The Rock n Roll Bride is one of our absolute favourite wedding bloggers ever - not least of all because she keeps things fresh and exciting, promotes individuality, and celebrates awesomeness in all its forms.
Kat Williams set up her phenomenally successful blog when, while planning her own wedding back in 2008, she realised there was nothing out there for alternative brides.
Since then she’s launched her own line of wedding accessories AND the incredible Rock n Roll Bride magazine, which is currently the best selling bridal title in WHSmiths.
Now she’s joined the team here at Closer HQ to share her insights, advice, inspiration, and tips with you all via a brand-new monthly column.
Here’s Kat’s fourth instalment, which is all about deciding whether or not you should invite work colleagues to your wedding, and how to go about telling them they’re not invited.
Your relationship with your work colleagues is a funny thing. Most of us spend more of our daily lives with these people than anyone else (even more than our fiancés sometimes!) so when it comes to figuring out whether to invite them to the wedding it should be a no-brainer right? Well actually, no.
If you have a few very close friends from work (who you actually make the time to see outside of the office too) then it goes without saying that they’ll get an invite. But it all gets a little bit more complicated when they’re the kind of people you have office banter with, you go for a group drink at 5pm with, and you’re friends on Facebook… but you wouldn’t exactly call them up for a chat or turn to them in an actual crisis.
When you announce your engagement at work you’ll likely be met with lots of different reactions from your co-workers. Squeals of excitement, indifference, even jealousy. Then, there will be those who immediately start to take a great interest in your wedding. They’ll want to know everything and might even offer to help, using it as a welcome distraction from the drudgery of the 9-5. Soon enough these kinds of co-workers will probably make it known that they’re SO LOOKING FORWARD to the wedding too when, er, you haven’t actually officially invited them. Dilemma!
So, how do you handle this?
First of all I’d suggest sitting down with your fiancé and having a discussion about work colleague invites. Are they planning to invite anyone from their office? If the answer is a flat out no, then it makes it way easier for you to tell your co-workers the same thing. You can make up any excuse you like but space limitations and/ or budget constraints are usually the easiest little white lies to tell.
The other option, which many couples plump for, is to only invite work friends to the evening reception, after the dinner has been served. Most of your non-BFF work colleagues will probably be more than satisfied with this kind of invitation.
The other thing to realise is just because someone has helped you with your wedding planning does not mean that automatically get an invitation. Harsh but true. I know it sounds a bit mean, but you can’t be responsible for everybody’s feelings! You’ve probably got enough to contend with when it comes to just keeping your parent’s happy!
Same goes if you’re having a similar dilemma over the hen do. Tell them, sorry, you don’t know anything about it because your bridesmaids are organising it in secret. The perfect get out clause. Be friendly, firm and really, really regretful. You really wish you could, but it’s just not possible!
As you can see, this part of wedding planning requires nothing more than a bit of common sense. Ultimately you know who you want to invite or not right? However if you’re still struggling then this handy flow chart created by Veronica Dearly for the current issue of Rock n Roll Bride magazine (on sale now!) should definitely help you out!
Kat Williams is the founder and editor-in-chief of Rock n Roll Bride, a blog and print magazine dedicated to promoting individuality within the cookie cutter wedding world. Rock n Roll Bride is all about the charm and unique nature of ordinary people’s extra-ordinary weddings.
Her passion is inspiring brides and grooms-to-be to plan the wedding that they really want in a world dedicated by tradition and big frou frou dresses.
Issue 9 is currently available and can be purchased at WHSmiths, Sainsburys and via rocknrollbride.com/shop.
Headshot by Shell De Mar Photography.
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