Got A Few Questions...

caroline78

First of all my plabs have changed millions of times, but are now finally settled.

We are having a ceremony at the City Hall which will be my and OH, my brother and his girlfriend as witnesses, my niece as a kind of flower girl/ring bearer, and my Mum and Dad, plus a favourite aunt and her husband and two teenage daughters.

Then we will be going to Belfast Castle where we will be inviting about another 30 people and my parents are paying for a set meal at £15.95 in the Cellar. This is not a private function and therefore we don't really need to give much notice for booking.

I am sending invites on Thursday and was wondering how do I word this. Basically my parents are paying for the meal, but no transport or drinks. There is no evening entertainment. We are getting married at 3pm on a Thursday and the meal will be at about 5.30pm/6.00pm. After the meal we will probably stay for a few drinks but nothing major.

We are expecting all of my side to turn up, which is 25 (including the bridal party), and 5 friends. We are only inviting ten from his side and don't think any of them will turn up....we need them to rsvp...how do we make it clear that this is something that they need to do....although to be honest we are expecting a few nasty letters from then rather than Congratulation cards. I was thinking of putting sae in the invites and then they have no real excuse not to post them.

Also we have lived togther for nine years and have everything we need. I know it is rude to ask for any kind of gift, but is there a way of asking for money instead, as we would love to go on honeymoon but can't really afford it. I was thinking if we did get money then when we return home from honeymoon of posting Thank You Card and letting the person know what we spent their money on....drinks by the pool, meal for two, massages..etc

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you:)

sindygirl58

I think its perfectly acceptable to ask for money or vouchers. Lots of people do this nowadays.
Have a great day.!

floss2

caroline78 wrote: »

...I am sending invites on Thursday and was wondering how do I word this. Basically my parents are paying for the meal, but no transport or drinks. There is no evening entertainment. We are getting married at 3pm on a Thursday and the meal will be at about 5.30pm/6.00pm. After the meal we will probably stay for a few drinks but nothing major.....

... I was thinking of putting sae in the invites and then they have no real excuse not to post them...

Also we have lived togther for nine years and have everything we need. I know it is rude to ask for any kind of gift, but is there a way of asking for money instead, as we would love to go on honeymoon but can't really afford it.....

Invites:

ceremony - Miss X & Mr Y would like to invite you to join them for their wedding at 3pm on xxx City Hall etc....followed by joining other family & friends for a celebration meal at Belfast Castle.

meal - Miss X & Mr Y would like to invite you to join them and other family & friends for a meal at Belfast Castle to celebrate their wedding etc

RSVP's - you can try, but not everybody will respond

Presents - we're asking for Thomas Cook vouchers, as our finances dictate that it will be either wedding or honeymoon, not both!

RainbowDrops

Not sure how to word the bit about the meal being paid for but the drinks are sepparate sorry.

As for the gifts, I saw a nice thing on someone's invitation a couple of years back. They too had a house with everything they needed.
Here's what the wrote (where you would normally have a wedding gift list):
"We've invited you for your presence, not your presents!
But if you would like to bring a gift, we would appreciate vouchers or something towards our honeymoon."

Sammy85_2

I wouldnt mention drinks at all, you dont normally on an invitation. Most people bring money to a wedding anyway as usually only toasting and meal drinks are included and there is a paid bar for the rest of the day/evening.

I would include an RSVP envelope, maybe even with a stamp on (2nd class - we are MSE of course!) and hopefully people will respond.

We're asking for cash too and will be putting a cheesy poem of some description in the invite letting people know that if they wish to give a gift we would prefer cash to pay for our honeymoon.

RainbowDrops

I suppose you could mention that there is a cash bar - that would be a subtle hint!

caroline78

Thanks for all your ideas so far, but I have yet another question.

As we are having such an informal meal with no set tables how would I go about giving wedding favours to guests. I would like to give each guest a little box filled with chocolates and don't want to hand them out but can't see how I can get them on the tables before the meal if we don't know where we are sitting..lol

Any ideas ??

I wish I had went with my first idea of eloping..lol

frannyann

I am quite sure that with such a large booking the manager could be asked to simply go around once everyone is seated to hand the favours out, when I was a waitress it wasn't that unusual, we'd often get asked to present flowers etc!