Planning a wedding means stressing about a lot of things. There’s the centerpieces, the music, the entertainment, you want it all to flow just right. For most of us, another thing keeps us up at night — how will everyone get along? You probably have a lot of different social circles coming together: families, friends, and coworkers. Will they mingle? Will they like each other based on these first impressions?
Your Wedding Is a Social Milestone
We want everyone to connect and have fun together. It’s easy to get caught in a worrying loop stressing about who might say the wrong thing or who the problem guest might be. BUT that’s not helpful. Worry will only waste time and give you a headache. What will help? Being PROACTIVE! That’s right, there’s actually some steps you can take now to ensure smoother socializing on your wedding day and way after.
Beyond the romance of your big day, your wedding is also the first time many new connections will be formed. Your wedding day serves as the first of many celebrations where you and your partner’s family and friends will come together. That’s why it’s so beneficial to give everyone the chance to make great first impressions with each other.
Just think how much more fun events in the future will be if your loved ones have real connections to each other, rather than just passing pleasantries with the in-laws.
With that in mind, your wedding will be the time of lots of first impressions. And as psychology shows, first impressions can be critical in forming real bonds and lasting connections.
Here’s some quick stats on first impressions to check out:
According to the Science of People Research Lab report, 95% of people believe first impressions are very important.
In the same study, 61% of people believe they can instantly spot a “phony” the minute they meet him or her.
First Impressions Are Made Fast – Really Fast
When you meet someone for the first time, your brain creates an impression of that person in one-tenth of a second! Your brain, in the primal amygdala portion, assesses how that person looks, sounds, and acts, before the conscious portion of your brain has a chance to think about it. In less than one minute, your brain may have processed up to 10,000 cues to make a decision about that person. This is an evolutionary adaptation to enable us to quickly assess whether someone is a potential friend or threat. But it also means you don’t have much time at all to make that first impression a good one.
First Impressions Tend To Last
Not only are first impressions made incredibly fast, they also tend to last – once the first impression is made, it’s hard to change it. This is due to something called the primacy effect, or the serial-position effect. When we experience a sequence of events, we tend to remember the first event first. So if you make a bad first impression, people will remember that even if your subsequent impressions are positive.
The Halo Effect
An additional aspect of first impressions, and another reason why making a good one is so important, is something called the Halo Effect. In this phenomenon, positive qualities perceived in one thing will be extended to other related things. This is important in relationships between people because if someone has a good first impression of you, they tend to assume positive qualities of you in the future and give you the benefit of the doubt in most circumstances.
So with that in mind, how do you give your guests the best opportunities to make their smoothest first impressions? If you’re thinking about answers to that question, you’re already ahead of the game. Don’t start stressing now, it’s easier than you think to help your guests better socialize.
5 Questions to Ask Yourself for a More Fun Wedding Day
- Ask yourself, what does your ideal celebration look like? What are you and your guests doing? Try to get as specific as possible here. Do you want your friends partying with a superslide? Learning to Salsa? What would give you the most joy?
- What kind of socializing is most important to you and your guests? Do you see a full dance floor with pulsing music or something more quiet?
- What weddings did you enjoy the most as a guest? What elements did you like that you can you incorporate into your event?
- Are you taking steps prior to your wedding to get introductions out of the way?
- What guests might benefit from being introduced? Think folks that never met but that have similar interests, introverts, and single guests attending your wedding alone.
The cake, candle and flowers are all beautiful, but they only last for a day. The connections made and the friendships that grow at your wedding will last for years to come. Bringing your two circles of families and friends together can be awkward. What if you could flip that and make it fun, special and comfortable from the start?! How much better could future holiday gatherings be if your families are connected and building friendships
You Can Make Socializing Smoother
Your guests might not remember what was said or what you fed them, but they will remember how you made them feel. Break the ice. Fill the dance floor. And make your wedding the best celebration you and your guests have ever been too.
These are all the most important people in your lives and your wedding will bring them together in one social circle for many years to come. Get things off to the right start. With Guestie you can easily connect your loved ones, forming one connected community who will be supporting and rooting for you not only on your wedding day but through all your milestone moments!
Turn what traditionally is a four hour gathering into a celebration that brings your communities together for the first time, introducing everyone who will be part of your lives in all the years to come!
Guestie helps you create a more connected, more personal wedding experience. Sign up now so you and your guests can start the celebration today. All it takes is a quick upload of your guestlist to kickstart the party. Think of Guestie like the pre-game to the wedding of your dreams.
