Handwritten cards for each guest to open during ceremony

We really took to heart that the guests invited to our wedding are those who inspire us to be better people (to each other and the world) — so we wrote in our ceremony a sort of “it takes a village” attitude to keeping our love intact. Meaning, we believe that who we surround ourselves with will help get us through when things are dark and celebrate when things are light. We also had 140 guests, and we were sad we wouldn’t get to spend a ton of time with each person.

So, both my partner and I hand-wrote a personalized card to every guest in attendance. These cards told each person specifically what we love/ admire about them and our friendship with them. The cards were super personal in the best of ways! We asked for help from a few close friends to hand out the cards as guests sat down and asked everyone to wait to open/read them together during the ceremony. In the ceremony, we explained how grateful we were everyone was here today and how central they all are to our story. Everyone opened them at the same time while a sweet song played. And then we had everyone participate in a community affirmation (sort of a play on a quaker wedding where all guests sign a marriage license).

It ended up being super meaningful for me and my partner and helped us actually realize what was and wasn’t important to us in our wedding — because handwriting 140 meaningful cards took a LOT of time so we really had to scrap other things to prioritize this. It was really special to us — so long story short, figure out what’s special to you both during the reception AND the ceremony… and don’t just focus on logistical questions (like colors and vendors and seating arrangements). There’s nothing you HAVE to do, so break the mold in whatever ways feel best to y’all as a couple!