Guest experience is an important part of your wedding!

If a huge part of your wedding day vision is making sure that your guests have a really good time – then this is for you! 

You want your guest to enjoy your wedding! You want them to have fun! You don’t want guests getting hangry while they’re waiting for dinner or getting lost on their way to the ceremony. (We’ve all been there and it’s not very fun.)

So here are some things you can do to make your guest experience much more enjoyable.

Keep your guests comfortable!

If any part of your wedding day is going to be outside – make sure you have a backup plan that will help keep your guests comfortable outdoors. 

Whether there’s a chance of rain; really high temperatures or really low temperatures; don’t let the weather forecast stress you out! There’s lots of things you can do to help accommodate your guests.

#1 Talk to your venue

Most outdoor venues can offer different solutions for your ceremony or reception if the weather isn’t going to cooperate. So it’s really important to have this conversation with your venue. 

Some venues may have additional things that you can rent, like large tents, industrial-grade fans, or heaters. Depending on the limitations of your venue, they may be able to make accommodations to move the ceremony indoors.

#2 Provide your own accommodations

Wedding ceremonies are usually are 20-30 minutes max. So if you only have to worry about being outside during the ceremony, consider giving your guests items that can help protect them from the weather.  

Things like; inexpensive umbrellas, fans, sunscreen, tiny bottles of water, or blankets. Just something small that will help make that short amount of time outside, a little more bearable.

Communicate with your guests before and during your wedding

Communicating with your guests about when and where things are happening is really important! Everything (and everyone) is much more calm when there’s a timeline to follow and directions to follow.

Create a wedding website

We love to recommend creating a wedding website. It’s a really easy way to share all the details about your wedding like hotel recommendations; name and address of your venue; special instructions for parking; when the ceremony is going to start; a link to your gift registry; etc.
You can easily create a wedding website with The Knot. All you have to do is choose and design and customize it to your liking with your engagement photos and wedding day details.

Create a wedding day program that you can give to guests!

Now before you knock it – this could be really useful for your guests to have and it’s something that you can save for yourself as a keepsake! 

You can include a really simple itinerary along with any special or important instructions or directions about where things are located. 

You can also share some fun facts about the people in your wedding party, which is really nice for any long-distance family or friends that may not be familiar with some of those people. As another idea, you could also personalize it with some fun facts about the two of you as a couple! 

They look beautiful. 

It’s a great way to communicate with your guests during the event.

It’s fun for the guests to learn more about you as a couple or your wedding party. 

And guests can use their program as their own personal fan. 

We call that a win-win situation.

Signs are a wedding guest’s best friend

Having signs posted in spots throughout your venue is super helpful to your guests! Especially when it comes to knowing where to park or where the restrooms are! 

Consider creating some signs that will help your guests navigate the venue. Having clear signage is also really helpful if you have a large guest count and a large venue.

It’s a small thing, but it really makes a world of difference for your guests.

Keep the bar line moving!

Ever been to an event or a club and got stuck waiting in line to get a drink at the bar? It sucks. 

An easy way to help keep the bar line moving is to stay away from serving draft beer. A lot of people think that buying a keg is more budget-friendly, but we’d encourage you to have that discussion with your vendor. Sometimes serving a pre-made signature cocktail may actually stretch your dollar a little further and make service a little quicker too! 

But aside from budget, it’s much quicker for bartenders to open a can or a bottle and hand it to a guest than it is to pour from a keg.

The #1 way to keep your guests from getting hangry?

Give them a snack! 

It sounds like an obvious solution but it’s something that often gets overlooked! Even though there may be a short gap in time between the ceremony and the reception, guests may have already been at the venue for 45 minutes to an hour.

So during the cocktail hour that’s usually in between the ceremony and reception, consider offering some sort of small appetizers or snacks. 

This could be as simple as setting up a table with an assortment of small bites or hiring serves for hand passed hor devours.

Our best seating chart hack!

Another place where guests can get a little hung up is when they’re trying to figure out what table they’re sitting at. 

A seating chart is something that you can get really creative with! But in our experience, we’ve found that the best way to handle the seating chart is to list names in alphabetical order. That way it makes it much easier (and much quicker) for a guest to find their name and their corresponding table number. 

Pro tip: Encourage guests to take a few minutes during cocktail hour to find their name on the seating chart! That way when it’s time for the reception, they already know what table to sit at! 

(psst! Use your wedding program to instruct guests to check out the seating chart!)

Pump up the party!

It’s true, your guests are going to be over the moon excited to watch you marry the love of your life – but (in most cases) it’s the after party that they’re going to remember the most!

But the hardest part about throwing an awesome party is knowing how to cater to all the generations on the guest list. This is where the DJ comes in. 

How much fun your guests have at your wedding is going to heavily rely on your DJ. It will be up to them to read the room, engage the crowd, and craft a music selection that will get the flower girl AND grandma out on the dance floor!

So when it comes to working with a DJ – let them know what your specific tastes in music are but also what kind of stuff your friends and family will like.

And then you’ll be ready to party like it’s 1999!

Need help choosing music for your wedding?

Check out The Wedding Duo Music Planner! An interactive PDF guide WITH song suggestions for every part of your event!

Happy Wedding Planning!

The Wedding Duo: A Wedding Planning Podcast