Tips for a Truly Immersive Guest Experience

Let's chat about some trends we see in 2025 that enhance the guest experience and participation on the wedding day. Weddings have evolved so much over the years from your standard ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception- to couples' wanting their guests to be more involved in their special day and having more interactive activities for guests to participate in. So, how do couples make their guests feel like part of the celebration?

Keepsake Custom-Themed Favors

Keepsake wedding invitations that double as a wedding favor; unique, memorable, and so cute!

Inspiration found on Vogue

This wedding invite was a coastal-themed wedding; what better way to add your wedding favor to the invite than with this martini glass salt and pepper shaker! Not only is it such a cute, themed touch, but also, it's practical. It's no secret that wedding favors often get left at venues or easily thrown away. Something like a salt and pepper shaker is useful for any home and comes with a great story. Sending this favor with invites also ensures that it is getting to the home of the intended persons and not getting thrown away or forgotten. Themed invites are also huge this year, giving your guests a glimpse of what is to come for the big day! A sneak peek, if you will.

Weekend Itineraries: What to do while you're in town

Weddings are becoming an entire weekend or even weeklong celebration. The trend we are seeing is if a couple is getting married, they're going all out! Couples are having a great time planning their wedding and other activities while their guests are in town. This allows for more one-on-one time with some of your guests you may not see often.

Some cute weekend itineraries couples are creating include:

Inspiration from Archive

Wedding weekend pickleball party for the girls. All the ladies get together before the wedding for a fun game of pickleball and friendly competition before the big day. This is a great way to have your out-of-town guests have something fun to do when they get into town and a cost-effective way to spend time with minimal set-up.

Image found on Wedding Bee

Sweat out the nerves for the guys. What a great way to get all your guys together for a round of golf and drinks before the wedding jitters set in; sweating out the nerves before I do.

We are seeing these weekend itineraries more and more. This allows guests more time with the couple and get the most out of their trip!

Out with the old and in with the new

At weddings, I am sure most people know the typical formalities: ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, toasts, cake cutting, open dancing, etc. More often than not, couples are skipping a lot of the formalities to allow more time for open dancing or replacing the formalities with different unique activities.

Some examples we are seeing are:

First Look

The Bride and Groom take photos before the ceremony and do family photos afterward, allowing them to join in during cocktail hour, greet their guests, enjoy their appetizers, and mingle before the reception.

Image taken by: McKaylee Pendleton Photography

Doing a first look is a huge time saver when it comes to photos, and getting most of your photos done before the ceremony gives you plenty of time to join in the cocktail hour with your guests!

Group Photos

One thing we have noticed in the industry is that couples want a photo with everyone at their wedding, so they are coming up with creative ways to integrate this into the timeline to ensure they have photos with everyone. Some couples will do a table hop, and you have the entirety of one song to go from table to table to get a photo of each group. This is an entertaining way to ensure no one gets missed on a busy day! This has been really fun to see all the guests rush into a fun position before the couple makes it to their table and they are very memorable pictures.

Photo by Jeana McConaha Photography

We love the unique and memorable trends that couples add to their special day! 2025 is a year of transforming spaces into an entire experience for guests. From the decor to florals, to food, to signage, each piece of these weddings gives a lasting memory of what the day was all about, niche to the couple. Weddings like these we are seeing are truly unforgettable!