Wedding Wednesdays: How to Tell Guests About Your Wedding Website

If you’ve spent time and energy creating a wedding website, you’re probably dying to know how to tell guests about it right about now.

We know you want to shout your wedding URL from the mountaintops so your friends and fam can start eyeing your engagement photos, booking hotel rooms and perusing your registry. But before you go completely rogue, The Knot reminds us that how you tell guests about your wedding website actually does matter. Here’s exactly how they suggest to tell guests about your wedding website and get them excited to use it.

How to Share Your Wedding Website
Here’s the thing: Sharing your wedding website implies that’s probably where you’ll provide registry information—which means you’re kinda-sorta suggesting you’d love some wedding gifts. Now, your guests obviously want to check out your website ASAP and buy a gift off your registry—but the point is, it’s important to go about leading them there tactfully. With this in mind, the best ways to tell guests about your wedding website are:

1. Putting the link right on your save-the-dates, bridal shower and/or engagement party invites
2. Including your site on an insert in your invitation suite
3. Sharing it by word of mouth (aka via texts, emails or in person)

Note that it’s really not good form to print a link directly on your formal wedding invitations—include it on a separate insert. The reason you can tell guests about your website via save-the-dates is that those are generally a little less formal—and they’re typically one of the first official announcements of your wedding date and important details (making it the perfect place to share your wedding website).

How Not to Tell Guests About Your Wedding Website
Not to be bossy, but don’t post your wedding website on social media. Unless you’re planning to send your URL to a friend in a private Facebook message or Instagram DM, posting your website publicly on social will only cause problems. You’ll offend anyone who sees your website but wasn’t invited to the wedding. Plus, people might see your site, assume they’re invited and call you asking where their save-the-date is. Cue the awkward phone conversation.

How to Get Your Guests to Actually Look at Your Website
Beyond telling guests about your website, make sure you incentivize them to use it and get them psyched for your upcoming nuptials.
Step one: Make your wedding website as easy to find as possible. How? Create a custom URL that’s easy to remember. This way, no one will have to rummage through their mail or emails to find that original save-the-date. Think of it this way: If they can’t find your website, they won’t use it.
Step two: Turn on digital RSVPs so your guests can instantly reply, mark their meal preference and add a plus-one (if applicable, of course). As much as we love a traditional RSVP, this is way easier than filling out one of those response cards.

Lastly, a great way to get your guests to engage with your wedding website is to include not only need-to-know wedding details, but fun extras too. We're talking engagement photos, your love story, wedding party bios and local gems near your wedding venue. Include favorite restaurants, coffee shops, museums, parks and stores to keep your loved ones well-fed and entertained over the course of your wedding weekend. And don't forget, you can always update your site along the way to keep it looking fresh and up to date.

It's time to share your site! Take The Knot's tips on doing so and devour the details of this crucial part of your wedding planning journey!

Tasty Tuesday: 3 Mingle-Friendly Finger Foods

Whether you're hosting a summer soiree or a late night happy house, these mingle-friendly finger foods are sure to hit the spot. These easy and delicious recipes are sure to please. Get the ingredients and whip them up this weekend!

1. Dried Plums with Bacon and Fresh Goat Cheese

Ingredients
12 pitted dried plums
5 1/3 ounces goat cheese, divided into 12 equal portions
3 slices bacon, each cut into 2-inch pieces (to total 12 pieces)
Toothpicks

Directions
For each dried plum, make a lengthwise slit and spoon a portion of cheese into slit
Wrap dried plum with a piece of bacon
Secure bacon with wooden pick
Arrange bacon-wrapped dried plums on rack in broiler pan
Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat 6 to 8 minutes or until browned and barely crisp, turning once
Serve hot or warm

2. Pizzettas with Dried Plums & Caramelized Onions

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 small onions, thinly sliced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
4 (6-inch) round tandoori naan
1 cup crumbled fresh goat cheese
1 cup (about 6 ounces) quartered pitted dried plums

Directions
Heat oven to 400°F
In large skillet, heat olive oil
Add onions, salt and pepper
Cover and cook over medium-low heat until onions are soft
Add rosemary and thyme and cook uncovered, stirring frequently, until onions are golden brown
Place naan on baking sheet; spread 1/3 cup onion mixture on each naan, leaving a 1/2-inch border
Sprinkle evenly with 1/4 cup goat cheese and 1/4 cup dried plums
Bake about 5 minutes or until crust is golden and toppings are hot
Cut pizzetta into 8 squares

3. Lumpia with Dried Plum Purée

Ingredients
1 pound ground pork
1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
¾ cup minced onion
¼ cup dried plum purée
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon water
24 lumpia wrappers
Cooking spray

Directions
Mix together pork, water chestnuts, onion, dried plum purée, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.
In a small bowl, mix flour and water to make a paste
Place one lumpia wrapper on a work surface and place about 2 tablespoons pork mixture near the edge closest to you
Roll bottom edge towards the middle, fold in both sides and continue rolling
Moisten edge with flour paste to seal
Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling
Heat oven to 425° F
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
Arrange lumpia on baking sheet and spray with cooking spray
Bake 20-25 minutes or until browned and crisp

Can't go wrong with any or all of these fabulous finger foods! Invite your friends and devour the details of a mingle-friendly event with these delicious recipes.

Monday Mashup: Underground Garages Are Underrated

The highly anticipated exhibition “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” is headlining at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago through September 22. Michael Darling, the museum’s James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, takes viewers through the 20-year journey of Abloh’s unconventional career as a creative collaborator for Kanye West, the launch of his Milan-based streetwear brand Off-White, and finally, his appointment as artistic director of menswear for Louis Vuitton. BizBash shares that the museum honored the designer at its splashy ArtEdge gala on June 8. Here's how!

As guests arrived through the museum’s loading dock, they could pin their avant-garde ball gowns and lapels with their choice of Abloh-designed keepsake badges, dubbed “Purist” or “Tourist,” a homage to the designer's obsession with labels. Partygoers had their first glimpse of the urban ruins theme as they posed for pictures in front of a colorful orange and white checkered backdrop that featured a graffiti-style grim reaper. Guests then piled into the freight elevator that was decked out with grand chandeliers strewn with orange and white traffic cones, which took them to a cocktail party on the second floor’s Kovler Atrium.

More than 650 guests attended the $2,500-a-head gala sponsored by Louis Vuitton. Co-chaired by Dr. Julius Few, D’Rita and Robbie Robinson, and Mary Ann and Ben Weprin, the event attracted internationally-known attendees. Artist Takashi Murakami (who had his own retrospective “The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg” at the museum in 2017), actor Joel Edgerton and girlfriend Vogue Australia fashion director Christine Centenera, and Chance the Rapper all got their first look at Abloh’s highly anticipated mid-career retrospective on the fourth floor. The showing encompasses seven sections: “Early Work,” “Fashion,” “Music,” “Intermezzo,” “Black Gaze,” “Design,” and “The End.” Gala guests weren’t the only ones with an elevated sense of style. The security guards became walking pieces of art with their limited-edition Nike Air Force 1 ‘07 Virgil Abloh x MCA “Flooded Blue” sneakers given to them by the designer.

The museum’s underground concrete parking garage saw the biggest metamorphosis of the night giving guests a transformative escape from the clean lines of the museum. Taking over multiple levels, the entire space was enveloped in an immersive installation of floor-to-ceiling images of Abloh’s work of exhibit plans and renderings. Frost Lighting filled the room in moody hues that glowed in blue and purple tones. Planners wanted to make sure that guests felt as if they were actually dining in the exhibition. The garage’s existing “Exit” and “Caution” signage played up to the theme’s gritty vibe, as did the low-hanging overhead clearance height signs.

The museum enlisted help from HMR Designs to work within the tricky space, whose challenges included slanted ceilings, pipes, and angled walls. Hanas noted that planners had to consider various sizes and shapes of tables to accommodate more than 600 guests.

MCA Catering presented a three-course dinner of Belgian endive salad with chilled lobster, along with artisanal breads from James Beard Baker of the Year Greg Wade, and an entrée of beef short ribs at tables accented with simple centerpieces of greenery and plenty of candlelight. Macaroons were rendered in Abloh’s signature Pantone 021 C (orange) and white. After dinner, guests returned to the fourth floor for a dessert reception and concert by English singer-songwriter Dev Hynes. The Blood Orange artist, who did a live set at an all-white piano and stage, has been a major collaborator of Abloh.

The gala raised more than $2 million to bring a platform, workshop, laboratory, and performance space for Chicago teens who the museum hopes to attract with the exhibit. “Figures of Speech” will travel to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta later this year and then to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Brooklyn Museum in 2020.

Get inspired and never underestimate the powers of event design as you devour the details of an underground garage as a venue!