Here at Easy Weddings, we talk a lot about making your perfect day easy. But what if you want your celebrations to go for more than a day? Then we can help with that too!
Turning your wedding into a wedding festival, wedstival, or wedfest, depending on what suits you best, is a great way to incorporate some more fun into your wedding weekend. Plus, it gives you more time to spend with the people who mean the most to you.
Our very own Grace and Elise recently attended the wedstival of Luke and Damien, which was not only a four-day weekend affair but also included both relaxation and elegance. Just because you want to turn your wedding into a festival doesn’t mean that you can’t have the luxe features at your wedding that you’ve always imagined.
If you’ve already thought of the reason that you want to have a wedstival, and have been inspired as to what you can do over the entire festival of your big day, then it’s time to actually think about how you can plan the event.
Planning a wedding on its own can be a mammoth task, let alone planning an entire festival around your love! So if you are thinking of having a wedfest then here are a few things you should consider.
Hire a wedding planner or guest coordinator
This is the first thing we suggest, and one that will definitely help make your day easier. Even if you’ve organised everything leading up to the wedding yourself, hiring a guest coordinator or wedding planner to actually facilitate what happens over the weekend and the actual day can be a lot off your plate.
This is something that Luke and Damien did, despite Luke owning his own wedding planning business LUK Designs. This meant that the pair didn’t have to deal with checking any guests in, making sure they got to their accommodation or answering questions before the day. Anything could go straight through to their guest coordinator, giving them more time to prep for the actual wedding day.
Send all the details out beforehand
There’s a bit more to consider when it comes to organising a Wedstival over a single-day wedding. Items such as accommodation, transport, activities and arrival and departure times for guests should be organised well and truly before your big day is ready.
You don’t necessarily need these organised when you send out your wedding invitations, but having a series of emails for guests leading up to the day is a great way to make sure that everyone knows what is going on and where they need to be at all times! The last thing you want is someone missing the bus to the winery tour because they didn’t know what time it was leaving. And on that note…
Organise activities around the wedding
Yourself and your spouse-to-be want to be able to celebrate the lead up to your wedding with family and friends. But there’s nothing worse than when you do need to go into wedding prep mode and there are people hanging around because they don’t have anything to do.
Keep your guests occupied by organising activities during your Wedstival. Whether it’s live music, a winery tour, lawn games, or sending them off to a local fun park, having a list of activities means that your guests can opt-in or out when they want to have a bit more fun, or have a break.
The chances are if they’re attending an entire wedding weekend they’re going to try and make the most of everything you have to offer!
Give local recommendations
Whether you’ve booked out the local hotel or have set up glamping tents for your guests, make sure they know what else is around. This can all go out in your information pack before the wedding, but places such as the local supermarket, pub, chemist, hair salon, or even department store for those who have missed something in their packing is a great way to make sure that your guests know what’s around them and what they need to prepare for.
This is also a great option if you have people arriving the night before activities start and need to send them off to dinner somewhere.
Plan for all types of weather
Particularly if your guests are staying in glamping accommodation, planning for hot or cold weather will mean that you won’t have any surprises on the weekend or your actual wedding day.
One item from Luke and Damien’s wedding that got a lot of use was their personalised umbrellas! With the wedding day itself being quite warm guests were able to shield themselves from the sun with the umbrellas. They also came in handy that night when the skies opened, with guests being able to make it back to the tents relatively dry.
Make sure the facilities are up-to-scratch
Having people stay around for your wedding means that they’re going to be staying overnight, and using all types of facilities. From electricity to hired tents, even to portaloos and porta-showers, make sure that you check out the facilities before you hire them for your guests. If you wouldn’t want to be staying there, then your guests wouldn’t either!
Keep everyone fed
The chances are that if everyone is staying for a wedstival, there’s likely going to be some drinking involved. With drinking it’s also important to make sure that your guests are eating as well. The last thing you want is to look out at your wedding ceremony and see a sea of hungover sunglasses on the day of your actual nuptials!
Whether you’re providing breakfast, brunch, catering or food trucks, checking to see that you have every meal covered, or that your guests know where to go if they’re feeding themselves, is a great way to be a responsible host for your wedding weekend.
We loved Luke and Damien’s elegant long brunch table the day after the wedding, which not only kept everyone together but was also paired with a coffee cart to start the morning!
