S3E6: How Guests Think
Hello Lovers!
Let's close our "bride eyes" and think like a guest for an episode. So many couples loose track of the guest experience as they work hard in their final phase to organize the details of the event. But you need to understand the mind of your guests to address their concerns, answer their questions, and get them to your event.
This episode is jam packed so here's a roadmap. In this episode we will go through:
- A visualization exercise to remind us of the guest's experience
- 4 Rules to Live By to understand the mind of a guest
- 3 Most Common Guest Concerns
- List of things you can do correctly in planning to stoke guest excitement, answer common questions and alleviate concerns
Since there's a lot to cover: I've listed a lot below for you to have access to it all in written form.
3 Most Common Concerns Keeping Guests from RSVPing YES!
- The Cost of Travel: especially for out of town guests
- Conflict of Date: your wedding conflicts with another life event
- Missing Work: guests who need to try and get work covered or plan to miss work
4 Rules to Live By To Understand Your Guests
- Guests are Self Focused: they see your event through the lens of their own lives
- The Cost of your Wedding is a Serious Consideration: especially for your out of town guests or anyone needing to book accommodations
- Adults Only Gatherings: could make arranging child care tricky for parents
- People HATE RSVP ing: it's a very unhelpful phenomenon - people hate saying definitively if they are going to attend.
How to address these truths
- Self Focused= Give guests ample notice and all the information they need early
- Concerns about Cost= Be gracious if people. Say you completely understand.
- Concerns about Child Care= Stick to your guns! You know what's best for your event guest list wise.
- RSVP hesitations: Do a call down once the RSVP deadline has passed
AND - Doing as many of the following items helps guests throughout the process get information they need and garners guest excitement for your event. Give yourself a gold star for everything you've done so far:
- You announced your engagement publicly
- You sent save the dates 6-8 months ahead (if your engagement was 8 moths to a year plus)
- You spoke positively about your wedding at family gatherings and parties when asked about it
- You made a wedding website and populated it with helpful information about your event like start time, location, details about parking or navigating to the venue
- You added a travel section to your website where you clarified nearest airport and lots of great hotels
- You have recently checked to see if those hotels still have availability and added more if needed
- You created a registry so guests can bless you with home goods or funds.
- You have recently checked to be sure there are still plenty of items in an affordable range for guests to purchase and you have added more if needed
- You have sent out an invitation to your guests: 2-6 months in advance.
- You have clearly communicated an RSVP deadline for guests that is at least a month before your wedding date
- Your envelope addressing clearly indicates who within a household is invited to your event- listing them by name
- if you are an adults only gathering- you have made this clear by listing it on the website, and/or limiting the number of RSVPs on the website to just the adults
- You have done everything you can to make getting to your event as seamless as possible- with venue name and “mapable” location, maybe even directions - clearly listed on the homepage of your website
- You’ve given informa
