Friday, February 6, 2015

Five Friday Fragments-Wedding Post 8

I loved the creativity and personal touches my daughter tucked into her special day. I thought I'd share a few of those here today, along with some bits and pieces that don't fit into their own post, but that I want to remember.

1.  The Welcome Bags. 

These definitely fall under the heading of favorite things. I know a welcome bag is optional, but out-of- town guests are so appreciative of the gesture. And the late night snacks. We provided one bag per couple or, if two singles were sharing a room, one per guest, so about 80 bags total. I gave the hotel a list for the front desk, and they handed out the bags at check in. They did an excellent job managing distribution.  


We purchased brown kraft paper bags in bulk to hold all the goodies. The bride designed a personalized stamp with the words, 'Welcome Y'all' along with their name and wedding date, for the outside of each bag, and it was adorable. A team comprised of the bride, her maid-of- honor sister, and her cousin bridesmaid did the filling. 

2.  What's inside?

We ordered crinkle filler in shades of gold and white to go inside the bag, then added the goodies, which included two personalized water bottles-


The bride's favorite snack (popcorn) and the groom's favorite snack (peanut butter crackers), both with stickers made by the bride, because everything needs a sticker made by the bride-


There were also mints, Advil, and a tri-fold brochure, that was both lovely and helpful and again, custom designed by the bride-


She uploaded her design to Stationery HQ, and they did the printing on shiny card stock. Included in the brochure were the wedding day timeline, a map with directions to the church, hotel, and reception venue-


...the when and where details of our day-after breakfast, their Instagram wedding hashtag, their discount code for anyone using Uber, a list of favorite places to eat in Greenville, and also things to see and do while in town for anyone new to the city.

3.  The guestbook.

Does anyone have just a regular old fashioned guest book anymore? That's what we had at our wedding, because that's what everyone had at their wedding way back when. Ours was packed in a box soon after, and has essentially remained there, in the basement, since 1984.


Nowadays couples are all about finding ways to mark the day as their own, so Daughter1 went with something a little different for their guest book


We purchased a really pretty copy of The Newlywed Cookbook, and they had their guests sign on any recipe they liked. I think it will be so much fun to flip to a page someday in the future and read a message from one of their wedding guests.


It's a book they'll use and hopefully when they do they'll remember all the love that surrounded them on their special day.

4.  The Seating Chart.

Figuring out where everyone will sit at your reception is a bit like working a puzzle.


An extremely complicated puzzle that doesn't necessarily go together on your first try.


I know there are all sorts of of online tools you can use for this task now, but we went old-school and used Post-its. Hubs didn't really understand why we'd opt for Post-its as opposed to modern day technology, but all the girls in my house have a serious love for the post-it note. Daughter2 started talking about this almost as soon as her sister was officially engaged.

My daughter and I are both pretty visual and I needed to see the whole big picture in order to try to please everyone. I think we all know you can't please everyone, but we try and I think for the most part were very successful. We color coded our guests-pink for the bride and groom's friends and their wedding party, blue for the groom's parents family and friends, and yellow for our friends. You could easily move names around and the color coding was really helpful. I give the Post-it system five stars.

5. The Sendoff.

A slightly lame photo, but I don't have any of their actual sendoff.

It was sparkly.

I loved it. We were a little bit worried we wouldn't be able to follow through on our plans for a sparkler send off, because it had been raining off and on all evening. Thankfully there was a break in the weather just as the bride and groom were ready to make their exit.

We ordered the sparklers online (weddingsparklersdirect.com), and if you're thinking of doing the same, know that many venues require you have at least a 24 inch sparkler. Also, we over-ordered because we hadn't factored in those few guests who left prior to the send-off.

Our wedding planner and her assistant were so great in 'herding' the guests outside, lining everyone up along the sidewalk, handing out the sparklers and, most importantly, getting every single one lit, just as the bride and groom walked through on their way to happily ever after.

A magical ending to a fairy tale night.

Linking today with both Five on Friday hosted by The Good Life, and Friday Fragments hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time. Why not hop over and add your own fragments, or list of five, or list of five fragments?  Enjoy your weekend everyone! 

20 comments:

  1. Oh, and once again, this reminds me so much of our daughter's big day. WE did the welcome bags and we too, love, love stickers and had the water bottle stickers and I made candy bar wraps and enjoyed every minute of it. Now, the guest book, that is the best ever. What a neat idea! So enjoy sharing in this special time through your posts. Happy weekend!

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  2. OH MY GOSH - I adore the guest book!!! What a sweet idea.
    Yeah, the old school ones? you never see anymore - a lot of people do photo albums... but I totally love this version!

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  3. Oh my goodness...what PERFECT detail went into all of this! I love a welcome bag and theirs was very cute. But the idea of signing the cookbook for a guest book was brilliant! lol Really love that idea. I wanted to do sparklers SOO badly at my daughters wedding. I love everything about the 4th of July. Tried to talk them into that for the wedding, but it was a no go. lol Our venue didn't allow it as it was outside and surrounded by trees. And California is soo dry. Bet is was a spectacular finish. Soo enjoying hearing about all of this. Enjoy your week-end!

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  4. Thanks Joyce! Love these personal touches... and we plan on doing some of the same thing. We already ordered a guest book from Vistaprint that has various pictures of the couple from places they went while dating - with lots of space around for guests to sign and put little notes. This should be a great keepsake & coffee table book. I plan on ordering sparklers too - so thanks for the website. Living here in SC I can just go buy them at the Fireworks store, but I will check out the online ones. We plan on goodie bags too - so it was interesting to hear what you put into yours. I appreciate your suggestions!!

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  5. OMG Joyce. Love all these ideas! Especially the cookbook/guest book. I have two girls so I love to read wedding posts. Have a great weekend!

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  6. The guest book is such a creative idea and to think they'll see these well wishes when they cook from this book! Love that. We are post-it people too. I think it's a teacher thing. Oh and the Advil--great thinking!

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  7. You guys certainly thought about everything and I'm sure your guests enjoyed their bags. Love the cookbook idea too!

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  8. Oh wow, I have not seen that idea for the guest book! Great idea! Um...have I mentioned that son #1 and GF live so close (well, relatively) to D1... and I'm hoping (and praying and ok, nagging) for an engagement this year some time so... having D1 and her fabulous talents in all things design and printing could come in soo handy. Just sayin'
    Get this: I entered him in that GMA Get Engaged thing they are doing next week... never thinking they would call of course. Well they did! LOL Luckily I had told him what I did and gave him a heads up just in case. A producer called him and told him what he wrote was funny (thank you very much) and wanted him/them to come to NY for next Friday's show to take part in a group (25 couples) engagement. Air fare and hotel included!
    Yeah. He tells me he doesn't want to do it that way! Can you believe that?! He wants to do it when they go to Australia later this year. Psh. I mean, we won't even be on the same side of the world for pete's sake! My head is getting loose from all the shaking this child of mine is making me do. I guess I should be happy that at the very least I do know it's going to happen this year. I guess. Ha.

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  9. You highlighted some of my favorite details from the day. I love how personal our wedding was. Thanks for your help with every little thing and for talking me down from too many DIY projects in the end. :)

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  10. I loved reading all of the little details. Y'all thought of every little detail!

    I'm not familiar with the Newlywed Cookbook, but what a neat idea to use it for the guest book! I especially loved that!

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  11. I would have been trading my peanut butter crackers for more popcorn.
    Congrats on the well planned wedding.

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  12. So many wonderful details to make your guests feel special. I'm taking notes!

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  13. How lovely the wedding will be. My daughter did the seating charts as she knew all the guests much better than I.

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  14. So fun and creative! Loved these ideas...

    Thanks for linking up, Joyce! Have a great weekend!

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  15. The cookbook for the guestbook is a wonderful idea! We have 2 autographed church hymnals that were used for farewell gifts years ago when we moved away from Seattle and Northern Virginia -- same kind of idea. That seating chart -- wow. That IS an intimidating task!

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  16. The idea of the cookbook is CLASSIC!!! I'm amazed at how hard she worked on all of the tiny details.

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  17. I've never heard of welcome bags before, but I think they are a great idea! I scrolled through some of your other posts as well, and it looks like the wedding was beautiful!!! :)

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  18. I love that couples are not using guest books anymore. My two married girls used beautiful photograph books of Charleston. They love that they grew up here and everyone signed on a page that was their favorite thing about Charleston and some signed on pages where they shared memories with the couple. The cookbook is a nice idea too!

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  19. A great way to post about the wedding! Loved it!

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  20. So enjoying every post about this perfect day! Also wanted you to know that I have ordered the cook book for my granddaughter who will be getting married the end of May. I can't wait to see it. Love the idea of using it as a guest book.

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