Honouring people who couldn't make it

I created a sign placed with the guest book that said: WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER IN LOVING MEMORY OF THOSE WHO ARE FOREVER PRESENT IN OUR HEARTS. There were many of our family members that could be mentioned though it did make it feel we want to make their presence known showing on us. Reception speech also had a mention of: We want to also thank our guiding spirits along with husbands parents' smiling upon us on this day. It was touching for my husband to know I was thinking of his parents though he knew he would want them there too. I hope this helps in some ways to put some thought into your planning for whom you want to thank spiritually.

Hello May,
Sorry for your losses! My condolences to you and your family.

Here are some ideas to check out. You can add some of them on your welcome table (should you be having one).

View quoted message Ah no. So sorry! Sending my condolences to you and your fiancé’s family at this time! 💐

Instead of photos, you can have a framed document sitting where the guest book is listing the names and relationships of each person. An 8.5x11 page is much less cluttery than 10+ photo frames.

View quoted message

Yeah the tough part for me is that if I do something for family I would need to do my fiances 2 sets of grandparents, my grandma, my grandpa, my uncle, and my dads two uncles (there is even possibly more). so I am trying to find something that pays tribute (especially to my grandpa and grandma) in a way that acknowledges them in the way they deserve, but that also makes sense for the amount of people that this would be for. Like originally I thought it would be cool to do something or make something that the people closest to them could take as a keepsake. My other idea is to use an antique window frame with a quote/saying and a photo.

My fiance and I have are having at our front entrance table a sign with a lit candle that says "in loving memory of those who are forever in our hearts today and always" both sets of my grandparents have passed away as well as my mom's brother.

We weren't going to do anything as we both lost grandparents a while ago, but then my fiances uncle passed suddenly and he was already on our guest list so that was a gut punch. It felt a little bit different than than grandparents because we never imagined our wedding without this uncle. I am leaning towards doing a toast during our speech honouring those people, or having the officiant say something at the ceremony. Not sure if I want to do a table or anything like that.

We are doing something similar to this! I want to put their names & maybe a bit more spread out on a bit bigger table!

We had our officiant say a few words acknowledging people who couldn't be there for our wedding. It was mostly family members who couldn't come due to covid restrictions, but we also asked her to mention my husband's grandmother as he was very close with her.

I think another good option is to include their pictures or some sort of tribute to the people somewhere in the venue. You could also write something short to accompany the pictures to honour them.