Improving the guest experience

Guest experience is one of our top priorities; especially since we are having a destination wedding. We are providing welcome bags to each guest upon hotel check-in. The first night we are hosting a 4 course dinner with open bar, then treating everyone to a haunted boozy night walking tour. We will have a 5 course meal, top shelf open bar, caricature artist and tarot card reader at our reception; then will be providing everyone late night beignets at the end of the evening. We are also hosting a thank you/farewell brunch the final day.

We are giving our welcome bags to all guests who stay at the hotel we blocked off. I’m also going to make a big sign with a QR code for the seating chart. All people will need to do is scan it and find their name on the website I set up.

These all sound so nice.

The main thing we did was to provide bus transfers to and from - our wedding was about 1-1.5 hours' drive from where most of our guests live so whilst it wasn't truly a 'destination' wedding, most people did choose to stay overnight, and we wanted to give them a way to safely get to and from the wedding without having to worry about taxis or a designated driver.

I upgraded the food menu. i wasn't completely happy with the basic menu.

We are having a food truck for our dessert instead of traditional wedding cake and I'm going to be having a "Take a Treat" table (in place of favors) since most of our guests and ourselves are avid dog people. Also doing open bar!

Since we're having a destination wedding, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for our guests to get to each event. Our welcome dinner restaurant actually shares a courtyard with our hotel, we have a hotel block at a boutique hotel with next to undebatable prices, and the hotel is walked distance to both the beach ceremony location and the restaurant for our reception.


I'm also trying to limit the number of meals my guests have to pay for, so we're hosting a welcome dinner, I'll have a bridal brunch, and we'll have a farewell brunch the day after!

We're having a scavenger hunt. We're getting married in a museum, so it's a reference to our first date (scavenger hunt in a museum). We also are having a live artist, butlered hors d'oeuvres, and live music throughout.

I want to have a part of our programs list some of the "hidden" touches we're adding to make the day special but that guests may not catch, like the charms of our loved ones that passed away I'm having tied to my bouquet, what the something old, new, borrowed, & blue are, etc. I also want to do table names (with a number so guests aren't totally lost) that have something special to us (ex. Table 1: The [something] Table) and maybe a small blurb about why it's special. Then we're also doing a shuttle to the ceremony and back to the hotel where out reception is at since most guests are out of town, an open bar, a wider range of dinner options, dessert table, and late night snack.

We are all about the guest experience from Valet parking, open bar, food food and more food. And Tiffany bracelets and corsages for my squad who would have been bridesmaids but who wants to see 20 BMs walking down the aisle??? Gifting my veil to my BFF who has serious marriage goals opposed to the bouquet.

Among other details, we wanted to acknowledge different guest diets, cultures, and palettes, and had an abundant vegetarian, vegan, and non-shellfish options with our courses.