Hawthorne House Blog
Thanks for vising the Hawthorne House blog! Here you will find tips and tricks to planning your wedding, real wedding inspiration, advice from local professionals and more! Scroll through to see what article catches your eye or sort by the categories listed below to see only the articles relevant to what you want help with. Happy reading!
Categories
Choose the Right Caterer For You!
Wedding celebrations are all about coming together in marriage, but no one can deny that food comes in a close second to hearing you say “I Do!”. As you search for the perfect caterer for your wedding day, we’ve got a few tips and tricks of the trade to help you narrow it down! These four tips will help you narrow down the hunt as you look to secure your Kansas City Wedding Caterer!
Let’s Talk Florist!
Bright and Colorful. Whites and Greens. All the Baby’s Breath. No Baby’s Breath. Traditional & Timeless. Quirky and Unique…. No matter what your vision may be, we’ve got some recommendations when it comes to booking the perfect florist for the vision you have for your wedding day! Use these five wedding floral tips as you begin the process AND finalize the process of envisioning your Kansas City wedding day.
Ready to book your Entertainment Vendor?
How do you know if you’re hiring the RIGHT DJ / Band for your wedding day? Great question! There are hundreds of great entertainers in the Kansas City area, and we have narrowed it down to our top five for you! Here are a few tips that we’ve learned along the way to ensure your dance floor stays full ALL. NIGHT. LONG!!
Custom Wedding Invitation: Minted + Hawthorne House
Want to add the MOST unique touch to your wedding invitation suite? We have partnered with Minted Weddings and created a CUSTOM illustration of Hawthorne House for you to use on any suite on their wedding collections!
Accommodation Recommendations
At Hawthorne House, guest experience is a top priority for both us and our couples. One critical aspect of that experience, particularly if you are hosting family and friends who aren’t from the area, is where they’ll sleep! With vacation rentals popping up in the area and new hotels getting built, we’ve collected a handful of options within a close proximity- each with a different perk!
Let’s Get Ready for Your Final Walk Through!
Let’s get you ready to say, “I do” at Hawthorne House, Kansas City’s premier indoor and outdoor wedding venue! With our team’s 25 years of wedding experience including wedding planning we are here to guide you through a flawless experience. This guide will walk you through how to best prepare for your Kansas City Hawthorne House wedding whether you’re hosting an indoor or outdoor wedding, having 100 or 300 of your closest family and friends and hosting a bar or not! Let the (final stages) of planning begin!
Wedding Catering Insight from the Pros at Brancato’s
Snag tips and tricks from Kansas City wedding industry PRO, Brian Ingalls, with Brancato’s Catering as you begin your caterer hunt! Learn when you should book your caterer, how you can best prepare as you contact vendors and unique aspects of catering you can include in your wedding day to uplevel guest experience.
FIVE TIPS TO HAVE A STRESS FREE HAWTHORNE HOUSE WEDDING
This is going to be your BEST. DAY. EVER. So it needs to be stress free, right?! We’ve gathered five tips that will guide you through creating the ultimate (and seamless) Hawthorne House wedding no matter what your budget, vision or wedding month is!
SEND OFF IDEAS AT HAWTHORNE HOUSE
So, you're interested in a wedding send off? We don't blame you- they are super fun and way cute! There are three opportunities to have a send off: after the ceremony, after the reception and after cocktail hour. Check out these examples of fun send off ideas from Hawthorne House couples!
HOSTING AN OUTDOOR BAR ON THE LAWN
When you host your wedding day at Hawthorne House, you get access to all 11 acres of our property since we host ONE wedding a day. That sounds like a lot of space…and it is! We have photo opportunities galore and can host both an outdoor ceremony and an outdoor cocktail hour without having to quickly move or breakdown chairs. A super fun way to utilize all the lawn space? Having an outdoor bar!
FIVE MUST HAVES TO CREATE A RELAXING MORNING ON YOUR WEDDING DAY
You spend months and even sometimes years planning the wedding day. You picked out the gown nine months ago, are getting excited to see the floral arrangements you designed in real life and- WHOOPS- what about the morning of the wedding?! The morning of the wedding IMO is the BEST part. You should wake up on your wedding day feeling relaxed and ready! You have planned your heart out and now there are no more decisions to make, no more questions to be answered and no more guest lists to stress over. You. Are. Officially. DONE! As long as you’ve planned in advance, that is ;)
FIVE DETAILS YOU NEED ON YOUR WEDDING WEBSITE
With platforms like The Knot, Zola and Minted they make it SO easy to build a custom looking website in just a few minutes. You can add photos, links, directions…just like planning a wedding the options are endless! Below are the five aspects of a wedding website we consider necessary. Start with the necessary details, then add the fluff and personalize your wedding website with photos, your love story and any other fun unique details!
DON’T FORGET THIS DETAIL ON YOUR INVITATION
When you send invitations you’ll include details on how you want guests to RSVP. Most couples choose to snag their RSVPs online to simplify the process, but mail in RSVPs are a great option too! However you decide to collect which guests are or are not coming you’ll want to highlight the due date for these RSVPs!
HEAD TABLE LOCATIONS AT HAWTHORNE HOUSE
Are you getting ready to build your wedding reception layout at Hawthorne House? This guide will provide photos for a handful of our most popular head table locations as well as directions on what head table will work best depending on your guest count!
BUILDING A LAYOUT AT HAWTHORNE HOUSE
Our typical guest count is 100-300 guests which is a massive range. It seems wild that we would be able to host 100 guests without the room feeling empty and 300 guests without the room feeling cramped, but we have mastered the floorplan jig to ensure you and your guests are comfortable no matter how many loved ones attend the wedding. Use this as a guide to prepare for your walk through at Hawthorne House and as you start making decisions (such as floral!) that may revolve around the layout.
TIMELESS + DREAMY OUTDOOR SUMMER AFFAIR
Emily + Will had brought their timeless wedding vision to life at Hawthorne House with an outdoor wedding and party no guest will forget! Their attention to detail throughout planning was impeccable and it shows in the relaxed getting ready photos- they truly thought of everything before the wedding day so that when the day came, they could simply enjoy it! This dreamy summer wedding started with the cutest proposal story and Emily leaves some golden nuggets for all you currently engaged couples on how to enjoy planning and bring the day of your dreams to life!
BUSTING THE MYTHS OF BRIDAL GOWN SHOPPING WITH PAIGE FROM SOMETHING WHITE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
Bridal gown shopping can be mega stressful because there seem to be a lot of “rules” you’re supposed to follow. But to HECK with the rules- check out these myths BUSTED by Paige and prepare for what will become an enjoyable and….dare I say fun…..gown shopping experience.
SETTING UP A HOTEL ROOM BLOCK
It doesn’t take long to set up a hotel room block and CAN be a complicated process, but it doesn’t NEED to be! By reserving a room block, you are securing perks for both you and your guests. When you simply recommend a hotel, there are no perks but you also have no financial obligation! Use these guiding principles to help in the decision making process when comparing hotels and looking at contracts.
2020 ROUND UP
Whether you’re currently planning your Hawthorne House wedding and want to know some of the “typical” options to kick start planning or you’re looking at venues and want to know what a Hawthorne House wedding looks like, these statistics and ideas are a great place to start!
Hawthorne House + Pretty & Planned = Perfection
We are so excited to announce the release of an EXCLUSIVE Hawthorne House + Pretty & Planned package! This package includes everything a couple needs to have a flawless planning experience when they get #HitchedAtHawthorne and is at an unbeatable rate.