It’s a scene out of everyone’s favorite rom-com: Love is in the air, the question has been popped, and the happy couple announces their engagement! In the movies, from that point on things either tend to play out to a perfect storybook ending or go hilariously and spectacularly wrong.
In the real world, however, wedding planning can bring joy, humor, and anxiety – sometimes all in the same day! And it’s easy to see why: On top of all the decisions about dresses, color schemes, and food, one of the biggest wedding challenges is to thoughtfully plan for all the people involved. After all, a wedding reception is essentially two giant family reunions, where each half doesn’t know the other very well.
As family and friends start looking forward to the magical big day, the happy couple starts to process all the details and decisions that await. They will no doubt start asking themselves: “Now what?”
Three Little Rules
Whether you are a DIY-type of bride planning her own wedding reception or a professional wedding planner with years of experience, coordinating this joy-filled day with the least amount of stress means embracing the three rules of wedding planning:
- Organization
- Organization
- (And you guessed it) Organization!
There was a time when wedding planning was not much more than “getting to the church on time”. These days, you need a LOT more than that! There are so many details to pull together – guest list, seating plan, gift registry, budget, RSVPs, dietary restrictions, vendor information, and thank-you notes – just to name a few. Oh, and don’t forget about the pew bows! (What, you hadn’t heard about pew bows yet?)
We know, we know – it can feel like a lot. Because it is. But don’t worry. You’ve got this!
Choosing the right organization tools early in the planning process will free up time and ease your stress level, allowing you to focus on the things that are really important – such as writing your vows and planning your honeymoon!
But how do you know which tools to choose? At Reunacy, we are the get-together pros, and we’ve helped all kinds of people get all kinds of groups together for happy, memorable, once-in-a-lifetime events.
Your wedding reception will be all of that and so much more, so you want a resource that will seamlessly integrate the more blasé (but super necessary!) event planning tasks with organizing the people who mean the most to you and your partner.
Below, we’ll walk you through one critical way to simplify your planning process: Using Reunacy to manage your wedding guest list.
Organizing your family and friends with Reunacy will give you more time and make your event even better – and more fun – for your guests!
Stop organizing wedding guests in a spreadsheet
One of the most popular wedding-organization tools is the common spreadsheet. Since the first one was unveiled by a team from Harvard and MIT way back in 1979, spreadsheets are now indispensable in the business world.
A well-designed spreadsheet can help organize almost any type of data – numbers and words, but NOT faces.
And although there are tons of templates and guides available for how to use spreadsheets in wedding planning, here’s the “big but”: Your wedding isn’t a business, and your guests aren’t numbers. They’re people! And we have a muuuch better way to organize people!
The biggest downside to using a spreadsheet over many months of planning is that if you aren’t regularly updating it, the spreadsheet can become an outdated mess with unreliable information. Are you sure you already added Aunt Betty’s RSVP? Did you remember to change the name of your fiancé’s uncle’s plus-one? Ugh, you shared the spreadsheet and your maid of honor accidentally deleted the caterer’s information!
Remember: Spreadsheets are great at calculations, but they are only as good as the last update! And there’s a lot that a spreadsheet can’t do.
A spreadsheet can’t:
- Help families get to know one another before, during, and after the wedding.
- Send reminders to the bridesmaids and other members of the wedding party about events like the bridal shower, fittings and tastings, and other special events.
- Give your future father-in-law ideas and inspiration for his rehearsal-dinner speech.
- Let your third cousin know that your fiancé’s third cousin went to the same college.
- Keep ads and noise OUT, while at the same time allow pew-bow (and lots of other) ideas IN.
Reunacy is the perfect, private, way to introduce and connect new families and sets of friends. Avoid the “spreadsheet blues,” bring people together and manage your wedding guests on Reunacy!
It’s super easy and free to get started, too! Just go here!
Break the ice between two new groups of people coming together for the first time!
Create Family Member Bios.
Inviting your guests to create simple bios is a great way for family members to know a little about each other before the big day (and it’s the perfect task to delegate)!
With a photo and short write-up of everyone’s lives available at their fingertips, your guests will know the answers to common ice-breaker questions, making introductions and connections easier and smoother for everyone in the wedding party.
You’ll probably even learn something new about your closest friends and family! (“Umm…let’s not sit the Ohio State and Michigan grads at the same table…”)
Match Names to Faces.
At a wedding reception, there are really only a few hours for everyone to get to know one another, so you’ll want to make the most of that time. Help your guests feel comfortable and connected, long before they don that bridesmaid’s dress or cummerbund!
Your guests’ profiles help people match names to faces before, during, and after the wedding, which not only eases anxiety for the wedding party, but helps every guest feel welcome and an important part of your special day.
Remember, your guests can only talk about how sweet your handwritten vows were for so long before things get awkward. Reunacy is like having a conversation cheat sheet at your fingertips!
Share the excitement!
Create events and generate buzz in advance of the big day, without the drama of other online platforms that push nonstop ads and noise.
Share event details with your wedding party for all your pre-wedding events like tastings, fittings, tours of venues, wedding showers, etc. – without getting bombarded by ads, opinions, and arguments that are all-too-common on those other “social” networks!
You can also use it to communicate last-minute changes (Is a rainstorm expected at your outdoor ceremony? Let your guests know before they arrive that you’re moving everything inside!) The possibilities are endless when you have a planning tool that is made by people, for people.
Reunacy can help you do it all, making your wedding plan come together with less stress and more joy! Can your spreadsheet do that?
TL;DR – Spreadsheets are for numbers, Reunacy is for people!
A hub for all your guest information
In addition to helping your guests feel connected, Reunacy has a ton of event-planning organizational tools. You can use Reunacy to:
- Keep track of your wedding guest list on any device. No more sharing spreadsheets and hoping you are using the most recent version!
- Quickly pass along ideas and questions to your caterer, florist, or other vendor.
- Each guest is unique! Using a few custom questions, you (or the group admin, if you choose to delegate this job) can invite guests to let you know about things like:
- allergies
- dietary restrictions
- special accommodations
- “Plus one” requests
- Or any other detail that you need to track!
- Easily track the number of guests invited, as well as those who have already RSVP’d. Never have to guess at your headcount!
Your guests aren’t numbers, they’re people 🙂
Your wedding guests are your closest family and friends. Just like those pew bows, you want everyone and everything tied together as harmoniously as possible before, during, and long after your “biggest of big” days.
A resource that eases your stress and helps your guests feel connected and welcome? With Reunacy, you can have your wedding cake and eat it, too! What could be better than that? (Besides delegating or ditching those pew bows, of course, ;-))
Share the excitement today by starting your wedding group on Reunacy!
Start a group on Reunacy! Just go here!
It’s like a yearbook and an events app had a beautiful baby…