5 Things Guests Should (and Shouldn’t) Bring to a Wedding
Here’s our list of the five things every guest should bring to a wedding—and things you should keep at home.
Photo: Polina Kelly Photography
If you’re attending a wedding, there’s a lot to think about—your outfit, the gift, and all the travel logistics. But there’s one thing guests frequently wait until the last minute to think about: what to bring to a wedding.
Clearly, you don’t have a lot of room in your clutch or pocket to bring a ton of stuff, but you still want to be prepared. Here’s our list of the five things every guest should bring to a wedding—and things you should keep at home.
What to bring to a wedding:
Phone
Consider your phone the Swiss army knife of your wedding toolkit—it serves many, many purposes throughout the wedding weekend. Most obviously, it allows you to stay in touch with other wedding guests via text (“Hey, are you at the ceremony yet?”) or call a taxi to get back to your hotel. It also gives you access to the couple’s wedding website, which can give you all the important info so you’ll be at the right place at the right time. And your phone can double as a camera at the big event so you can take all the photos and post them on social media (using the couple’s wedding hashtag, of course!).
Cash/credit cards
You may think that because you’re a guest at a wedding you won’t spend a cent at the actual event. While that may be true, there are some instances where you’ll be glad you had cash and/or a credit card on hand. For example, you might find yourself at a wedding with a cash bar (a major pet peeve for many guests). Or, you might end up at an after-party at a local bar that’s not covered by the newlyweds—and you’ll need to pay for drinks and perhaps cab fare.
ID
You should have your identification on hand at all times no matter where you go, but at a wedding it’s even more important. Of course, if you’re planning on driving you’ll need your driver’s license on hand. And if you’re not driving but planning on drinking alcohol, you’ll also need ID. Bartenders can (and will) ask you to prove you’re over 21 (even if you’re way older than that—hey, it’s flattering!), so be sure to carry your identification with you in your bag or wallet.
Comfy shoes
If you’re wearing heels to a wedding, you may want to bring a pair of more comfortable shoes for the dance floor—but be sure to consider the wedding’s dress code. If the wedding is relatively informal, at a beach or in a barn for example, casual flats or flip-flops are fine. However, if the wedding is more formal, say, a black-tie wedding at a ballroom, you can still bring more comfortable shoes, but make sure they’re still dressy—a pair of sparkly flats for example.
Small gifts
If you’ve decided to give the newlyweds a cash or check gift, you can and should bring it to the wedding along with a card and envelope. Many weddings have card boxes where you can easily deposit your gift. If that’s not the case, you can hand your gift over to the couple or their parents.
Photo: Jenny DeMarco Photography
What NOT to bring to a wedding:
Large gifts
In this day and age, where online wedding registries allow you to easily purchase a gift and have it shipped directly to the couple, there’s no reason why you should bring a large gift to a wedding. In fact, bringing a large gift to a wedding is seen as a major inconvenience to a couple, who will have to coordinate bringing the gift home. Remember that it is okay to purchase a gift after a wedding (within a few weeks)—a couple would certainly prefer a “late” gift over a cumbersome gift brought to the actual event.
Large bags and luggage
Try to avoid cutting your travel schedule too close to the wedding. Bringing luggage to a wedding can be a major inconvenience both for you and for the wedding venue. While most wedding venues do have coat checks, it might be difficult for smaller venues to accommodate large bags and luggage. Most hotels will happily hold your luggage before you’ve checked in or after you’ve checked out, so try to leave your bags at your hotel rather than bring them to the event.
Uninvited guests/kids/pets
If you weren’t invited with a plus-one, don’t bring ‘em to the wedding! This goes for dates, children, pets, anyone who wasn’t explicitly invited. If you’re at all unsure about who is included on your invitation, ask the couple directly for clarification—don’t guess and bring people who may not be welcome.
The invitation
There’s no need to bring a hard copy of the invitation to a wedding. All of the important information about the big day (timing, address, etc.) should be available on a couple’s wedding website and you’ll probably end up misplacing the invitation by the end of the night.
Large electronics
Avoid bringing electronic devices larger than a cell phone to a wedding—so no cameras, tablets, laptops, etc. The soon-to-be married couple has hired a professional photographer for a reason—so there’s no need for you to bring your own camera to a wedding. In fact, your taking pictures with a camera can get in the way of the professional photographer’s job, and potentially ruin the photos the couple has paid for. If you want to take photos at a wedding, use your phone discreetly instead.
