Welcome back to the Wedding Blog and on with Planning Your Dream Wedding.
Having organised the place of the Wedding Ceremony, your next thoughts will probably be in organising the Wedding Reception. Within this area you will be considering several details all bought under the umbrella of the reception but the first thing to decide is where you want to hold the reception.
It may be wise to arrange a meeting with not only the bride and bridegroom but also the person/persons paying for the reception, so that numbers of guests and a budget can be agreed before meeting with the proprietor of the venue chosen. This will save time and possible embarrassment later.
If you are having a Civil Ceremony in a hotel, the wedding reception will probably have already been booked. If you chose a Church or Registry office then the place of the Wedding Reception will have to be decided upon. Taking into consideration the choice of venue, availability and size required considering the number of guests.
The proprietor of the venue will have a great deal of experience in the holding of a Wedding Reception in his establishment and will offer a good deal of advice and should take into account your requests.
You will need an idea of the time of arrival and how you want to greet the guests. Will you be at the entrance to welcome your guests and will they be offered a glass of champayne or something similar.
Planning the seating arrangement of guests can become a real headache. Knowing of any family rifts beforehand can save embarrassent. It may be a good idea to get together a small party of immediate family before the wedding to allow both sides to introduce themselves, preventing the segregation of brides family and bridegrooms family.
The bride and groom, parents/partners of both bride and groom, bestman and bridesmaids/pageboys would normally sit at the high table, with guests arranged within groups around the room, depending on size and shape of the room.
You should have an idea, following discussions with the proprietor of the venue whether to have a set, sit down menu or a buffet/banquet and whether this is to be a hot meal or cold. Any special dietry requirements if known should be given as soon as possible.
I will cover areas including:
- Booking Honeymoon
- Buying of Rings
- Wedding Invitations
- Photographs
- Cars
- Bridal Wear
- Grooms Outfit
- Flowers
- Speeches
- The Wedding Cake
- Disco/entertainment
In the following blogs, not necessarily in the order above.
Gwendoline Gould
p.s. Don’t forget to leave your comments on the blog. If you have any questions on anything I haven’t covered or you need information now rather than wait for it to be covered in future blogs please leave your name and email address in the comments section and I will get back to you a.s.a.p.
