Weddings are expensive! From food to flowers and drinks to decorations, costs add up very quickly. You want the day to reflect everything that’s important to you but also not break the bank. So how to keep costs lower and stress less about your bid day?
Consider trimming down your guest lists!
Everyone from your parents to your future in-laws to your siblings have opinions on who to invite, but ultimately, it’s up to you to decide who you want to celebrate with and whose presence means the most to you and your partner.
We have some tips for trimming down your guest list below!
Make sure that you and your partner are on the same page and stick to the rules you make! This is the only rule there is!
Have an “A” list and “B” list. Go ahead and send out your invites to those you must have at your wedding. If you receive around 10-20% regrets, start to send out more invitations to those who you’d still love to have (colleagues, more distant friends), but didn’t make the first round for whatever reason.
If you or your significant other has never met them before [hello your parents’ friends!], consider not sending an invitation. Especially if you are the one footing the bill for the wedding.
Don’t feel like you own anyone an invitation. Haven’t spoken to them in three years? Don’t worry about it! They invited you to their wedding but you’re no longer close? It’s okay!
Keep the guest list of adults only! And don’t feel bad about it—it’s your wedding, and while your cousin on your mom’s side might be upset, feel free to call and explain your decision.
Only send out plus ones to those who are married, engaged, or are in a committed relationship. You might even take the stress off of singles who would feel the need to bring a date.
Whatever you do decide to do, your wedding is about celebrating the love between you and your significant other! We’d love to hear how you strategized your guest list!
We know it’s hard to have any definite plans about your wedding with constant changes in social distancing guidelines.
But we’re over here daydreaming about how your postponed wedding could become a fall wedding and all the fun that goes along with September, October, and November weddings!
The number one reason? Makeup doesn’t sweat off your face!
All the (more serious) reasons we love fall weddings!
The weather’s still warm, but not sticky and sweaty! Hello, outdoor ceremonies! And no more frizzy hair! Cross that worry off your list.
The trees are still full of leaves, and if you’re lucky, it’ll be colorful for photos.
Unique flowers and color palettes are all the rage. This is your explicit permission to try something out-of-the-box (if you weren’t already doing it:))
Fall foods are the best! Think: root vegetables, apples, and other warm, hearty foods! Consider serving apple cider or apple pie!
Take advantage of our farmhouse tables for a rustic feel.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out some of our previous fall and winter weddings we’ve hosted at the Rutherford!
Every month, we bring in some of our favorite vendors and dress up for an evening in our favorite place! Our After Hours are one of our most popular ways to show off the Rutherford to potential clients, our booked bride, and their friends and families (and to try all of the yummy samples our featured caterer brings in)!
Our After Hours events offer YOU the opportunity to meet with vendors at one time and hopefully help you in booking and planning different aspects of your wedding. We know that there’s so much that goes into each and every wedding, and we want you to have as much time and as many options as you need to plan the perfect day! You’ll also get to see the space partially set up for an event, (and filled with people) helping you to visualize your evening!
One of our favorite parts of After Hours? Getting to see the courtyard under the lights. Most of our events continue well into the evening, so visiting the Rutherford at night will allow you to see what your event will look like under the stars.
Already well into wedding planning? Come bring your friends and family so they can see where you’re celebrating your big day! This way everyone feels a part of the planning process and you get to feel at ease knowing that your closest confidants approve.
Our next After Hours is March 16th from 5-7pm, so be sure to stop by and say hi!
Looking back on 2019, it’s hard to comprehend how much growth The Rutherford has seen in the past 12 months.
This past year, we’ve hosted countless weddings, corporate events, and functions. And it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers. But what we remember most is the details from every event. From the luggage tag name tags at a travel-themed wedding to the wedding party that came straight from their ceremony at Pretty Place, each event is unique.
At The Rutherford, we get to see all the moving parts that go into each event and we get to see how they make people feel. Each event is unique—they all have their challenges and their own flair. But at the end of each event, our favorite thing to see is the happy couple or hostess walk away with a smile on their face.
Community has always been a core aspect of our business and reflecting on the past year, we’ve seen that continue to grow. Vendors, new and old, come into The Rutherford and continue to amaze us with their talents. Our open house and showcases give us the ability to connect with them and help our clients plan the event of their dreams. It truly is a team effort and we’re so thankful to be a part of it all.
Along with expanding our outside community, we’ve also grown internally this past year, adding Wallace on as our Director of Sales. She’s a dream to work with and truly understands how to make each of our couples’ dreams come true. Every time she gives a tour, we can’t help but fall in love with our space again! Our intern program has also grown this year, with four new faces from Furman and Clemson. It truly takes a village to create a space like the Rutherford, and we love our team and all the fabulous work (and fun!) they do.
We’re so excited for another year at The Rutherford filled with weddings, parties, and other events. Here’s to ringing in a new decade and a year of possibilities!
She’s in charge of all of our bookings, coordinating with clients, and keeping us all caught up on the Bachelorette!
A recent Clemson grad, Wallace has experience in special events and event sales coordination from across the Upstate area and knows her way around an event!
If you’ve toured the Rutherford recently, you probably met Wallace and explored the space with her. Learn a little bit more about her and why we’re so excited to have her working at the Rutherford!
Dream job as a child?
Ballerina
Favorite space in the Rutherford + why?
Our Brick Room (the upstairs space)! There is SO much you can do with our upstairs space, and I am a sucker for wood floors!
What’s something you always have on your desk?
A Dr. Pepper – always necessary!
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl – I get my best work done at night!
Digital or paper?
Paper, I’m old school.
Go-to lunch order?
A Mr. T bagel from Sully’s Steamers 🙂
Favorite TV show right now + why?
Handmaid’s Tale for sure! It’s not like any other show and so interesting!!
Best part of working at the Rutherford?
This is a very hard question, but I would have to say the best part of working at the Rutherford would be having the privilege of working alongside of the owner, Yasha Patel. She is such an incredible mentor!
A fun fact you’d tell at dinner parties!
I have been to 2/3 National Championships that Clemson has won! Go Tigers!
One wedding trend that we’re excited to see continue into 2020 is reception entertainment. While dancing is still the highlight of the evening, it’s fun to change it up and add in a few extras to spice up the night!
A Few of Our Favorites
Photo Booth
Help your guests remember the night with a photo booth! Selfie booths have become popular in the past few years and you can either have printed or digital options for your guest to keep. Customize it even more with a frame or filter just for your night!
DiPietro Photography
Interactive Food Station
Guests take their food seriously, especially if a long night of dancing and celebrating are ahead. Interactive and customizable food always excite and amuse people.
Some of our favorite caterers have A-MAZ-ING food options
Good Life Catering offers a made-to-order grilled cheese station and a liquid nitrogen ice cream sundae bar!
And if you’re in the mood for pizza, Coastal Crust uses their food truck at weddings—which we love to see in our courtyard!
DiPietro Photography
Late Night Food
Keep people happy with late-night food. Pizza, French fries, and doughnuts are all popular options. Bringing your favorite food is also another way to add a unique touch to your wedding (Bite Squad delivery?) Maybe even throw in a coffee bar so people have the energy to keep dancing all night long!
For some incredible local options, check out Chef 306’s After Burner menu. Yes, you read that right—breakfast for dinner!
What are you thinking about serving for your wedding?
Your wedding day is all about you and what YOU want the day to look like! Most couples usually put a lot of thought into flowers, food, and friends. But an out-of-the-box way to personalize another part of the celebration with your own cocktail!
Where to Start
What’s your typical going-out drink? Do you prefer a simple gin and tonic? Or something stronger like an old-fashioned? Perhaps you and your significant other bonded over a certain IPA. Why not serve that at the reception? It’s all about creating a day that you love!
Madison Grae Photography
Tie It to the Theme
The devil is in the details, and we love a subtle element that incorporates the overall theme of the evening.
Sometimes the glass in which the drink is served can spice up the drink and fit the mood of the evening. Tags and stirrers can also add to the visual appeal of a drink. It’s also an easy way to tie in your color scheme without having to dye the drink.
DiPietro Photography
Consider the food you’re serving and maybe incorporate a drink to compliment it! If you’re having a shrimp and grits bar, consider a southern-inspired cocktail.
Advice From the Pro
We chatted with one of our favorite bartenders, Jared, from Southern Libations, about how to get the most out of your bar!
First, a bit about what he does:
Southern Libations was founded on the idea that temporary bar set ups could be more than your typical line up of beer, wine, and spirits. They found a void and decided to be the company that offered specialty drinks for reasonable prices from a bar that would be an experience for the guests who saw and interacted with it. The drinks are an important part of any wedding reception but often couples and party hosts have no idea what to serve.
DiPietro Photography
At Southern Libations, we provide a unique mobile bar service and enable guests to enjoy delicious custom cocktails made from fresh ingredients. We do a lot of weddings and have been able to add a unique touch to the couple’s day with our stylish mobile bars and custom drink selection.
Signature Cocktails
He suggested that when it comes to crowd pleasing drinks, everyone has a different palate so to create at least two signature cocktails.
Signature cocktails are a great way to add a personal touch to the bar at an event. For weddings, couples can customize the names to reflect their personalities. Where you really have the chance to go deeper and allow your guests to engage with your menu, is when you make a drink personal to you, your company, or the people you are gathering within celebration.
DiPietro Photography
This can also be turned into a “his and her” feature on the cocktail menu. A popular example would be a Moscow Mule (Vodka, lime, ginger beer) for the bride and an Old Fashioned (Bourbon, sugar, bitters) for the groom. From this selection, guests can still do standard two ingredient drinks with the spirits listed like bourbon/cola, vodka/tonic, etc.
Full open bars can provide guests with too many options. Focusing on 2-4 interesting cocktails makes the selection easier for the guests and makes the drink menu more personalized to the event. People will be more satisfied if they can start with a fairly limited number of high quality options, and go from there.
Get Outside the Box
One unique concept that Southern Libations offers is putting cocktails on tap. Serving cocktails on draft speeds up bar service and ensures consistency with each drink. Many cocktails can easily be put on draft.
They love using Cannonborough All-Natural Craft Sodas out of Charleston—their line up includes Ginger beer, Raspberry Mint, Honey Basil, and Grapefruit Elderflower. From there, they combine your spirit of choice to the soda keg to create a unique cocktail on tap that can be served in under 6 seconds. Couples usually combine the cocktails on draft with a bubbly or beer on tap, or both.
DiPietro PhotographyDiPietro Photography
Having these drinks ready to serve straight from the tap cuts down on drink preparation time and keeps the line moving throughout the night. This also creates much less waste at the end of the night.
Let us know what you’re thinking about for your signature wedding cocktail!
One of the fun traditions the owner of the Rutherford, Yasha has, is taking selfies with every bride!
In general, Yasha is pretty much the selfie queen. So it’s no surprise that when the Rutherford opened two years ago, Yasha started a tradition of taking selfies with all of the brides.
During the Rutherford’s first wedding season, Kaycee Hines’ wedding kicked off the month of May. It was only natural that she and Kaycee took a photo together.
From there, it just took off as a must-do on our event checklist. If Yasha knows she can’t be at the actual wedding, she’ll take on with couples during a planning meeting the week before.
We love to become a part of a couple’s story and see all the planning and fun they have on their wedding day, and think of these selfies as a way to reminisce on all the excitement from their event.
We’ve loved being a part of the Greenville community for these past two years. Building memories, creating events, and establishing relationships and partnerships across different fields. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two years because it feels like we’ve been doing this forever.
A lot has changed since we first opened our doors in 2017. Over these past two years, we’ve grown to have a full-time sales director who is just as excited about the Rutherford and everything that we do. We’ve also developed an internship program to help college students in figuring out their career paths. Our team is one that is passionate about helping clients host the best event, and we couldn’t be more thankful for that. We thrive off of client feedback and are always working as a team to make our venue a better space.
Wallace and Yasha at a conference
Internship Program
Behind the Scenes
Staging Altars
One of our favorite parts of the whole experience is seeing all of the different brides and what they do with the space. We’re always inspired by each event and every way they change and transform our space for the evening. No two events are ever the same, and that’s what we love so much about this job—the ever-changing, fast-paced, and inspiring environment.
Thank you for being a part of The Rutherford’s story. And for helping us to build this community right here in Greenville.
2019 was (and still is!) all about bold colors (think: navy, blush, and gold), statement headpieces, and greenery everywhere.
Every single one of our brides incorporated their personal style into their weddings, and we always love to see how they put a twist on trends.
As weddings shift to a more natural yet personalized vibe, we’re predicting some of the upcoming trends to look for!
On Tap for 2020
1. Cornflower Blue and Gen Z Yellow
Unique color combinations are all the rage and we don’t see that dying down in the coming year. Unexpected pops of bright and bold hues will make your wedding stand out—and help you to express your personal style.
Angela Zion Photography
2. Reception Entertainment
Receptions have become more than just dancing the night away. From photo booths to food board centerpieces, they’re only becoming more elaborate, and we’re excited to see what new ideas couples incorporate into their big day. Perhaps wedding scents or caricatures will become the new “it” entertainment at 2020 weddings?
DiPietro Photography
3. Eco-friendliness and Minimalism
This trend has been on the rise for years but it’s becoming even easier to implement environmentally-friendly aspects into your wedding. Using native flowers, sourcing local food, and printing invitations on recycled paper are all good starting points. Many couples are focusing on high-quality sustainable products rather than trying to incorporate every single trendy item.
Emily Bolt Photography
Let us know what you think will be next up for wedding trends!
