Dates: Choosing them, Booking them, Sending them!
3rd June 2020 – Advice
Written by Amy Brown
Following on from our first blog, 4 Top Tips to choosing your Wedding Venue, we hope you’ve fallen deeply in love with a venue (preferably ours) and you’re now pondering how to choose a wedding date, how to actually secure a date and when to tell your guests the date!?
1. Choosing them
Couples choose their wedding date based on so many reasons, usually on the availability of their dream wedding venue, but it’s worth considering a number of things before committing to a date. As with most wedding venues, once a booking deposit has been paid to secure a date at Hylands Estate, it becomes non-transferable and non-refundable.
Think about seasons and how well they will work with your theme, maybe you have your heart set on using peonies in your bouquet, so you’d need a spring date. Maybe you see yourself under the wisteria in the Pleasure Gardens, so you need to look at dates in May. Sentimental dates such as the anniversary of when you met, or when you became engaged. Take into consideration school term times, religious holidays and other times of the year that may be tricky for your guests to commit to. You may also have strong family traditions that play a big part in selecting your wedding date?
2. Booking them
Let’s imagine you’ve been to Hylands Estate, had the most magical time exploring the house and the Grand Pavilion with one of our Events & Weddings Team, you’ve discussed dates with your partner and families and now you’d like to book your wedding date! Could anything be more exciting than this? Really?!
Assuming your ideal date is available, we can send you a booking form which details your chosen date and hire charge together with payment schedule. All you need to do is complete your contact information, hand sign the form and return to us by email. We will then give you a quick call to take your 20% booking deposit by card payment over the phone, and then your wedding day is BOOKED! You’ll promptly receive email confirmation of your very special day, including floor plans, payment schedules and other helpful information. This pack will also be sent by post, as we know how nice it is to have something to hold and to keep safe with your other wedmin goodies.
3. Sending them
Save the Date Cards
You’ve chosen the date, booked the venue and now it’s time to think about wedding stationery (*insert small rush of stationery-geek related excitement here*). You may decide not to send a “Save the Date” card but creating or commissioning something simple just so that your guests pop the date into their diary, book time off work and think about childcare with plenty of time can be really useful… and fun! This is particularly important with summer or school holiday dates.
You may find that after crunching the numbers and fine tuning your guest list, some guests won’t make the full day guest list. Evening guests don’t usually need to save the date so far in advance, so do think about who really needs to receive a card. You don’t need to offer too much information at this stage, simply include your names, wedding date and location. Think about sending your Save the Date cards 8-12 months in advance.
As with anything in the world of weddings, the choice are endless, but here are some of our faves! You can always send digital cards to save on printing and postage costs.
Invitations
By the time you start thinking about sending out invitations, chances are you’ve done a huge amount of wedding planning and designing or selecting invitations should be a far easier task, and a super exciting one at that! You can stick to traditional invitations sent by post, or create digital invitations which could save heaps of money on postage alone!
Have a think about who is hosting your wedding, sometimes it’s the couple themselves, so you can write in the third person, and sometimes it’s parents, so think about using their names. We’ve found some awesome examples below.
Full days guests will need to know the finer details now, so be sure to include the following:
- Date and time (detail the arrival time as well as ceremony times to avoid late arrivals sneaking in through the ceremony room doors!)
- Venue (including the address and postcode)
- Accommodation information (we can supply you with a list of local hotels)
- Event timings (consider whether some guests may need to arrive after your ceremony or blessing due to capacities and adapt this for your evening guests)
- Any other additional info which may be specific to your day (like menu choice if it’s and option)
- Guest list information
- RSVP information
It’s best to consider sending your invitations around 6 months before the big day to allow plenty of times for RSVP’s to arrive.
Until next time friends, enjoy your wedding planning, and if you need any help along the way please pick up the phone, we’re always happy to help!
If you’d like to start your wedding journey with us, contact the team today:
01245 605500 | hylands@chelmsford.gov.uk
