While it’s nice to see the signatures of those who attended the wedding, it probably will only get looked at again on very rare occasions. Plus, if it is something large, you are committing to keeping that giant wood slab/photo frame/easel for the rest of your life. Our vote? Get a nice quality book of your professional engagement photos with some blank pages for guests to sign or leave their well-wishes. (Have someone man the table so no children or quirky uncles draw on unwanted mustaches.) That way you have a physical copy of your photos and a small way to remember who was at your wedding! Otherwise, ditch it and don’t look back! Your guests will not care about the guest book at the end of the day.
5. Wedding Favors
We all love a little swag bag at the end of an event. Your guests may LIKE what you have selected for a wedding favor, but that doesn’t mean they need it, or even really want it. If you want a simple way to trim the budget, or another way to ease your planning, cut out wedding favors. Your wedding guests really don’t care if they get to take something home with them. Plus, you will likely end up dealing with all of the leftover or unwanted favors after the reception ends. That could be 100 monogrammed plastic cups that are now yours instead of theirs. Yikes! You’ve treated your guests to a delicious meal, an evening of dancing or entertainment and some cocktails. They will likely cherish a few stolen moments to reminisce with you or your comical grand entrance to the reception over another koozie in their cabinet.
6. Long Reception
This one is important!
Let’s say your guests arrive at 4:00 PM, watch your lovely ceremony, enjoy social hour and drinks, then have a delicious dinner. The celebration really begins when the dance floor opens around 7:30 PM and by 9:00 PM they’re likely ready to head home because they’ve already spent five hours, or more, at your wedding… but your reception is supposed to last until 11:00 PM!
We can promise you that we’ve never seen a 2:00/3:00/4:00 PM wedding where there were more than a handful of people still at the reception at 11:00 PM!
Starting your ceremony too early and ending the reception too late means that you’re expecting your guests to be at your wedding for 7-8 hours. That’s too long! You want your guests to leave on a high note, thinking “Wow, that was so fun! I wish we could’ve stayed longer.” Rather than, “Ugh, that reception lasted forever! I wish we could’ve snuck out two hours ago!” Your guests do not care about a long, late reception. Rather, they want to enjoy the time they do have celebrating you. A 4-5 hour ceremony and reception is PLENTY of time to eat, celebrate and dance your way into a blissful marriage and have tons of rave reviews from your guests about your amazing wedding day.
If you read this blog and hit the panic button, then you have read us wrong. We simply want to give a few tips about what you can potentially put less weight (or budget) on as you plan your wedding. We all need one less thing to worry about, right?
“Emerson Fields is everything we could have ever imagined and so much more! The venue is absolutely stunning; our guests could not stop ranting about the beautiful simplicity of the space and the service of the staff. If we could do it all over again, we wouldn’t change a single thing. You’re missing out if you don’t choose Emerson Fields for your big day!
”
At the end of the day, you will be married. Do what is most important to you and think about how it will impact the people attending the biggest celebration in your life. You’ve invited guests to your wedding who care about you deeply! What are you going to focus on for your big day, and what are you going to nix? It’s truly up to you and there are no wrong answers!
Thanks to these amazing photographers!
Toni Wieberg Photography
Kelsi Kliethermes Photography
Emily Broadbent Photography
Bailey Pianalto Photography
06/16/2021 - Gabrielle Isom
