Pre-Wedding Moments for the Groom and his Men

Getting all of your men together in one place is cause for celebration these days, and when they’ve gathered to honor you on your wedding day, flying in from all corners of the earth to be here for you, you’ll surely want to make the most of your time together. In recent years, wedding couples have put more focus on spending time with their loved ones as a highest priority for their wedding day, and they’re creating ‘pockets’ of time to share with their bridal party members and best friends. The groom and his groomsmen find an excellent pocket of quality time to spend together is the hours before the wedding ceremony. Here are some top ways to make that time more special and memorable:

• Proposing a toast to your men. If you’ve invited your men to your wedding venue, hotel suite or home for your pre-wedding gathering, you’re the host and – via wedding etiquette rules – you get to make the first toast. Propose a toast to your men, to thank them for being here with you, to thank them for your years of friendship and special memories, lessons learned from them, a reminder of why you chose them to be groomsmen. Heartfelt words from you start the day off right.
• Brunch or breakfast. Either take your men to your favorite breakfast eatery, perhaps one of our excellent northern New Jersey diners, go to brunch at a top NJ restaurant, or cater a brunch at your home or hotel room so that your men can enjoy a leisurely meal before the day continues onward. Especially when groomsmen have lived away from the New Jersey area during the years and miss their NJ breakfast foods, this breakfast trip for the groom and his men is a crowd-pleaser.
• Golf or driving range outings. An outing such as to a NJ golf course or driving range lets the groom and his men share a favorite activity, and take some terrific photos of the group.
• Playlist. Turn up the songs your guys always listened to while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike to your NJ shore house and take a fantastic trip back in time, paying tribute to some of your most memorable times together. A specialty playlist for this groom-and–guys time gives your pre-wedding gathering or outing an extra dose of significance.
• Skype with faraway friend. The friend who couldn’t travel to your wedding, whether for medical, work or family reasons, would love to see you and wish you congratulations ‘in person.’ A solo Skype in another room is your option if you’d like some quality time to talk with a faraway loved one, perhaps a grandfather who is in ill health but is still ‘one of the guys.’ For long-distance members of your guys’ group, your circle of friends can join in on the Skype.
• Re-stage photos you have of yourself and your guy friends from when you were kids – such as a picture of your 9 year-old selves out by your parents’ swimming pool, or on the town football field. Using that original photos as a guide to who stands where and which facial expressions and gestures to make, you and your guys pose a new and updated version of your adult selves as a priceless keepsake photo.