When Nathan said, “I’ve been dating Shelby since I was 13…so that’s 11 years,” I thought wow — their hearts are in it forever. And you could definitely see that on their wedding day. They were 100% in love and their families were 100% in love with the fact that they were finally getting married! Haha!
With an original guest count of 550, they chose the Arena at the Swiftel Center in Brookings, SD. After Covid impacting the guest list a bit, their final guest count was 370, but we still set the room for LOTS of extra seating to accommodate anyone wanting to sit alone as a family or socially distanced from others.
We took several safety precautions that day. Among them were:
- Socially distanced tables: There were a mix of round and square tables spaced 6-feet apart and although each table could seat 10 people, we spaced them out to only seat 8.
- Pre-packed snack mixes: The original plan was to have large glass bowls and scoopers, but preventing multiple people from touching the same scoopers (or anything!) was a top priority. They family packaged three different kinds of snack mix into individual bags for easy grabbing. They were gone by the end of the night! (They doubled as a end-of-dance snack for most party-goers).
- Individual plated cupcakes: Served after dinner were six different flavors of cupcakes, all plated on individual plates and with forks pre-set. Gloved hands…check. Individual portions of dessert…check. Making sure somebody wouldn’t touch more than one fork…check.
- Meal cards: For 370 people, a buffet is ideal, but in this case, to prevent the spread of germs, each meal was served at each place setting. Hitch Studio printed meal cards for guests to choose as they entered the reception. They set that card in front of their place setting so servers knew to give them beef or chicken. It worked out wonderfully and safely.
- Sanitized the markers: Not only did Hitch Studio help with snack mix and cupcake safety, we helped in the church by sanitizing the markers between each person signing at the guest book. Hey, we never said the job was glamorous, but we did say it was important. 🙂
- The wedding programs: Typically, the ushers or another set of attendants hand out the programs at the ceremony as guests walk in. Instead, programs were set out instead of handed out to prevent touching more than necessary.
Hitch Studio was so honored to help with your wedding day, Shelby and Nathan! We got to design your wedding invitations, your programs, your meal cards, your reschedule postcards and more. I hope you felt like you were well taken care of on your wedding day, because that was our top priority!
Best wishes always, you two! I think you’re going to win the “longest relationship in the history of love stories” award. And we love your love story. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of it.
