The popularity of small and intimate weddings has become much more common during the last year. However, to some couples, cutting down the guest list is next to impossible. This doesn’t mean you have to forgo a personalized and unique experience.
Despite the logistics of a large wedding being a little intimidating, the payoff is often huge. If you or your partner come from huge families or have tons of friends you feel cannot miss your big day, you’re likely to be working on a long guest list.
There are common elements that come through your mind when it comes to wedding planning. Trying on wedding dresses, finding the perfect venue for the ceremony, food plans, the cake, honeymoon destination just to mention a few. This, however, does not mean that other factors need to be overlooked. For you to achieve your ultimate desire to make your 300+ special guests feel warm and intimate, there are tips to consider:
Have a Small Rehearsal Dinner
Rehearsal dinner can come in the form of a small celebratory bash on the eve of your big day. It is your best chance to interact with friends and family on a personal level and lessens the pressure of introductions on your big day. For you to have a successful rehearsal dinner, create a guest list, decide who is going to host the event, think of the menu, and plan for speeches and toasts. To make it more colorful, choose a fun theme and pick a perfect venue.
Create Areas to Connect
A wedding can turn out superficial if meaningful connections are not made. Pick on a venue that has several small areas as opposed to one large room. Give your guests an opportunity to explore the venue by hosting the main event in a different area from cocktail, dances, and dinner.
You can also opt to connect your guests digitally. Come up with a special hashtag for social media posts and photos of your wedding, create a photo slideshow to run all day long, and offer a chance for guests to submit their favorite songs for the playlist.
Limit tables to accommodate 8–10 guests to encourage conversation. You can choose to mix both small and larger tables as dinner is a perfect time for people to know each other and enjoy. Cozy corners for relaxing can be a good add-on.
Use Lighting to Your Advantage
Lighting can make a giant space look more welcoming. Lighting can transform an ordinary venue into a spectacular and beautiful space to behold; choosing on soft lighting will help you set the romantic mood for your big day.Use candles to create a glow and skip fluorescent lighting and mirrors, which otherwise make the space look bigger.
Proper lighting will shift the focus to what’s important at every stage of the ceremony. During the reception or when exchanging vows, too much lighting on the rest of the room could distract guests and for you to keep their eyes glued on you, light up the altar and the aisle, while the rest of the space can remain dimmer.
Add Personal Elements
Nothing is worse than feeling like just another face in the crowd at a large wedding. Your guests should feel welcome from the moment they arrive to the end of the event. Adding personalized table assignments will make things interesting for your guests and keep the conversation going.
With all RSVPs in place, you can create table seating cards with a picture reflecting the memories you share with the guests. You can also make cards that show the kind of relationship the guest has with you as a couple. Couple trivia can also be the perfect conversation starter as it helps give guests an insight into your relationship. Print questions about you and your spouse to be on the table cards to be placed at the center of the table to spark debate among guests.
Make your guests feel special even without you saying a word by grouping them depending on what they share in common. It could be common birthplaces, colleges or professions. This can be included in the guest escort card, where you’ll write something a guest shares with someone else at the table, and it’s up to them to figure out who the person is.
Make Your Big Day Special
Big weddings are fun and a great opportunity to gather people you love in one place. Do not allow them to suffer from a lack of intimacy. A large wedding doesn’t necessarily have to take place in a giant and sterile venue. If your venue pick is one huge room, you can get creative on ways to make it feel more intimate.
