Wedding Guide

Congratulations! You or someone you know have decided to take the next step in their relationship and get married. There are a lot of things to think about, which is why we are sharing our wedding planning guide to take you step by step or gift by gift to the wedding day you want. From getting engaged to planning bridal showers to the wedding itself, we have a wide selection of gifts, favors and other wedding essentials that will make this a unique wedding season for the lucky couple.

Getting Engaged

The first step to a couple’s wedding journey is getting engaged. Grooms-to-be can make the moment extra special by presenting the ring to his future bride with a customized engagement ring box. These round wooden ring boxes make romantic keepsakes for the engaged couple and can even become a beautiful alternative ring pillow at the wedding ceremony.

Set A Budget

It is best to have a conversation about the wedding budget with your significant other and other wedding contributors, such as your parents, early in the planning process. In this conversation, you might want to consider your priorities for the celebration. Do you want to have a small celebration with just close friends and family or are you and your fiance imagining a larger celebration that is a bit more swanky and luxurious. By having a predetermined wedding wishlist, you and your fellow contributors will have a better chance of working your dream wedding into your budget.

Decide Who You Want to Invite

Now that you know your budget, you have an idea on how many people you can afford to celebrate with you. Split the number of potential wedding guests between you, your significant other as well as other wedding contributors in a way that seems fair to everyone. Remember to include potential plus-ones in your headcount and make a decision on whether or not children are allowed to come. By doing these things, couples will not have to worry about their guest list growing out of hand.

Pick A Venue for the Wedding and Reception

You and your significant other have agreed on a vision of what your wedding day will be like and have a pretty good idea on the number of guests you will be expecting. The next step is choosing the venue! Spend some time researching and touring potential venues with your wedding planner (if you have one). A lot of the time venues will have a minimum and maximum guest count to help future brides and grooms know whether or not the venue can cater the number of friends and family that engaged couple wants to celebrate with them. Depending on availability and the time of year you want to celebrate, you will have your wedding date by the time you complete this step. If you would like to have the reception in the same venue as your ceremony, be sure there is enough room for a party. If not, pick a location for the reception that is close by.

Finalize Your Wedding Color Scheme or Theme

Now that you have the framework for the look of your wedding (aka the venue), make it complete by implementing a theme to the wedding celebration. You don’t have to have a specific theme for your wedding, but it is helpful to have a color scheme to tie everything together, including wedding attire, invitations and decor. This is also a good time to decide how close you want your wedding ceremony theme to match the reception. If you want your wedding reception to have a different look, we recommend going ahead and choosing your color scheme now.

Assemble Your Wedding Party

Determine who you want to be standing next to you as a member of your wedding party. We have a selection of unique wedding party proposal gifts for your maid of honor and bridesmaids, such as pocket mirrors and wine stoppers. For the best man and groomsmen, surprise them with an engraved leather flask. In addition, we also have thank you gifts for wedding party members of all ages, such as baseballs, baseball bats and trinket boxes. You can also mix and match wedding party gifts in a customizable white gift box. You should be prepared to ask potential wedding party members to join the bride and groom’s crew at least 10 months to a year before the ceremony. This gives them time to find a dress and plan bridal showers as well as bachelor parties.

Assemble Wedding Vendor Team

Start reaching out to caterers, DJs, photographers, floral designers, cake designers and officiants. Plan to meet with vendors before the ceremony to help them choose what type of cake, flowers and music you want to have during the celebration. If you feel you need a wedding planner, get one. You can also hire a wedding planner just for the wedding day if you want to do the planning yourself, but have someone to be there to make sure everything goes smoothly on the day itself.

Acquire Decor for Wedding Ceremony and Reception

Welcome Table

Before your wedding guests take a seat for the wedding ceremony or reception, have them stop by the welcome. There, you can have a guest book for them to sign, personalized cards that they can use to share advice and well-wishes to the newlyweds. Through signage, you can let guests know what your wedding hashtag is, if photography is allowed and remind them where the reception is being held.

Reception Table

You can’t have a tablescape without a table! Get all the necessities, such as tables, plates, silverware and chairs at a local party equipment rental place. Then make it your own with the help of table escort cards and table signage to guide guests to their seats. Guests will be able to quickly find their seats and enjoy your flawless taste in decor while waiting for it to be time to enjoy the delicious food from your caterer.

Dessert Table

The wedding and groom’s cake will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of this table, but here are a few tips and ideas on how to embellish the table and also gain a unique wedding keepsake. Collaborate with cake designers to find the perfect look for your cake that matches the style of the reception. They will have some pre-made cake toppers for you to choose from or you can order a custom cake topper. Use table signage to let people know what kind of cake you are serving, eliminating the need for friends and family to guess the flavor of the cakes. This will also help the line for dessert move along faster. Engraved cake knives and serving sets are cool memorabilia to have as a reminder of that first bite of cake.

Engagement Photos

This is a great way to practice being in front of the camera before your wedding day, especially if you are a little camera shy. These photos are a sweet visual asset for save the dates, wedding websites, and can even be used as a cute display on the wedding day.

Wedding Websites

Wedding websites are an effective way to share additional information about your wedding day that won’t fit on the invitation, such as parking information, which hotel you have blocked rooms for guests to stay in, links to wedding registries and so on. Later on, you can use the website to gather RSVPs from guests

Save the Dates

Now that you have your wedding photos and theme, it is time to start thinking about how you are going to let your friends and family know about your upcoming celebration. Save the Dates are your guests’ impression of the celebration. If you are not quite ready to reveal the color scheme of the ceremony or just want to keep it a mystery, our save the date coaster are a fun way to get your guests excited. Do you want to give your guests more than just a peek behind the curtain? Create a save the date card or magnet that includes the wedding theme, a favorite engagement photo or both in the design. Typically, a standard save the date has just basic information including the couple’s names and wedding date. It might be a good idea to at least include the city where the wedding will be held to give guests the ability to plan accordingly.

For destination weddings, it is good manners to send Save the Dates 9 months in advance. This allows guests ample opportunity to make travel plans. If your wedding doesn’t require extensive travel, 6 to 8 months is perfectly suitable.

Say Yes to the Dress

Start looking for your wedding dress as soon as you have finalized the wedding date and venue. If you are ordering a dress from a salon, it could take 16-20 weeks for your wedding dress to arrive. You will also want to leave time to do at least three alteration fittings before the wedding day. Wedding dress pros recommend one at 3-4 months, the next between 6-8 weeks and the last within 2-3 weeks before the wedding. You can also buy a wedding dress from a local bridal boutique and have a local seamstress alter your dream dress for you if you are pressed for time.

Wedding Invitation Suite

All the wedding details have fallen into place and it is time to share them with friends and family. You can choose a pre-designed card set that closely matches your overall wedding theme or work with one of our designers to create the wedding invitation suite you have been dreaming of.

Don’t forget to include the wedding website url.

Send out invitations at least 6 to 8 weeks prior to the wedding day

Bridal Shower Party

Bridesmaids and maid of honors- plan the perfect bridal shower for your bride! Whether you are planning a big blowout or a nice social gathering with close friends of the bride, we have customized shower ideas. Engraved wine stoppers as bridal shower favors, for example are a classy thank you favor for coming to the soiree. Customized gift tags are a simple way to enhance a bridal shower favor with a clever pun or a sincere note. Turn a wedding shower into a kitchen shower with kitchen spoon favors. Invite guests to write their favorite recipe on a personalized recipe card to put in a custom recipe box for the bride-to-be to take home with her.

Wedding Party Thank You Gifts

Before you say “I do”, don’t forget to thank members of the wedding party. Our wooden wedding party picture frames are a timely gift for before the ceremony. Your groomsmen and bridesmaids will appreciate having a custom frame for group photos with other members of the wedding party as well as the bride and groom.

Parents of the Bride and Groom Gifts

Between the wedding reception and wedding day, it is customary for the bride and groom to give gifts to their parents. Couples can decide to give gifts separately to their respective parents or future in-laws. They can also present the gifts jointly to both sets of parents. No matter how you do it, each parent should receive at least one gift.

Gift Exchange from the Bride and the Groom

With so many people to give gifts to, don’t forget to think about the first gift you give to your groom or bride. This will be the first gift exchange you will have with your partner as newlyweds, so why not make it special?

Thank You Favors for Guests

Thank friends and family for coming out and celebrating with you with a small wedding favor that they can take home with them. We have customized wine stopper favors for vineyard-style and formal weddings. Couples can have the wooden wine stoppers personalized with their names and wedding date or just have the stoppers engraved with a simple “thank you”. Don’t forget the organza bag and custom tag. For alternative wedding favors, attach them to a printed gift tag with a heartfelt or funny saying of your choice. For example, hand out cookies or any type of dessert in a clear bag with a tag that says,”love is sweet”.

Thank You Cards

You might want to have these handy before the ceremony if you want to use them to express your thanks for early wedding gifts or wedding shower gifts. End your friends and family journey on your wedding adventure with a thank you note that compliments or even matches your overall wedding scheme. Some invitation and RSVP suites may have a matching thank you note included. Be sure to include both yours and your spouse’s names in the note and make it personal by addressing the person you're sending the note to and mention the gift that they gave.

Thanks for checking out our wedding guide. We hope that it makes your wedding planning journey a bit easier no matter what role you play. We wish the newlyweds a happy life together and hope you enjoy the celebrations.