Cutting your Guest List
In an earlier post, we outlined some guidelines for developing an initial guest list. In this post, we’d like to look a little more closely at two issues that tend to create problems during wedding guest list creation: bringing a guest and the B-list.
Many assume that for etiquette purposes, you always allow a single person to bring a guest. Thus, the “and guest” on the inner envelope. Not true! Those you must include are the spouses, fiance(e) or live-in partner of each invited guest. There is no requirement for singles to be allowed to bring a date. This is solely at your discretion. Most people tend to add an “and guest” for friends who are in a committed relationship of some duration. Brothers and sisters can be allotted an escort. Wedding party members who are single may want to bring a guest. It’s up to you.
Keep a few things in mind when deciding on who will be given an “and guest”. First, if your friend is in a long-term relationship with someone you absolutely don’t want at your wedding, do not feel committed to allotting your friend a guest. Be prepared to talk about it, but stick to your guns if you feel strongly. Additionally, if you know that giving your sister an “and guest” will stress her out about finding a date, don’t put her under pressure to produce a someone for the wedding. Second, remember that you can always fall back on your rule about not inviting people the bride and/or groom have never met. Third, make sure your additional guests do not expand your total list to an unacceptable number. It is not worth redoing your entire wedding budget if the “and guest” can be cut! Finally, check your list to ensure that the added guests do not skew the overall guest division between the bride, groom, and two sets of parents. Everyone should have an equal number of expected attendees.
Many a magazine has advised creating a “B-list”. In essence, they direct couples to make an A-list of people that must be invited, then create a B-list of people to be invited if guests from the A-list cannot attend. We do not recommend this method. Your “B-list” friends and family could be very hurt by finding out they are on this list, which is easy for them to do if an “A-list” guest speaks to someone or posts on Facebook that they received their invitation and a “B-list” guest doesn’t receive theirs until weeks later. Also, you would need to print response cards with a different response deadline for the “B-list”, making it an additional expense.
If your guest list gets out of control, consider making the following cuts. Anyone who will be more excited about the open bar than the ceremony can be cut. You want people at your wedding who are excited for you and the step you are taking together. Don’t feel shy about cutting people you don’t know, or that you haven’t seen since graduating a decade ago, or that guy in payroll who helped you straighten out your vacation time. Children can be a big factor in guest list cuts as well. Don’t feel obligated to invite children if you do not want them there. If it’s a big problem for your guests, consider providing childcare back at the hotel so that your friends can enjoy the party without worrying about the kids. Unfortunately, some guests try to bully their way on to your guest list, or try to bully you into allowing them to bring someone not invited. Stand your ground! They are the rude one, not you, so if they threaten to not come, just let them. It’s their issue, not yours. Above all, make sure that your guest list reflects the community you want to support you on your wedding day.
Photo by Celina Gomez Photography
Frisco Heritage Center Bridal Show
The Frisco Heritage Museum is hosting it’s second annual bridal open house on Sunday, March 25th. This free show allows you to tour all of the venues they have available at the venue, as well as mix and mingle with their favorite wedding vendors. We’ve been included in this list and are honored to take part in their open house.
The Frisco Heritage Museum is truly unique, including a prairie-style farmhouse and a one-room schoolhouse, that each recreates a piece of Texas history. The centerpiece of the museum’s living village is the Frisco Lebanon Baptist Church, which is over 100 years old! It was literally rolled across town and set down in its new home after the congregation outgrew its original building. The original pews are still in place, as is the tin ceiling and wooden floors. Chandeliers and sconce lighting add to the venue’s charm, and the original bell tower can still ring out at the end of your ceremony.
For more information, visit www.friscovenues.com, or click here to register. We hope to see you there!
photo by Frisco Heritage Center
Where to Start on your Guest List
One of the biggest hurdles in planning a wedding is deciding who goes on the guest list and how many guests to invite. Creating a guest list, whether you’re thinking of inviting 5 or 500, can be a process fraught with family negotiations. Plus, the number of people you invite has a huge impact on your wedding budget and your choice of wedding ceremony and reception venues. We suggest starting off with a “draft list”. This is the first list you make, which allows you to start visualizing who you want to invite.
It can be difficult to figure out where to start when listing potential invitees. The best way to start is to first pick a total number of guests that you want to attend. Yes, we said attend, not invite. (We’ll talk more about this later.) Make it a logical number – if you know the groom has more than 30 close family members, a total guest count of 75 probably isn’t going to be realistic. Think about the style and feel of your wedding as well. If you know you want a small, intimate ceremony in the tiny chapel you grew up attending, then starting off with a guest list of 300 is going to lead to a lot of heartache later. When deciding on this number, also keep in mind your overall budget. Here are some useful statistics:
- The average spent per wedding in the U.S. in 2011 was $25,000.
- The average number of guests was 150.
- That means the average amount spent per guest was $166.67.
So, if you have budget of $25,000, you can easily see that you may not be able to afford to invite 250 – 300 guests. Once you’ve got a nice round number in mind, divide the list into four pieces: a quarter of the list to the bride, a quarter to the groom, a quarter for the bride’s parents, and a quarter for the groom’s parents. If either set of parents is divorced, split their allotment evenly between the father and mother. Make sure the bride works with her parents and the groom with his to ensure all family members make it onto the list.
After everyone has a list of names, ask each person to go through and make a realistic projection of whether or not each guest will attend. This doesn’t mean you need to start emailing or calling people – in all likelihood, you don’t have a date yet! But most people know, for example, that the groom’s Uncle George never comes to family events, or that the bride’s college roommate is deployed overseas and just can’t get that kind of leave. Take a look at the lists and make sure that no one’s portion has been decimated by the probably-won’t-come estimates. Adjust accordingly. And voila! You have your draft guest list for wedding invitations.
Of course, it’s not all about numbers. You – the bride and groom – should have the ultimate decision-making power when it comes to guests. If you don’t want someone at your wedding, do not feel obligated to invite him or her. If you attended someone else’s wedding, you aren’t required to invite them to yours. Close personal friends or your boss from work are fine, but don’t ask the entire office if you would rather they not share in your special day or you are restricted on head count due to venue or budget. Set some ground rules with your parents about who they can include on the list. A good rule of thumb is that either the bride or the groom should have met every person that will be invited. Whatever rules you decide to follow, once they have been established, stand firm! Don’t let yourself be bullied into adding extra guests or people you’ve never heard of once you and your parents have agreed on the boundaries.
We’ll be talking more about this and other great ways to get started on your wedding planning at our free info sessions next weekend. For more information or to register to attend, click here.
photo by Katie Cassidy Photography
Create Your Own Bridal Bouquet
One of our friends, Janice Hopkins with Artisan Florals, recently partnered with Michael’s in McKinney to start offering fresh and silk floral design. One of her first classes will be a “DIY Bridal Bouquet” class, where Janice will show you how to create the bouquet you envision using fresh floral. The class will be held on February 11th from 10am to 1pm. The fee for the class is $125 per person, and it includes all the supplies for the class. If you bring a friend, you can get $25 off when you register.
Seeing how a bouquet is made and the effort that goes into it is a great look “behind the scenes” of what a florist does for you. So while we don’t normally encourage you to try and make your own bouquet on your wedding day, we know you’ll learn a lot and have fun doing it! Thanks to Janice for letting us know about her classes! To register, call Janice at 469-443-2279 or email her at freshfromheaven333@hotmail.com.
photo by Sherry Peters Photography
McKinney Bridal Show
It’s that time again! Come visit us at the McKinney Bridal Show this Saturday, January 21st, from 10am-3pm. This is a great opportunity to get to know McKinney vendors, and of course spend some time on the fabulous square!
Getting Started Planning Your Wedding
So you just got engaged and now it’s time start planning your wedding. We bet you have questions!
Who do we call first?
What does a wedding cost?
When do we start?
Where do we begin?
How do we get started planning our wedding?
These are a lot of the questions we hear from engaged couples, whether they are calling us, sending us messages on Facebook or they see us at a wedding show. Planning a wedding can be completely overwhelming and it’s hard to even know where to begin! While we would love for each one of these couples to work with us as our clients, we know that some will never hire a planner and some will choose a date we are booked for. So, we’ve added a new info session topic to our line up:
The Keys of Wedding Planning
Like all our other sessions, this one will be free. This two hour info session will provide you all the information you need to get started, from how to create a budget, what to look for in a wedding venue to how to find the right vendors for your wedding. We’ll also cover some basics on how to navigate the guest list, mistakes commonly made by engaged couples and much more! Followed by a half hour q&a session with our certified planners, you will leave with all your questions answered!
For 2012, we’ve decided to offer our info sessions in Dallas and McKinney! Bonus! Choose the location best for you and reserve your seat today. With all the newly engaged couples from the holidays, we expect these to book up fast.
McKinney: Sponsored by the Grand Hotel, this session is on Saturday, February 18th, from 2 to 4:30pm. Visit wedplankeysmckinney.eventbrite.com to register. – This session has been CANCELLED.
Dallas: Sponsored by Edison’s, this session is on Sunday, February 19th, 2 to 4:30pm. Visit wedplankeysdallas.eventbrite.com to register.
We hope to see you there!
image by F8 Studio's Carter Rose
The Original Runner Company Sale!
The Original Runner Company, used by many from average budget to celebrities, is running a sale for up to 25% off! We thought we’d post this so you can take advantage. Hurry! It’s only good until December 15th.
Randy to the Rescue!
TLC is kicking off filming of a new tv series called “Randy to the Rescue”, featuring Randy Fenoli from the already popular TV Series “Say Yes! to the Dress”. I can only imagine how popular this new show will be considering Randy’s personality and character. I just love watching him, don’t you? Would you like to get to meet him? Well, here’s your chance! The new show will be filming in Dallas and they are already selling tickets! Randy will be at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on December 11th from 11am – 7pm. He’ll be meeting with brides to help them find the perfect dress from a selection of dresses he’s bringing to town that are sure to be the dresses of dreams for many girls out there.
For more information on attending the event, what to expect and how to possibly meet with Randy yourself (and be on the airwaves of course), click here! For $5 off your ticket price, use the promo code WeddingWire. Good luck and tell Randy we said hi!
Common Practices: Engagement Session Images
We recently sat down with Cindy from Cindy & Saylor Photography and were chit-chatting about the things vendors discuss when we asked Cindy something we get asked quite frequently. We loved her answer as it really explains the photographers decision, so we wanted to share it with you. More and more, we are seeing photographer’s turn over the digital files of engagement sessions to couples after their wedding day, asking couples to order all prints to be displayed at the wedding through the photographer only. Our couples ask us why this is, as they would like to get the files early and have prints made at less expensive labs, such as Wal-Mart and CVS. Here’s what Cindy told us:
1.We want you to look your best–Generally speaking, the images provided on a CD are a proof. This means they have received some basic edits such as color correction, cropping, and a bit of a boost in brightness and contrast. It is still a great image and perfectly suitable to make a print to send to Grandma, but the image hasn’t yet reached the final vision that the photographer had in mind. Any print ordered through our studio undergoes what we call a ‘fine art edit’. Some steps included in a fine art edit are retouching, blemish removal, color and contrast boost, dodging and burning, removal of distracting elements, selective tonal color adjustments and other artistic touches. In short, every measure available to make you look your absolute best will be taken. (See her samples below)
2. We want to look our best too–Think back over all the planning and detail that went into your engagement session. You discussed with your photographer locations, wardrobe and maybe even had your makeup professionally done. All that attention to detail resulted in the perfect image to display at your wedding. You and your photographer shared a vision for how the image would turn out and together you NAILED it! Now, you take this fabulous, practically perfect in every way, image to Walgreens, CVS or (shudder) Wal-Mart to be printed. Really? Do you have the confidence that the pimply-faced high school student behind the counter is going to print your perfect image in the manner that is deserves to be printed? Not sure? We aren’t either. Photographers want you to look your best and WE want to look our best too. A photographer doesn’t want to show up at the reception and see the image we worked so hard with our client to create displayed at less than it’s best. We include a print credit in all of our packages for just for this reason. Let us do the printing, one less thing to add to your to-do list.
3. Quality, Quality, Quality–What it comes down to is quality. We, as professional photographers, use professional equipment to capture your photo, we have professional software to develop and edit the image and our computers are calibrated with our professional photo printing labs. All of this to ensure that your image will be of the highest quality available. The paper and inks used by our professional lab are archival and designed to last for decades. Higher quality ink plus higher quality photo paper equals a higher quality image every single time. After everything is said and done this image is not just to display at your wedding reception, it will become decor in your new home. A lasting visual memory of the two of you as a couple at the time of your marriage. Don’t you want an enduring piece of art that will last a lifetime? We thought so. 
Venue Love: The Grand Hotel
It’s time for another favorite venue! Located only a block away from our office, the Grand Hotel Ballroom is an elegant space that we absolutely adore. This ballroom was actually the original Opera House of McKinney from 1885 until 1923, when it was shuttered and closed off until the Well’s Hospitality group took over. They’ve restored it to it’s 19th-century charm, including pressed tin ceilings, crystal chandeliers and an entrance through French doors. With space for approximately 150 guests (including a dance floor), it’s the perfect space for a charming and intimate ceremony and reception.
photo by Peyronet Photography
The Grand Hotel is part of the same building as Rick’s Chophouse, connected through the fabulous lounge in the back of Rick’s. This allows you access to Rick’s 110, another fab event space, as well as the semi-private rooms in the restaurant proper, the Library and Wine Room. Many couples use Rick’s 110 as a cocktail space if they choose to have their ceremony at Rick’s, so the ballroom may be reset while their guests enjoy drinks and hors d’ oeuvres. Some use Rick’s 110 for their rehearsal dinner, or the smaller rooms, depending on guest count. If you’ve ever eaten at Rick’s, you know the food is scrumptious, so you will never be disappointed with your menu selections!
Rick’s 110, photo by Mary Phillips Photography
Of course, when you talk about the Grand Hotel and Rick’s Chophouse, you also have to talk about Sauce on the Square and Grotto Live as all of these fab venues falls under the Rick Well’s Hospitality umbrella. Sauce on the Square caters to the family style dinner, with pasta and wood-fired pizzas to die for! They do not have a separate space here for events, but you can certainly reserve a few tables for any celebration. Grotto Live shares it’s kitchen with Sauce, but it’s an entirely different vibe. This rock and roll bar is the perfect place to relax with friends and grab a drink. Whether in their intimate dining space or the super-cool Mezz level, you’ll love it here.
Grotto Mezz, photo by Mary Phillips Photography
Grotto Dining, photo by Mary Phillips Photography
So who do you call to find out more details about these unique spaces? Why, Rick’s Angel’s of course! Debi Morelli-Matzke and Melanie Kosarek are the two sales managers for all of these spaces, and they can give you all the scoop. With Melanie’s degree in Hospitality Management, she knows exactly how to make your guests feel special and make sure your event goes off without a hitch. Debi has been with Rick’s since 2007 and knows all the ins and outs, so she’s got it all completely covered. Shawna Darden is the Special Events and Catering Manager who will be with you from the moment your guests arrive to the end of the event, making sure you and your guests experience the genuine hospitality of the entire staff. She’s the firecracker who executes all the plans, down to the last detail!
We love working with Rick’s Angels and hope you’ll give them a call to consider one of their spaces for your wedding plans!