Hi everyone!
Our special day on August 13th, came and went and it truly was perfect. All of the anxiety and worry just somehow melted away throughout the evening and the good vibes from our guests and party atmosphere kicked in; thank goodness! I will upload photos when the professional prints come in (have to give it the proper justice! ; ) )
I thought I would share some advice/tips from our day/hits/misses to hopefully help out of any of you : ) Obviously, this was just from our experience from our day and everyone's day will be different but nonetheless thought I would just share with good intensions for this lovely community that has been so helpful to me in the planning/support process!
Hits:
Days before, we added in extra alcohol. I do not know what made me do this but al though our party was on the smaller side (23 people, 3 of which are NON drinkers) - something was telling me that if people were ready to come and party, I wanted to have enough and boy were people in a party mood! I think we only ended up coming home with 1 bottle of wine and some Gin left, everything else was gone and I did not even consider our group a party crowd but people are ready to celebrate YOU, trust!
We hired a magician to do some strolling magic during cocktail hour and it was the biggest hit ever. Days before our original magician had to cancel due to getting Covid (super stressful) but he luckily had a back up (Christyrious, Mind over Magic). I highly highly recommend this and/or him if you are looking for some entertainment. We had guests of all ages from age 10 to age 70 and EVERYONE loved it. He had loads of personality and the tricks went so smoothly from small group to small group and in the end, he gathered us all outside on the terrace and did a little grand finale show. Our guests did not expect this, so it was a fun added entertainment to the evening and not at all "six year old birthday party magic trick" like LOL.
Having non alcoholic beer and coffee and tea for guests. The coffee and tea I knew would be a hit for after dinner for some of our guests so that was a huge plus. The non alcoholic beer, we originally did for some of our guests that are in recovery however even those that are not big drinkers but have the occasional drink told me it was pretty cool that the option was there and they were able to enjoy it too!
Getting a group photo together of everyone. Obviously if you are having a large event, this is not so much doable however with our smaller group we all gathered outside and were able to get some shots - I have yet to see the photos but I'm planning to add one of the group photos to the Thank You cards that I will be mailing out in the coming months and how fabulous is it to have everyone you love and adore in the same photo?? 
Having a designated smoking area for guests. Fortunately our space had an outdoor terrace off of the room so guests did not have to travel too far however we still kept an area for them so that our guests who do not smoke were not bothered by this and it was not in the same space. Everyone appreciated this, the smokers in the group AND the non smokers in the group. It ended up being a perfect evening for weather so before dinner, majority of our guests gathered outside.
Polaroid guestbook. I will say I was nervous this was going to be a waste of money and no one would use it and I think it could have been however our bartender for the night and my best friend took on the role of snapping photos and reminding people to get a photo and sign - had they not done this maybe there would not be so many doing it however the book was full, the photos are funny, and it was so fun to look back on the next day!
Guest Favours - I had edible chocolates that said Love is Sweet at each place setting so those were definitely taken and enjoyed by guests however I also had some lottery tickets in a sweet envelope that said "we hope you get lucky tonight" at another station...I made it a point to let people know about this and/or hand them out at the end of the evening BUT had I not said anything, they may have sat there and no one would have taken them so! I think it's great advice to put at the place setting if you can so your guests see it right away.
MAKE SURE YOU EAT! This was the biggest miss for me. I kept reading this advice over and over again but honestly, once the party started I was so interested in going around and talking to everyone and making sure people were having a good time that I think I only had like a few appetizers and I barely finished my dinner. I also told myself I would drink water in between but people kept bringing me our signature cocktail and the evening had much more of a party vibe than I thought it would, energy was UP and so I forgot and/or did not make it a point to stay very hydrated and nourished so I would say, enjoy in all of the food you have ordered and paid for and try and practice the 1 drink followed by 1 water rule - kind of wish I did this lol.
All in all, it all works out and it went by so fast and was so beautiful and I am wishing we could relive the day : )
