Bubbles in a very small tube (like a test tube) with a tiny bubble wand was a popular item when I gave away items to get people to come to see us at meetings. It’s meant to be a wedding favor or something handed out for people to blow bubbles at newlyweds instead of throwing birdseed of whatever.
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My son and DiL bought used books at a local charity based bookstore, and we wrapped them in brown paper. Each had a bow in one of their wedding colors to tell if it was fiction or nonfiction, and guests could pick one off the shelf as their favor.
My artsy son made a bookmark we ran off on cardstock for cheap, and we put one in each book. It was a big hit.
We didn’t do welcome bags, but we did make up bags for all the children who were there, and got lots of drawing paper for their tables. They also got chalkand a little slate, those were very popular with parents and kids
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My son is getting married in the fall. This absolutely won’t happen. My mother won’t be able to travel but you can bet she’s getting her invitation to the wedding as well as the rehearsal dinner.
Many members of my family won’t be able to make it but they absolutely will be getting their invitations. It’s a very personal decision I suppose but the cost of a stamp will not cause me to not send an invite even if I know they can’t make it.
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I agree - the grandparent(s) of the couple should absolutely get an invitation.
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Grand parents for sure. I feel strongly about others too, that’s why I said it’s a personal decision. I want the people who can’t come to know they were thought of and included in the celebration. So I guess the price of the invite and stamp are worth it to me. I make that up easily with the savings on the meal, LOL
Be careful. We were told that 15-20% of those you invite will not be able to attend for some reason. So…we sort of thought our wedding was going to have under 100 guests. We had 125. I think four people declined.
Our daughter and SIL were very specific…no parent work friends just because they were co-workers. They had to be people DD or DS knew.
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That happened to a friend of mine this past summer. Every single person they invited ended up coming and they nearly had to change the venue.
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We invited 1000 and had 750. We were glad 25% said no.
1000! WOW! That’s one heck of a party. I’m sure it was fabulous.
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It’s too bad it was not where it could be seen. D and SIL had a firepit with s’more fixins on a patio outside of the reception and it was a popular spot.
True. That’s why we went with something that can be consumed. We have a friend who owned a gourmet chocolate shop and the wedding favors were small boxes of chocolates. No one left those on the tables!
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Best wedding favor…and I wanted to copy it but our kid said NO.
Bride and groom had about a half dozen large clear glass bins of various candies…with scoops and bags. The bags had a cute something on them thanking people for coming. Everyone could take a bag on their way out (this was set up in the foyer) and scoop out a bag full of the candies of their choice.
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In our neck of the woods, you often see the relatives all make a ridiculous amount of cookies, and guests get a bag or box to carry some home from the giant buffet o’ cookies. But favors, per se, are not done.
We had 85 of 90 invites attend. I think it just depends on how you approach inviting.
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I have said it before, I was invited to a wedding in the States (while I was living in Germany) and was invited to a good friend’s wedding in Connecticut. She probably thought I wouldn’t make it, but as it happened I needed to make a trip to the US that summer for a work project and it was easy to schedule it so I could do both. I’m glad she didn’t say we won’t bother to invite mathmom because there’s no way she’ll make it.
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We invited a few people I knew would not be able to make it. Elderly and unable to travel, far away with demanding jobs, one with a 6 week old baby, etc. We still wanted them to know they were included and that was worth the cost of the invitation and postage. Of course, if any of those folks had been able to show up we would have been surprised and delighted.
One of those people was elderly and not in good health. This is a family member I was very close to so I had prints made of about half a dozen pictures of D and SIL, the wedding party, etc and sent to her (took 10 minutes at Target.com and cost about $5). That made her day! I highly suggest doing this in similar situations such as a grandparent who cannot attend.
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Yes - the couple should definitely invite who they want to be there.
Of course! Everyone has a similar scenario of family or those close to the family who are “worth the invitation”. My comment was more directed to those outside the immediate family who we knew would not make the trip for one reason or another. My daughter’s invitations were hand-painted renderings of the lodge where she had her wedding, so a bit more thought had to go into exactly how many were made, and there weren’t any extras. To each their own!
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We did invite husbands firm partners plus a couple extra. We offered to pay for them too. And we knew every one of them would be there even if out of town. Gotta know your crowd!
If the cake is good, people will eat it. Daughter’s wedding cake was completely devoured. There were fresh berries between the layers so it was moist. Also it was not covered with one of those lard based icings.
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The tricky thing about sending an invitation to folks likely to decline (certainly a nice idea) is that some people might complain they feel obligated to send gift. I think it’s worth that risk, especially for elderly kin who are close with the bride or groom or parents.
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Elderly kin probably want to send a gift anyway. They certainly deserve an invite and I certainly wouldn’t want to upset any of them!
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I have never heard of a lard-based icing! A very small bit of Trex/Crisco to soften the fondant, yes- but that is plant based, not pork-based.
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