The Friday Edit

1. Audio Guest Book
   Guest Books are a staple at most, if not all, weddings. There’s a million options you can find online, but I wanted to do something a bit more unique. A friend of mine had an audio guest book at her wedding last year, and I absolutely loved the idea. Guests record audio messages through a rotary-style phone that records and saves audio each time someone picks up the phone to leave a message from the Newlyweds. Trust me, these are extra fun when you have an open bar. 

2. Disposable Cameras at Every Table

While we did have a photographer and videographer, I wanted to capture the rawness and realness of our wedding while also engaging our friends and family in a fun little activity. If you’re looking for a fun little activity for your guests and to see your wedding through their eyes, this is a really cost effective and fun idea to incorporate into your wedding!

3. Table Names instead of Numbers

I wanted the guests at our wedding to look around and think “Wow, this is SO Caitlyn and Austin.” Because my husband(!) and I love to travel, we decided to name each table after a place we have traveled or towns that have special meaning to us. We took a little extra time to place certain people at certain table names if they had visited with us or shared a special memory with us of that place.

4. Photobooth

I’m all for making weddings enjoyable for everyone in attendance, and bringing in a photobooth was such a fun activity for our guests to take advantage of. The vendor included a bunch of fun, random props that our guests had way too much fun with, and the pictures turned out SO funny and adorable. Plus, our guests could take little photobooth pictures home as a little souvenir. 

5. Customized Bar Signs and Napkins

Because I wanted our wedding to feel so tailored to us and our relationship, I found a fantastic seller on Etsy that created beautiful, customized signs for our bar that listed all of the liquor/alcohol available and incorporated a graphic of our two dogs. We also found beautiful and reasonably priced customized cocktail napkins with our new last name and wedding date!

6. Styled Bridesmaids in Different Dresses

I had very minimal criteria for my bridal party as far as attire for the wedding, I really just wanted everyone to feel, in my own words “Hot and Confident.” A couple of my bridesmaids had suggested that I look at Jenny Yoo bridesmaid gowns, and I found several colors and patterns that I thought would look great together and provide my bridal party customizable dress options! Each bridesmaid and bridesman picked out one color/pattern they loved from a set I had shared, and they each picked out a unique, long dress style that fit their body shape and style. I absolutely LOVED that everyone felt confident standing next to me on the big day.

7. Snuck Away to Take Private Photos

Instead of going to cocktail hour or taking pictures with a bunch of friends and family, my husband I decided to sneak back to our hotel with our photographer and videographer to snap some fun, romantic pictures. Some of the shots we took were running down the hall, sharing a kiss in the elevator, and descending the grand marble stairs. 

8. Family-Style Dinner

Bride to Bride… catering can be SO expensive, and given that I’m a Minnesota girl that got married in San Francisco, I was looking for ways to save a little on the dinner. Most companies will charge the couple for staff wages (which makes sense), but that can be almost half as much as the food itself. While I loved the elegance of a fully seated dinner, our wedding planner had suggested that we look into family-style serving instead. Waiters brought serving plates and bowls of each starter, entree, and side to each individual table and guests passed around the platters and served themselves. It helped our guests connect a bit more, and saved us a couple of thousand dollars!

9. Midnight Snack from Favorite Local Bakery

San Francisco has this really fantastic bakery that primarily makes donuts, and all of our friends from the Bay Area absolutely love it. It’s called Bob’s Donuts, and it was such a fun touch of San Francisco to add to our wedding. We brought in enough donuts for everyone on the guest list about an hour before the wedding ended (which also helped soak up some of that alcohol everyone had from the open bar!)