Hey guys just got engaged, my fiancé and I are both blind and plan on having a decent amount of blind people at our wedding. I want this event to be inclusive as possible any ideas?(thanks)
submitted by RainAndTea77
napoleon8825 points2y ago
ok I have a lot of thoughts about this from the various blind/blind, or blind/sighted weddings I have been to, as follows: 1. consider the music Some weddings do the loud music thing, either at dinner, at the reception, or both. Reconsider this, make sure the volume can be controlled. If you're having a live band, consider the volume coming off the PA relative to the space, and don't havem cranked during the dinner part. 2. Buffets Some weddings do food or cake in a buffet style. That is a bloody nightmare. Think about how guests will obtain their food/cake/whatever. If everyone has to make their way to a central table to help themselves, that is going to cause no end of issues. It can be done, but it needs careful matching with point 3 below. 3. Consider the table make-up carefully Firstly, if tables are being used for the dinner portion, think about how people will know they are at the right table? Will there be guides to assist VI attendees to find the place setting with their name on it? Also, think about the tables themselves. Will there be wine bottles on the tables, or big jugs of water, or other centrally-available refreshments? If so, consider interspersing sighted with blind, so that the tables are not 100% no vision whatsoever, unless all your blind friends are extremely capable. Also, consider guide dogs: if multiple blind atendees have guide dogs, space them far enough apart so that the dogs can be under the table without getting in the way of one another, or the other guests.
4. explain the dress code if there is one. Think about the dress code, and expressly set out what colours the brides/grooms entourages will be wearing so that blind guests don't clash with the wedding party. This one is a thing in Britain, ignore me if the US doesn't do this. 5. What happens to blind guests if the wedding and the reception are at different locations? This happens a lot over here, if the church is a short drive from the reception hall, for example. How will any blind guests negotiate that? 6. Guide Dogs Will there be any guide dogs? Where will they go to spend? Are any of the tables really low, so as to present tempting targets for guide dogs who are not as disciplined as they should be? 7. invitations Just send the damn things electronically. Its typically more accessible. 8. Guestbooks or wedding books These just don't work with a lot of blind guests. What I have seen done in the past is that the couple designates a trusted friend to put together a wedding book. This needs to be done in advance, literally 2 months before the wedding if not more. I'm not exagerating. That friend then targets all the people who want to add messages or short comments in the wedding book. The wedding book can then be combined into one large document and brailled. If you want to get extra fancy, make an audio montage instead, stringing together messages from everyone over a musical bed of here comes the bride, or some such. Messages can be send to one person via WhatsApp and then combined in a sound editor. Its like a photo album for blind folks. I made one of these for a friend's birthday and its great fun but its a lot of hard work to do right.
Ok that's all I can think of off the top!
RainAndTea77 [OP]8 points2y ago
Thank you! My fiancé and I are both easily overwhelmed by too much sensory input so this is a great suggestion!
TheBlindCreative3 points2y ago
Hi. If any of your guests have guide dogs, make sure that there is an easily accessible place for your guests to relieve their guide dogs. It would also be cool if you made wedding favors that had treats for the guide dogs.
rannetri252 points2y ago
On the guest book, I recently saw that someone had a telephone where guests left voicemails and then it was imprinted into a vinyl record. VI or not, I think the voice message option is so much more RAD because you can also hear folks’ voices after they pass away or if you grow apart
4humans12 points2y ago
-A tactile map of the room and seating chart - braillers and l’able paper so they can leave you messages in the guest book. - ask the kitchen to arrange plates the same way and provide a tactile or Braille explanation eg. chicken is at 6 o’clock salad is at 10 etc.. - Ask the servers not to move glasses or dishes without telling the person. - low music volume
ernie199629 points2y ago
I am also engaged to my fiancé who is also blind as well as myself. Congratulations to the blind couples association or something like that. In all seriousness though, that is something I would like to know. Hope people have suggestions
FrankenGretchen5 points2y ago
Create a menu that doesn't require people to cut stuff from bones. Freakung nightmare.
I like the braille site map and tactile food placement maps, too.
Maybe a commentator to run a play by play on the event so everyone can feel included. Funny or serious as you like but I seriously hate sitting somewhere and not knowing what's going on. If this is an event where visual cues won't be received, then make it an auditory event.
This is your wedding. Make it reflective of how you prefer to interact with the world. Incorporate your personalities and enjoy yourselves.
Rather than photographers being central, how about recorded commentaries? Sighted, blind, serious, funny, whatever perspective you'd like to have memories of. Turn people loose to collect their impressions or guest comments or fave moments or scenes from the day.
TheSentientLlama4 points2y ago
Congrats! Lots of great suggestions here.
• For any materials that you provide in Braille should also be sent electronically to guests in advance. This came to mind since my boyfriend is blind and uses seeing AI and voice readers rather than Braille.
• An intuitive layout for the venue, say arranging the tables in columns and rows in number order
• Ask some sighted friends to be volunteer “eyes” for assistance as needed.
• Bathroom availability and configuration at the venue,
perfecthannah2 points2y ago
Congratulations! I adore your hospitality. Weddings are about welcoming all the people in your life to celebrate and it’s so cool you’re being so intentional about creating that atmosphere. An awesomeway to start your life together. :) I’d say that whenever possible, try to offer accessibility for the multiply disabled (consider more than blindness... Deaf, deafblind, mobility issues, sensory overload, etc) among your guests. There’s all the basic sort of generalized accessability accomodations one can do when planning an event, google is a friend for determining what you feel is necessary and can afford to provide without specific asks. I’d add that a really powerful thing you could do is add a line to your invites (or a link to a website with details) telling guests what accomodations will be available and if they have needs you missed that they can reach out privately. It’s always a joy to know when I’m going to an event that I don’t have to ask! And failing that, just that I can reach out if I need to and it won’t surprise anyone.
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