3 Ways to Prevent People from Crashing your Wedding
Number 1, 2, and 3 – INVITE EVERYONE. (especially if you’re Nigerian or marrying one)
Lol okay just kidding, but any Nigerian reading this knows that it’s unlikely your wedding (especially your reception) will go off without having a few uninvited guests. I’m guilty of this myself. I’ve definitely been to weddings where I was invited through osmosis (aka not invited at all but knew someone who knew someone who was invited and by default, I was invited too…)
If you’ve ever crashed a wedding, you know what I’m talking about.
But really, how can you prevent people from attending your wedding who didn’t RSVP? Those who ultimately end up creating a seating chart headache for your wedding coordinator or whomever you have designated to handle the seating? Well, here is what I suggest.
1) Don’t send a wedding announcement to people whom you don’t intend to invite to your wedding. Same goes for social media – don’t post that you’re getting married if your page is public or if it’s private and you have followers that you KNOW you’re not inviting.
When you let the world (aka all 500 of your social media followers) know about your upcoming nuptials, everyone thinks they will be invited. When they aren't, they'll still feel like they are entitled to being there and poke around trying to get details of your nuptials and may just end up showing up! My suggestion is to keep it offline, and just tell those who really matter, whom you know you'll actually be inviting.
2) Only put details of the ceremony on the wedding invitation and save the reception details for disclosure at the ceremony.
I’ve seen where people will only put ceremony details on the invitation card with “Reception Details to Follow” at the bottom of the wedding invitation card. This way, word about the location of the reception won’t get out early and by the time people get the details of the reception, they’ll likely not be able to attend!
3) Alright so you want everyone to party with you and celebrate your day right? Turn the post-dinner part of your reception into a jumpin’ party!
Invite people to the reception only with an invitation like this!
You can keep your ceremony and reception intimate by only inviting (and therefore paying for) your family and close friends. But then, you can have more of your friends/coworkers celebrate with you by inviting them to the part of the reception where you are dancing, drinking, and enjoying dessert! This is a great way to ensure people don’t feel completely left out of your special day. You can essentially make it your own wedding concert – especially if you’re having a live band or a really dope DJ – where you can party all.night.long! You’ll just send the traditional wedding invitation to those who are invited and then ultimately send a separate reception-only invitation to everyone else! I don’t know anyone who will say no to a party with music and free drinks!
What do you think? Have you ever crashed a wedding? Do you have any suggestions for preventing people from showing up uninvited to your wedding? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below or email me at dunniweddings@gmail.com