How to welcome your guests travelling in to a destination wedding
Your guests have travelled far and wide to attend your destination wedding and are all likely staying within the vicinity of your wedding venue.
While some people are a natural when it comes to mingling, it’s lovely to arrange pre-wedding events where both sides of the family can meet each other. You may have read earlier about a wedding we planned at the Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate in May 2022. Well, prior to the wedding day itself, we arranged a few drinks at a local Cornish pub for mingling before the big day. Our thinking process for this is set out below.
How to choose the venue
Most of the family and wedding guests were arriving in on the Saturday, for the wedding, which was to be help on Sunday. With that in mind, and that most guests had to drive 6+ hours to reach Carbis Bay, we decided that guests would appreciate a relaxed event. We opted for a typical Cornish pub as the venue, and our guests loved it!
There are a few key things to remember when choosing a venue for your pre-wedding event. Ask yourself the following questions to help you determine the optimal venue type for your event:
- How many guests do I expect to attend?
- When are they arriving into the area (if it’s a destination wedding)?
- What type of atmosphere do I want to create?
How to select your menu
Food. It’s so important. Having arrived into Carbis Bay that day, most guests were tired and hungry. So, rather than just “welcome drinks” we arranged a spread of food. Knowing the wedding day menu was largely an Indian menu, we chose to have a Cornish pub food vibe menu to give guests something different.
The menu included, a range of salad platters, pasta, cornish pastries, chips, cheese and crackers and a few nibbles. It matched the pub vibe we were aiming for and gave the guests a flavour of the local town!
When choosing your menu consider the local cuisine as an option for one of your events. Experiment with different flavours and dishes. A pre-wedding party is a great place to do this. Remember, your guests will be mingling so you want everyone to be able to grab a small plate, stand and nibble as they chat too.
How to pick your entertainment
The pub we chose had lots of wonderful nooks and crannies. Small corners with a couple of cosy tables and booths or an area with a big screen where the blokes could watch the football. To give the event some ambience, we chose to have a live band playing some soft background music for the first couple of hours.
We chose very light entertainment – the objective of the event was to mingle so we didn’t want any distracting entertainment. Just some soft notes to tone down the excessive buzz of chatter and banter going on as family members met.
We hope this blog gave you a helpful set of tips! Good luck with planning your welcome drinks event, and if you have any questions or want to have a chat about it, feel free to get in touch.
All the best,
Rina x