Ask a Disney Bride - How to Get Your Guests to Pay Attention!

It has been a little while but I'm back with another installment of:

Ask a Disney Bride

Today's topic is something I have personally experienced, and I know it is a major universal frustration of brides everywhere!


Dear DWI,


My fiance and I thought it would be so smart to set up a website with all our wedding details listed so guests can access them at any time.  BUT we are still getting calls asking us to personally walk them through everything, from booking hotel rooms to buying park tickets to asking what day the wedding is on (!!!).  How can we get our guests to pay attention to the information we have provided so we don't have to answer the same question a bazillion times?!?


Signed,
Frustrated in Florida


Yeah, this is a toughie! For our wedding, we set up a website, sent out a newsletter, AND set up a Facebook group for our wedding guests.  Still, we got a few emails and texts messages asking very simple questions in the weeks leading up to our wedding, a time when we were VERY busy with a million other things!  Still, we feel that being so organized with this information did diminish the amount of phone calls we received.  Below are a few ideas and tips to help you get the word out about your wedding website.

 - Include your wedding website with your Save the Date cards.  Better yet, if you make Save the Date magnets, put the website address ON the magnet.  We truly feel this move helped keep our website in front of our guests' eyeballs since it was stuck on the fridge or a file cabinet.

 - Don't buy a custom domain that's not a .com.  I know it's tempting to get a .info or .us because they are cheaper domains, but no one is going to remember that.  (Editor's tip - you don't need to buy a custom domain at all.  The custom domain that comes with a free wedding site through WeddingWire.com or MyWedding.com are just fine.)

Guest Post - How to Save on Floral & Decor

Today we have a very special guest post from the author of PassPorter's Disney Weddings and Honeymoons Guidebook, Carrie Hayward!  (Hint: If you're planning a Disney Wedding OR Honeymoon, you need this book!)  I spotted Carrie giving helpful money saving advice on Facebook and I asked her if she could elaborate a bit for my readers.  She has some wonderful tips on how to save money on your floral and decor for your Disney wedding.  Please welcome Carrie to DWI!

Photo by Julianne Fishell

Floral and decor can easily eat up a huge chunk of your budget due to the expense of fresh flowers and the amount of decor needed to fill large empty spaces like ballrooms. If you’re having a Disney’s Fairy Tale Wedding, you may be required to purchase some or all of these things through Disney, which means you’ll be paying a premium for already pricey goods and services.

Still, there are many ways to save—some big, some small, and some dependent on other decisions you make for your wedding, like the number of guests and the venues you choose. If you can’t use an outside vendor (which is usually the No. 1 way to save money on floral and decor for a Disney wedding), try some of these tips for controlling your costs.

• Choose ceremony and reception venues that don’t require a lot of decoration
• Scale down the size and/or number of floral altarpieces, pew decorations, centerpieces, etc., or eliminate them entirely
• Mix cheaper flowers in with the expensive ones you have your heart set on

Poster Palette - Mulan

In honor of our own wedding coming up, the latest Poster Palette honors my favorite Disney movie - Mulan!

When I look at this poster for Mulan, my eyes are immediately drawn to the pop of color on Mulan's lips, so I made that pretty coral color the main focus of my palette.  I then surrounded it with the pretty pastels seen throughout the movie, drawing inspiration from her colorful robe and the gorgeous scenery.