By Lauren and Haney

We see our wedding as an opportunity to bring together those in our past and present—and those who will be a part of our future, and we are working to make the entire experience fun and simple for all so we can maximize the time we have with these very special people. Without our friends and family, we, as individuals or as a couple, wouldn’t be who we are today.

We are trying to create a stress-free environment for everyone by making logistics easier for our guests. While it does take extra work to plan ahead, it’s definitely worth the effort. Here are some of the ways we’ve attempted to add a personal touch to our destination wedding planning approach:

1. Hotel Discounts: We have hotel blocks at 4 different hotels, and this allows for diversity in prices and atmosphere. Each is within walking distance of the reception venue.
2. Airfare Discounts: United Airlines is giving our guests discounts on their lowest published fares to the Bay Area for our guests. We worked with United to strike this deal.
3. Early Communication: Destination wedding etiquette says invitations should be sent 6 months to 1 year in advance, and save the date cards should be sent earlier! Keeping with this rule of thumb, we sent our invitations early to ensure our guest had enough time to plan.
4. Website: We used Wedshare to design our website, and this is a 24/7 resource for our guests. It also keeps communication simple and consistent. We included travel information, background about us as a couple, and wedding party information.
5. Transportation: Our website has public transit and airline information, and we are also coordinating transportation to various wedding events, including a bus on the wedding day so our guests don’t have to drive and coordinated transportation for the wedding party for other events like the rehearsal.
6. Personalized Information: When our guests arrive they will receive a packet of wedding information including a schedule of events and local area information.  They will also get in advance the bios that we are writing for our guests so they know who they’re sitting with and have info they can use to strike up conversation.
7. Outreach: We send regular emails to our guest list; these blasts help communicate important travel and wedding information, and it helps our guests plan better.  We limit to one or two a month and do not mix informational topics; we also don’t want to overwhelm our guests with too much information.

We made our plan well in advance, and then we had to work our plan. Our goal is to maximize simplicity and convenience; this way everyone can relax and celebrate more.

Stay tuned, because next week we’ll help you jumpstart your invitations and executing your aesthetic theme.