Dealing with late guests

Couples, you know your wedding guest/ family more than anyone else. If you know that they are not capable of arriving at your wedding at the specified invite time here is what you can do.

• Give them an invitation with the wrong ceremony start time, depending on how late they generally are, you can give them an invitation with 30 mins or maybe even one-hour prior to the actual ceremony start. (Sometimes drastic measures need to be taken). Now keep in mind that you will have wedding guests that do make time – Ensure that you give them the correct time, so they are not sitting and waiting, as it would be unfair to the wedding guests that do make time.
• If your bridal party/ parents that are always late, and you are getting ready in a bridal suite, you can have them get ready with you.
• Hair/ Make up appt should be made well in advance – it’s better to have your hair stylist and MUA start early as oppose to late, so they can have time at the end to do any touch ups. Make sure to give your hair/makeup artist the time your photographer will arrive and also the time you must be ready by, so they can plan accordingly to be finished on time.
• In your wedding invitation, suggest hotel accommodations that are within close proximity to your venue, the least amount of travel, is the earlier your guest will arrive.

Couples have 2 choices when it comes to the ceremony and not many guest are there:

1. Start the ceremony anyway (If bride/groom & officiant is present, technically you can get started).
2. Wait (Within Reason) – There 100% needs to be a cut off time, but if we needed to wait a couple mins – we can always cut a few mins off of cocktail hour to catch up – so it would not be an interruption to the reception program.At the end of the day, your guests have the start time, if they are not present at the start of your ceremony, it’s on them. Inevitable things do come up, but I believe that your entire timeline should not be set back because Uncle Jimmy hasn’t arrive (You may just have to send him some pics).

   If Uncle Jimmy (or whoever else) arrives late, remain upbeat and kind, nothing should stop your joy on the day you marry your best friend.