I love the wedding planning advice my brides are providing for the newly engaged ladies in my Tips for Brides series! Abi & John had a beautiful Oyster Farm wedding in the Eastern Shore and the celebration lasted the entire weekend! Read below for her advice I wish I had taken 6 years ago haha 🙂

From Abi:

“My very best wedding planning advice: if you can, plan a welcome event.

Since our wedding was out-of-town and many of our guests were coming from out-of-state, John and I knew most people would be arriving the Friday before the wedding. I had heard a bunch of different things about inviting all of your out-of-town guests or extended family to your rehearsal dinner. We certainly didn’t have the budget for a second reception, but we wanted to recognize that our guests had travelled a long way to see us. Plus, we wanted to hang out with everyone!

As a compromise, we decided to host a very low-key Welcome Party after our rehearsal dinner at the vacation house where my family was staying. It was so, so nice to have a bit more time to catch up with guests we hadn’t seen in a while. It extended our wedding festivities and truly made the whole weekend feel like a celebration without costing a ton of money. As an added bonus, it meant less time greeting guests at the reception and more time on the dance floor with them! For us, a welcome event was critical in making sure we really got to spend time with everyone. 

Spoiler Alert: your wedding day will go by so fast. Even if the majority of your wedding guests are local, there are probably some you don’t get to see very often. I think a welcome event is a great way to connect with your guests before you are completely and totally caught up in the emotion of the actual wedding day. And it doesn’t have to be anything major! Consider making a cameo with your groom at your favorite local bar or hosting a bonfire in your backyard so you have s’more time with them (see what I did there 🙂 ). Just don’t forget to end the night early. We made sure everyone knew the party ended at 10 pm so I could get plenty of beauty sleep for the big day.”

---