Program question for all you new brides!

lamoeller

I'm a late April bride and am getting my programs printed this weekend.  For those of you that did programs for your wedding, how many did you print and how many did you have left over for your # of guests?  

We have 175 guests and I'm not sure if I should do one per couple or one per person or like 75%?  Just wondering since you all so recently went through it! 

Also - any one thing you did that you ended up feeling was REALLY worth it or REALLY a waste?  

Thanks!

kari06_12

I was going to do a program for every person, but was convinced by my wedding coordinator to only do one for every other seat ... and they were already organized on the seats so there was not really a question of "how many do we take".  I didn't hear any complaints ... People probably figured it out!

My favorite thing that we did was the popcorn bar ... it was a big hit!!  

The biggest waste was probably purchasing vases rather than renting (thinking I would make back just as much money as it would cost to rent them ... but now I just wish I had sucked it up and cut my losses ... because I have all this junk to sell )

Good luck!!

jennipea382

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_march-2013-weddings_program-question-for-all-you-new-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:2fb7282e-ed53-4794-84c9-f5617fc97f8bDiscussion:1a00c5b5-ffc0-4004-935e-c2719fe0edf6Post:b7d58976-bc17-400c-bd80-4137fce6cf56">Re:Program question for all you new brides!</a>:
[QUOTE]We didn't do programs either. <strong>One thing I thought was a big waste were bathroom baskets</strong>. It was fairly expensive to compile everything, and were barely touched at the end of the night. We also did a midnight snack that most people didn't eat. I think after an hour of heavy appetizers followed by dinner and then cake, people were just stuffed. The big hit of our wedding turned out to be a caricature artist. DH booked it last minute, and I wasn't sold on the idea, but EVERYONE loved it! People also loved our cakes. We had nine in seven different flavors, and everyone enjoyed the variety. Good luck!!!
Posted by Sleeper2013[/QUOTE]

OMG I'm mad at myself for doing those. I know one person appreciated the tampons in ours, but a bunch of stuff got stolen! I mean, yeah, the stuff was to use but not to TAKE the entire big bottle of lotion we were going to take home afterwards. Also the hand sanitizer bottles and a few other things. Some stuff was cheap so I didn't care, but we specifically picked out the lotion we got so we could use the leftover. Blah.

Anyways, we did enough programs for one per person and extras. I know a lot of people like to scrapbook or save things, so I wanted extras for us and my mom and sister, plus whoever else wanted one. I like to overplan though, haha. We thought we would run out of wine but nope! It was only like half gone! Oh well, haha.

Ofiliializ

I didn't do programs, but one for every couple is industry standard. 

Best thing was the photographer and the first look. OH and Make up and Hair she was amazing. 

Biggest waste....printed signs in frames (we did ones for posting to facebook or instagram) and the amount of centerpieces per table. We had long tables and I felt like I needed them. I didn't. Oh and over buying wine....But now we just have extras.

091109brIANna033013

We had about 130 guests and made a program for each person. Since we made them to be reused as bookmarks, we only had maybe a couple dozen leftover since the bridal party didn't take any.

jennipea382

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_march-2013-weddings_program-question-for-all-you-new-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:2fb7282e-ed53-4794-84c9-f5617fc97f8bDiscussion:1a00c5b5-ffc0-4004-935e-c2719fe0edf6Post:6b3d90b0-c13b-447b-942d-97fc3bd6e12d">Re: Program question for all you new brides!</a>:
[QUOTE]I didn't do programs, but one for every couple is industry standard.  Best thing was the photographer and the first look. OH and Make up and Hair she was amazing.  Biggest waste....printed signs in frames (we did ones for posting to facebook or instagram) and the amount of centerpieces per table. We had long tables and I felt like I needed them. I didn't. <strong>Oh and over buying wine....But now we just have extras. =)</strong>
Posted by Ofiliializ[/QUOTE]

Haha, this is us too. We brought a case back with us (along with the like, 10 bottles of wine we got as gifts.. I think we like wine?) and there are still a couple at my parent's house. We won't need to buy any for a LONG time!

fuerst37

We knew we'd have about 110 people at the ceremony. Our programs had crosswords in the middle, so we knew there'd be less sharing. We ran 120 programs. We probably had 30 leftover, so still, a pretty good sum.

Caitlynmk

We had 150 guests and I made 90 programs. We only had 10 left after the ceremony and I thought it was definitely worth making. But I also did DIY programs and just bought really nice felt paper, so many people told me they thought they were professionally made, even though it cost me maybe $40 in paper and ink. We also had a lot of non-Catholics at our Catholic wedding, so I think many people liked knowing what was going on.

On the bathroom baskets thing the others have talked about, I didn't have the same experience. I got a bunch of items from the dollar store and only did a women's restroom basket. I had a handful of people tell me what a good idea it was and a lot of it was used at the end of the night. The items that seemed to be used the most were hairspray, mints, toothpick/floss picks, and lotion.

JordanL1221

We did programs. We had 130 guests and made 100. We had 10 left over.