Wedding Day First Impressions

Your guests’ first interactions with your plans on your wedding day will likely will be to either take your shuttle bus, arrive at your valet station, or self-park their car in the designated area. You can easily take a little extra effort to make these experiences pleasant for your guests.

If your guests will be taking shuttle buses, please ask your transportation company to mark all buses clearly so that guests can easily find them. If the ride is particularly long, you might consider playing a slideshow or video, or providing a customized trivia game or crossword to occupy the guests. A small bottle of water and a thoughtful small snack like a locally made trail mix will be appreciated. If you can, personalize the water bottle label and the snack bag.

A reputable valet company will have its staffers wear a uniform and provide professional, clear signage to give your guests direction to the valet station. You can spruce up their signs with balloons, flags or streamers. If you want to distribute items like fans or parasols to your arriving guests, it makes sense to set those up at the valet station.

If you are going with a self-park option, make sure that the way to the lot and the footpath to residence is clearly marked with festive signs that will hold up in wind or rain. Also remember to assign someone to take these signs down the next day if they are not on your property.

Once guests get out of their cars or off the bus, you will want to make sure they are properly greeted and welcomed. If the weather is poor, you might consider professional greeters or doormen with umbrellas. Regardless of the weather, immediately upon arrival there should be a spot to drop off gifts, and possibly, to check coats. If you are having a simple, traditional guestbook, this can be set up at the arrival point. If you are having a more specialized or involved guest book, reserve access to it until later in the evening in order to avoid a bottleneck at the entrance of your event.

Photo made by Katie Stoops Photography.