Contents of the festival programme

Planning the right content for your wedding programme is the key to a memorable wedding reception where guests feel welcome. A successful wedding programme is, after all, more than just a guide to the various parts of the reception – it’s also a lovely keepsake for your guests to take home with them.

So what should you include, and how have others done it? There can be many questions when creating the content for your programme, but don’t worry. Below, we’ve listed tips and creative ideas for everything from wedding bingo to beautiful decorations that will make your programme unique.

Classic elements of a party programme – a good place to start

• A welcome message – welcome your guests with a few lovely lines.
• Your names, venue, church, town – to provide the date and clarify the details.
• Menu – let your guests know what food and drink will be served throughout the evening.
• Photos/pictures – whether of you as the bride and groom, pictures from the stag do, from your childhood or anything else that suits you – these are always fun to include and much appreciated by family and friends.
• Seating plan – a small map of the tables with the names/numbers of each guest and their seat. You could also add a brief note next to each number and name explaining who that person is, their relationship to you, and so on.
• Song lyrics – sing-alongs are a common feature at the dinner table to create an even more wonderful atmosphere. Examples of song lyrics
• Thought-provoking or amusing texts – anything from a beautiful and personal love poem to words of wisdom or jokes about marriage is always appreciated and adds a personal touch to the whole occasion. Some wedding quotes
• Acknowledgements – finally, thank your guests for a (hopefully) lovely evening and for coming along.

Fun content for the programme to add that little extra

• Wedding bingo – a grid where each square contains an event that will hopefully take place during the party. When this happens, the guest ticks off the square, and when all the squares in a vertical or horizontal row have been ticked off, the guest shouts “bingo”! Wedding bingo template and image to download.
• Word web – a mix of words in different colours and fonts. You could, for example, use words that describe the bride and groom in various ways.
• Puzzles and games page – crosswords, rebuses, spot the five differences; anything you can put together in a fun and tricky way is also great for guests to keep themselves occupied with if you anticipate short breaks in the programme. It’s also a great lifesaver for anyone who isn’t having a particularly smooth conversation with their table neighbour – or why not include an easier crossword for the children? Wedding crossword template and image available to download.
• A story about how you met – was it in the queue at Ica, in the canteen at your new job, or was it a first date after several years of chatting online? People always love to revel in sweet little love stories.
• Etiquette checklist – make a list with a touch of humour about how to behave at a wedding. Who says you have to follow certain written rules? Write your own!
• The language of flowers – what do the flowers you’ve chosen for your bouquet or table decorations mean? Read about the language of flowers
• Conversation tips – list some classic conversation topics that your guests can discuss and build on.
• A history of customs and marriage – break the mould and include some general knowledge reading for those who are still interested after a few glasses of wine.

How to design the content of your wedding programme, including layout and decorations

• Sketch – The easiest way is to start by drawing a small sketch of how you want it to look: whether the song lyrics should be at the end or at the back, the number of pages, and so on. Use standard A4 sheets of paper and fold them in half to create a long, narrow booklet. A programme is usually in portrait format.
• Design – You now have a good basis to work from and refer to when you start designing the document on your computer. Good programmes for this are InDesign or Photoshop, but for those of you who don’t have either of these, Microsoft Word or a similar programme works just as well. There, you can add columns, page numbering, etc., and don’t forget that an A4 sheet is folded in half and becomes two pages. For example: If the event programme is 10 pages long, the first A4 sheet in the programme is pages 1 and 10, the second sheet is pages 2 and 9, the third sheet is pages 3 and 8, and so on. Write the page numbers on each page of your folded party programme – this will make it easier to keep track of the order!
• Content – Now all you have to do is carry on writing and laying out your party programme. Use attractive fonts, add pictures, text, crosswords and so on. If you want to include a crossword or a rebus from a newspaper or something else fun, the easiest way is to scan it into your computer and then insert the image into the document. It can be quite tricky to do certain things on the computer, and it’s often easier to cut and paste something from the internet or draw something yourself by hand.
• Proofread – Once the layout of the content is finalised, it’s time to print it out on ordinary paper, or on slightly higher-quality paper if you prefer. Please note: first print out one or more copies on ordinary paper and fold them to check that everything looks correct. Read through it carefully to make sure no spelling mistakes or other errors have crept in!
• The cover – For the cover, it’s nice to use slightly sturdier paper in a pretty colour or classic white; choose something you both like. You can either tie the programme itself to the cover with a ribbon or a pretty string along the ‘spine’, or sew the programme into the cover. You could also staple it together, or if you have any other clever solution, go for that.
• Printing – If you’d like your names printed in an elegant style on the front, it’s worth spending a little extra to have your cover paper printed at a print shop. You can also order stylish programme covers online, where there’s a wide variety of designs and styles to choose from. You can select the font, colour, paper and ribbon. It adds a stylish touch and looks more professional. You can find companies that sell paper and accessories here.
• Decorations – If you want to go the extra mile, you can also decorate the front and/or back with everything from studs, beads, ribbons, stars, hearts, letters and other details.

To create a stylish design, you can use templates in tools such as Canva or Adobe, which offer a wide range of ready-made wedding layouts.