5 Ways to keep your wedding guests happy

The majority of my clients always state they want guests to feel relaxed and welcome at their wedding. They don’t want it to feel ostentatious or too formal. Therefore as their planner I work on ensuring guests have the best time at my clients wedding. Over the last 13 years I’ve found 3 reasons why guests might grumble about your wedding.

1. Did they have enough to drink?
2. Was the food good?
3. Were they bored?

So my advice is: although you want your wedding to be the best, try to remember what its like being a guest. Put yourself in their mindset, do this and your guests are sure to sing your praises for years to come as the “best hosts ever”.
CR_0186 CR_0465 CR_04851. They have no more wine

This is definitely something you don’t want whispered at your wedding. I’m not saying have a free bar all day and night, but there is a certain expectation of what you as host should provide. And in my opinion this is 3 drinks during the drink reception, table water for the meal, something bubbly for the toast and ½ a bottle of wine with the meal.

For some guidelines on drink quantity if you’re buying go to my guide here 
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2. Not another photo
Even if you want a few photos at the ceremony, don’t force guests to stay and watch. Ask ushers to tell guests they can make their way to the reception where canapés and drink is awaiting them. There is nothing worse than watching line up after lineup of photos, except perhaps having no food, or drink or anything to amuse oneself for 90 minutes during this time.

3. Entertain your guests
I’m sure you have some evening entertainment arranged whether a band or disco, but what about the drink reception? If your budget doesn’t stretch to live entertainment or funfairs, how about a variety of garden games laid on the lawn?

You can create a treasure hunt for adults or children, this could be solving clues or simply following miniature creatures on a trail. Have some sweets in a jar and ask guests to guess how many are there, the winner gets to take them all home. Name the teddy/fairy, best name wins a bottle of champagne. Create a kissing menu, see below, guests will love throwing themselves into the challenge.

KISSING MENU
To request a kiss between the Bride & Groom, you will have to entertain them, feel free to gain confidence through alcohol!
1. The Serenade – Sing a song with “LOVE” in the lyrics.
2. The Brave – Group performance of a song relating to the wedding theme
3. The Romantic – Recite a love poem about the Bride & Groom
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4. Keep Speeches Succinct
I remember in 2007 one best man had too much to drink, thus gained false courage during his speech. He went on so long and wouldn’t stop, that the bride and her friends snuck out the marquee. Thus if the bride was bored what would the guests think?

As a guide for 3 speeches allow 30 minutes, any longer and you’ll lose your audience. And if you want speeches before the meal, make sure guests have had enough canapés during the reception otherwise hunger pains will dull any enthusiasm for speeches.

You can find speech guidelines here  – and one final tip try to avoid speech templates as regular wedding guests will recognise.
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5. Remember your manners
We all know weddings are expensive, and paying for guests to eat and drink and keep them entertainment isn’t cheap. However many of your will have spent considerable amounts as well attending the wedding and buying you a gift. So in short, don’t forget to send the thank you cards!
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Photographers:
Kerry Morgan
Neil Fortescue
Jasmine Jade

Contact me here for your wedding planning needs.

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1 Comment

  1. Matthew on 2nd July 2015 at 10:00 am

    Great article with a great list of ideas. There’s nothing worse at a wedding than bored guests, it really affects the mood of a wedding when the guests just want to go home.

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