Morning-After Brunch Questions

butterflyjumper1

So, my fiance's parents have graciously offered to host a morning-after brunch for OOT guests at our hotel. It is an amazing buffet with omelette stations, pancake stations, all sorts of pastries, etc., so it should be really great.

However, I am stuck on HOW we should invite our brunch guests.

Fiance says we can just put a little piece of paper inviting them to the brunch in the OOT guest bags.  Well, there might be some people who don't stay in either of our room blocks, but who we should invite, and what if they don't read everything in the bag??....also, we went to one wedding where we were invited to a morning after brunch via a piece of paper in our OOT guest bag (which is where fiance got the idea from), but I really didn't like the fact that we knew nothing about the brunch until we checked into our hotel and read everything in our bag. What if someone makes plans to leave early Sunday morning? What if they make other lunch plans before finding out about the brunch? I just feel like people would want to know about the brunch before hand so they can plan accordingly....

which brings me to my next dilemma.  How and when should I invite people? My thought was, perhaps we could wait for RSVPs to come in, then send out an invite to the brunch to the OOT guests who RSVP that they will be coming? is that a weird idea?

Also, do you think it is OK that we are only inviting OOT guests to the brunch, and not everyone on our guest list of 260? We are hoping to keep the brunch invite list fairly small since only 60 can fit in the brunch room we are renting out at one time (since it is a buffet line we are expecting people to just flow in and out as they want to and as they finish).

Sorry if this is confusing and wordy....I just want to make sure we do this right!! Thanks ladies

BmoreBride311

We are doing word of mouth/email/phone invites, after we get RSVPs.

Now that you mentioned the idea, I might put something in the OOT bags in addition, so they have the details written, but I agree with you that you make sure they know ahead of time, b/c it can affect travel arragangements.

BeachLover2885

Do you have a wedding website? Could you put the brunch info underneath the hotel info/accommodations section and then also place a note in the OOT guest bags?

I think it's fine to only invite the people staying at the hotel.  That seems to be the norm with weddings I've been to. 

toomanychoices17

What about putting it on your wedding website and in the OOT gift bags? I've found that the only people who go on the website are the people who are into making plans and would be upset about not knowing sooner (like you and me).  So not everyone who would be invted to the brunch would know about it before your wedding day, but all the people who care about plans would know. Maybe if you write it on the hotel section of the webpage it will be clear that it's not for all of your invited guests. 

I don't know though, this is a tricky situation. I'll have to think about it more because I'm not sure how I'll do it either.  As you said, sending out another invitation would work well, as long as you're willing to spend the time/money on that. I don't think it's weird to have another invitation.

bridetobe71412

We have an RSVP spot for our morning-after brunch in our invitation suite's RSVP card since the invitation to the brunch is one of the cards in our suite. So, our guests are RSVPing for 1) ceremony/reception (with entree choice), 2) bus transportation, and 3) morning-after brunch all on one RSVP card.

It's a lot of stuff, but that way we have it all in one place.

We also have the info on our wedding website and we are going to put a card of the "weekend events" in our OOT guest bags.

Also, regarding "is it ok to only invite OOT guests" -- Yes. We're inviting everyone who is OOT, but unfortunately that's basically our whole guest list. It's becoming a huge ordeal, but whatever. You can invite or not invite whoever you want!

Edited to add: I realize this may not work for you guys unless you do different RSVPs and cards for different invitations. Nevermind . . .

butterflyjumper1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_morning-after-brunch-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:1e08db46-f264-4d11-ac47-964073f60852Post:1f11671c-28d3-4b5f-82c3-3bdc1f05b2bc">Re: Morning-After Brunch Questions</a>:
[QUOTE]We have an RSVP spot for our morning-after brunch in our invitation suite's RSVP card since the invitation to the brunch is one of the cards in our suite. So, our guests are RSVPing for 1) ceremony/reception (with entree choice), 2) bus transportation, and 3)<strong> morning-after brunch all on one RSVP card</strong>. It's a lot of stuff, but that way we have it all in one place. We also have the info on our wedding website and we are going to put a card of the "weekend events" in our OOT guest bags. Also, regarding "is it ok to only invite OOT guests" -- Yes. We're inviting everyone who is OOT, but unfortunately that's basically our whole guest list. It's becoming a huge ordeal, but whatever. You can invite or not invite whoever you want!
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

I WISH we could do it this way....unfortunately, our guest list is probably about 1/2 out of town guests, 1/2 Indiana guests, and there is no way we could get everyone through the buffet line in the 2 hours that we have our brunch space reserved. 

Hence my dilemma....I will probably just end up sending a separate invitation for the brunch to OOT guests, yay for more work for me!! Hopefully people won't think it is weird to receive another invitation....

bridetobe71412

My FMIL is sending a separate invitation for RD so . . . sometimes different invitations are ok.

butterflyjumper1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_morning-after-brunch-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:1e08db46-f264-4d11-ac47-964073f60852Post:77f084dc-3999-4073-a95a-9c07bad7c764">Re: Morning-After Brunch Questions</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>My FMIL is sending a separate invitation for RD </strong>so . . . sometimes different invitations are ok. :)
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

Mine wants to do that too...ONLY VIA E-MAIL! I offered to get some invites printed for her so she "wouldn't have to worry about emailing people"......

bridetobe71412

HAHAHA Mine is the total opposite - she keeps sending me mockups! I'm like, THEY LOOK GREAT! GO AHEAD AND ORDER THEM! (Read: STOP SENDING!!!)

Are the same people invited to RD and Brunch? If so, she could put both? (I'm assuming the answer is no, but just trying to think off the top of my head . . . )

butterflyjumper1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_morning-after-brunch-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:1e08db46-f264-4d11-ac47-964073f60852Post:2ea50899-2b2a-4c09-889e-e684d319f4cf">Re: Morning-After Brunch Questions</a>:
[QUOTE]HAHAHA Mine is the total opposite - she keeps sending me mockups! I'm like, THEY LOOK GREAT! GO AHEAD AND ORDER THEM! (Read: STOP SENDING!!!) Are the same people invited to RD and Brunch? If so, she could put both? (I'm assuming the answer is no, but just trying to think off the top of my head . . . )
Posted by bridetobe71412[/QUOTE]

I wish I could do it that way...unfortunately there will be a lot of OOT guests that will be invited to the brunch that aren't invited to the RD!

Your FMIL sounds like a trip.....mockups for RD invites??? I am probably just going to do ours on vistaprint!

MeaganR12

I think sending separate invites after you get RSVPs might work, depending on your RSVP date.

I know for us, we're inviting all OOT guests to our RD so I made our RSVP date 4 weeks before the wedding (much earlier than I need it) and I plan on sending RD invites immediately after. 

As for only inviting OOT guests to the brunch, I think that's perfectly acceptable. OOT guests usually commit to a bigger financial obligation so I think a morning after brunch would be a nice thank-you to them.

Nati05

I wouldn't list it on the website. You'll end up with local guests showing up to the morning after brunch or them reading how only OOTGs are invited.

Are you uncomfortable with calling your OOTGs after they RSVP? Or even emailing them? First of all I wouldn't even want to think about the cost of sending out another set of invites, but more than that I would be worried about the time frame. Depending on when you receive the RSVP (like the person who doesn't RSVP and you end up waiting a week to contact them) you might not have enough time to send them their brunch invite before they make any further travel plans. Hopefully no one has plans of leaving immediately the next morning, but you never know.

littlemoments324

Yes, it is fine to NOT invite your entire guest list!! Just invite the OOT guests, parents, grandparents and anyone else you want there!

As for invitations, send the RSVP's with the wedding invites to those you're going to invite to the brunch. Seems the simplist way to me.

meagid

We added a brunch invite as an insert with our invitations and will mail them out that way. You just have to be sure you don't mix up what invitations include brunch and which don't. We're not requiring an RSVP for brunch, mostly just a show up if you want but you are invited deal. 

butterflyjumper1

I hadn't even thought about including a separate insert just for the OOT guests - you guys are genius!! I am totally going to run this by fiance and see what he thinks - seems like a great way to do it to me! Only confusing part will be keeping up the non-brunch guests apart from the brunch guests!!

We aren't really going to require an RSVP to the brunch either, since we just have a big room reserved and it is a brunch buffet; our concern was mostly making sure that the guests knew about the brunch so that they could plan accordingly.