Sarahritchie17 I’ve always been a detail-oriented person, and as a bride, it was no different. I obsessed over the small things that would make the guest experience unique and fun. Here are 5 of my favorite wedding projects and how they turned out.
Programs
For the wedding programs, I loved the newspaper trend! I designed our wedding newspaper through Canva and had it printed by The Newspaper Club. You can find templates and get ideas from their blog posts. It was super easy to edit and order, and they turned out beautifully! You can also order samples to get a better idea of what you want. I ended up placing my final order about a week before the wedding and had it shipped directly to New York (they ship from England) and was surprised when they came in just 2 days!
I included our story, the weekend itinerary, the ceremony program, introductions for our wedding party, vendor tags, the menu, and a crossword puzzle with facts about us and our relationship. I got so many compliments from our guests.
Seating Chart
Instead of having table numbers, we named each table after places that were significant to us. I saw this idea on a visit to St. Augustine in 2019 at Café Alcazar; I was having lunch there while they were setting up for a wedding. I loved the idea and remembered it for my own wedding 4 years later.
On each table, we put a description of why that place was special to us.
Menus
Along with our menu cards, we put a thank you note on each place setting. We still haven’t gotten our formal thank you cards in the mail yet, and we wanted to ensure that our guests knew how much we appreciated them coming to celebrate with us. We had guests travel from Germany, Hawaii, Alaska, and all over the contiguous U.S., and it is expensive to be a wedding guest nowadays. We never wanted our friends and family to feel like we took that for granted.
I designed the menus and thank you cards in Canva and matched the fonts with the signage and newspaper.
Guestbook
I loved the idea of having a Polaroid guestbook, but I wanted to make it as simple as possible for guests to ensure people would actually do it. I also wanted to make sure the photos would stay secure and protected for years to come. I started looking for the perfect photo guestbook on Etsy, Amazon, and Zazzle, and I just couldn’t find it.
Then I found this beautiful cover on Etsy where you can personalize it with your venue. I decided to buy it and add photo pockets. I found these adhesive business card pockets on Amazon, and found they also fit the Instax film. We got black pages and had our guests sign in gold sharpie around their photo, and it turned out really classy.
I love how it ended up, but there were a couple downsides to this DIY. 1) Putting in the photo pockets and then the photos added thickness between the pages, so the book doesn’t close flat anymore. It’s fine because we have it displayed upright, and it stands nicely. 2) The venue’s lighting wasn’t working with the Instax camera and the first few photos came out really dark. Luckily my mom had one of the Instax printers that you can bluetooth link and print phone photos. She ended up delegating someone to take photos on her phone and make sure the guestbook ended up as I’d imagined. I felt bad that people had to worry about it, but it’s a keepsake we’ll cherish forever.
Bouquet Toss
A couple weeks before the wedding, I saw a reel on Instagram where a bride faked the bouquet toss and then handed out individual roses to her ‘single ladies.’ I loved this modern trend and immediately took the idea to my florist. She was on board and brought the idea to life. My ladies were so surprised. I also had the DJ play This One’s for the Girls by Martina McBride instead of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies. No shade to Queen B, but most of my ladies were in serious relationships and it just felt more fitting to the moment.
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