How Wedding Receptions
are Billed
There's
two main ways to book your wedding reception.
The way your reception is book will depend on
the wedding venue you use. The first is to book
all your wedding vendors for the reception
separately. This would mean that you would have separate contracts
for the all your wedding reception vendors including
the venue/hall, caterer, decorator, cake decorator, bartenders
and rental company. You would also pay each vendor separately
and book their details directly with them. This method is more
work on your part, but you have more flexibility with the wedding
vendors choose and what products and services they offer. Many
venues today are offering all in one packages. You will usually
pay a price per guests, with the more guests you have the larger
the bill. The nice thing about this is you only have to deal with
one vender and most of the work is done for you. As for cost,
it generally depends on the vendors you choose and what they are
doing for you.
The real goal of the wedding
reception is to ensure that your wedding
guests enjoy themselves. It will most like be what stands out
in people's minds in the days after your wedding.
They will remember how much of a good time they had and if any
extraordinary events happened at your wedding.
If you take the time to make sure your wedding
guests are comfortable and entertained throughout the wedding
reception it will be a smashing success.
Entertaining Your Wedding Guests at Your Wedding
Reception
Besides having outstanding music
to entertain your wedding guests at your wedding
reception, here are a couple of other ideas that are
becoming more popular and can make your wedding reception
a little more special and memorable. Check out our Wedding
Guest Page for more ideas. The first idea is having ethnic
dancers perform at your wedding reception.
Many cultures have dances from their heritage that are both beautiful
and unique. This is a great way to pay tribute to your heritage
that also fills the room with fascination. Another nice idea is
to have a slide show of photos of the wedding
couple or even wedding pictures of grandparents
and parents present before or after the speeches. This kind of
slide show can be done on a laptop computer in a slide show presentation
program and then just have it projected on a large screen visible
to all your wedding guests. It is best if you
can have someone doing some commentary on the photos as they come
up. The commentary should be creative and bring out the humor
and sentiment of the photos.
Wedding Guests
Place Seating
At your wedding
reception there are a few ways you can choose to seat your wedding
guests. Open Seating is where you let your wedding guests sit
wherever they wish. There are usually a few special tables set
up near the head table that are reserved for immediate family
or special wedding guests. Anyone making a speech at your wedding
reception should be seated at these tables. This is usually one
of the easiest ways to seat your wedding guests, but isn’t
appropriate for a very formal wedding. A formal wedding should
have reserved seating.
Finally
the Reserved Seating is where each wedding guests
is reserved a particular chair at a particular table. For both
Reserved Table Seating and Reserved Seating you will require a
seating board to inform the guests where they will be seated and
the Reserved Seating will also require place cards at each place
setting. For Open Seating you may only need place cards for the
reserved tables for close family and/or friends located close
to the head table.
How to Plan Your Wedding
Guests Seating
Cocktail wedding
receptions do not require a formal seating plan, but buffet and
served meals do require it. The best way to work out who will
be sitting where is to use a visual aid to help you. You can use
our Wedding
Guests Place Seating Form to organize where you would like
your wedding guests to sit or take a large piece
of Bristol board and draw the layout of the tables at your reception
location. If you are using the Bristol board method, draw the
tables in the shape they will be, usually they are circular, square
or rectangular. You will also need to know how many people can
comfortable sit at each table. Number or name each of the tables,
see tips on naming
tables below. For Reserved Table Seating, pencil in a list
of the names of people you want to sit at that table. Work through
your wedding guests list and the tables on the
board until you are happy with everyone's place. For Reserved
Seating place circles around the table to represent the guests'
chairs. Again working with a pencil and eraser, work through the
wedding guests list and table seating until you
are happy with everyone's placement. Once your chart is finalized,
make a small and large copy of the chart that list the guests
seating by both alphabetical name and the table name or number,
and a list of each table name or number with a list of each guest
seated at that table in Alphabetical order. The small chart will
be used by you and the large chart can be posted at the wedding
reception location entrance. If you have a wedding
website you can post your seating plan on it
to inform your wedding guests of their seating
beforehand to save time and confusion at the wedding reception.
Be sure the plan is finalized before posting it on your
website.
Guests' Seating Plan Tips
- Don't do your seating plan until you
have your final wedding guests list.
- Seat people that have similar interest
together.
- Seat people of similar age together,
putting younger people closest to the speakers.
- Put dance lovers near the dance floor
for easy access to it throughout the night.
- Try to place guests at tables in even
numbers so there is less chance of someone being left out of
conversations.
- Seat wedding vendors
that will be staying for the reception meal together and the
farthest from the head table.
- If you have family members that live
a long distance from each other, take the opportunity to seat
them together so they have a chance catch up and visit.
- If divorced parents are uncomfortable
sitting with ex-spouses, you may want to sit them with their
own families.
Head Table
At the head table, usually
the Bride sits with the Groom in the middle of the table with
the Groom to her right. Then her attendants sit in descending
order to her right starting with the Maid of Honour. The Groom's
attendants sit to his left also in descending order starting with
the Best Man. Some couples choose to mix things up a bit by alternating
the men and women attendants with the Best Man beside the Bride
and the Maid of Honour beside the Groom. Both seating arrangements
are proper etiquette. Small children in the wedding
part can also have a place at the head table. Depending on their
age and ability to sit for long periods, you many want to ask
the attendants that will be sitting with them to help them if
they need it. Usually small children loose interest in sitting
still for so long, especially during speeches. You may decide
to have them sit at a table close by with their parents and/or
have some items to help keep them entertained with drawing, a
craft or Play Doe.
Wedding Place Card Ideas
The
ideas for place cards are endless. They can be as elegant as calligraphy
written on special card paper placed on a specially folded linen
napkin or more casual like bread sticks wrapped in name tags for
your wedding guests. Even something as simple
as a delicate ribbon or wire holding the name tag and a few dried
flowers can be used for your place cards. You may even want to
integrate your place cards with your favours for your wedding
guests at each of the place settings. Some examples include chocolate
bars with their names on the wrappers, your chosen favours with
the guests' names typed or written neatly on attached labels or
wedding shaped cookies with your wedding
guests' names printed with icing in your wedding
colours. The internet is a great way to get ideas for place cards
but remember to coordinate your name tags or place cards with
your wedding colours, themes, and formality if
possible.
Wedding Gift Table
Idea
If
you want to make your wedding a celebration of
your families you could display family wedding
portraits on your gift table. If you can, include both sets of
parents and grandparents. Don't forget to label them with small
folded cards in front of the portraits with the names of each
couple and their wedding dates.
Check
out craft supply stores for ideas for decorating at your wedding.
The ideas are truly endless. Shop around and watch for sales and
coupons in flyers.
Chair Covers
Chair covers are one of the
things that cost extra but really add to the overall look of your
wedding reception. If appearance
is important to you, you may wish to invest in covers for all
the chairs. Some wedding reception locations
have chairs that really lack appeal so chair covers are a great
way to handle this problem. Some rental companies offer these
while there are other companies that specialize in chair covers.
Compare the prices, selection and the quality of the covers.
Wedding
Guests Table Labeling
Wedding
guests' tables can be assigned different names or even the titles
of love songs instead of numbers at the wedding
reception. This is great if you have a theme for your wedding.
Once your guests are all seated you can remove the table labels
for the extra table space. If your reception setup will allow
it, you may wish to have the wedding guests'
tables setup on the two outer sides of the room with the dance
floor in the middle. Number the tables like houses, even on one
side and odd on the other. It will help people find the tables
and it will also help the waiting staff when serving.
Wedding Ice Sculptures
Ice sculptures are beautiful
and elegant. If you had lighting near them, but not close enough
to melt them, they will add sparkle to the decor. You can do a
simple ice bowl yourself or have an elaborate sculpture made professionally.
An ice bowl made with flowers or greenery frozen within the ice
adds sparkle and decorative interest to a table. Ice bowls with
flowers frozen in them are fairly easy to make. Make sure you
have it setup with a catch tray so that as it melts it doesn't
make a watery mess. There are companies that specialize in ice
sculptures. They can make beautiful pieces of ice art for your
wedding guests to admire. You can also buy ice
molds to make your own sculptures.
Wedding Table Centerpieces
Centerpieces are the focus of
each table. They also are an important part of the decor of the
room. There are so many options for centerpieces. Whatever you
choose for your tables 
make
sure they go with the theme and overall feeling of your wedding.
They should always be either short enough that when people are
sitting at the table they can see each other over them, or tall
enough that the bulk of the centerpiece is high enough that the
guests' view is not block by them. Any combination of items can
be used in your centerpieces. Be sure to use your wedding
colours and items that relate to the theme of your wedding.
Flower bouquets, potted plants, mini wedding
cakes, floating candles, fresh cut flowers, ivy spread, coloured
water or sand, uniquely coloured or shaped vases can all look
very elegant. The centerpiece ideas are endless. A beautiful way
of combining flowers with candles is to glue a small piece of
oasis flower foam to the bottom of a midsize vase to hold a flower.
Remove the leaves from the stem and place the flower in the glass.
Fill the vase with water, complete covering the flower. Then place
a floating candle on top make sure the candle doesn't touch the
flower. These can be made into a centerpiece by using three vases
of the same type together. It's best if you can use different
vase sizes for design interest. Another interesting centerpiece
idea is to use glass bowls with a couple of small goldfish in
them. To get twice the look out of your centerpieces, place them
on a piece of round or square mirror. The mirror makes things
sparkle and gives off twice the amount of light. Your centerpieces
will also look bigger. Glass stores can make them up for you to
the appropriate size. Some craft stores also supply them. Also
available are battery operated colour disc (drink dazzlers) that
light up and change colours. You can place them under your water
filled vases and the light from the disc changes the colour of
the water throughout the night. Another great centerpiece idea
is framed photos of the Bride and Groom
growing up. Start with baby pictures and end with recent pictures.
Wedding guests seem to really enjoy this one.
A Little Extra Sparkle
For added sparkle, sprinkle
a little wedding theme confetti on the wedding
guests' tables. This is available at most party supply stores.
Or to add a splash of colour, see if you can rent glasses that
are coloured in the same colour as your theme colour. This really
adds a lot of colour to the room when all the tables are set.
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Wedding
Receiving Lines
Wedding
receiving lines are less popular than they use to be. They can
take up a lot of your time depending on the number of wedding
guests you are having at your wedding. It will
take approximately 2 hours per every 100 wedding
guests. Receiving lines are a very formal introduction of family
and friends to the wedding party. It is usually
done right 
before
the wedding reception at the entrance of the
reception location but can also be done near the exit of the place
of wedding ceremony right after the ceremony.
There are a couple of alternatives to having a receiving line.
You may wish to have only the Bride and Groom
with their parents line up. This will speed things up considerably.
Then you may have the wedding party introduced
as they enter the reception or before the speeches. Another alternative
is to have a host/hostess to greet the people and to help with
the introductions as people arrive at the wedding
ceremony and/or reception locations. Then the Bride
and Groom can make rounds during the reception
making sure they have a little visit with everyone. Some take
this opportunity to hand out the guests' favours but keep in mind
that this will take up most of your evening and will not leave
much time for joining in on the fun. It is a personal choice.
Keep in mind your wedding day schedule and the
number of wedding guests you are expecting.
With the receiving line you
can have all the bridesmaids and the Brides parents
on one end and the Grooms parents and groomsmen
on the other or you can alternate the wedding
party throughout the line. If only the parents and the Bride
and Groom are to be in the receiving line, the
order usually goes as follows: Mother of the Bride, Father of
the Bride, Bride, Groom,
the Mother of the Groom, and then the Father
of the Groom. You may wish to change this order
if there are any divorced parents or if you think it would be
best to have a parent from each side of the family on either side
of the receiving line to help with the introductions. Stepparents
can also be included if any of the parents have remarried. If
you are having a full receiving line and you have children in
your wedding party, you may or may not want them
to stand in the line. Usually, they don't have the stamina to
stand in line for such a long period of time. You may wish to
have them included and then have their parents close by to escort
them away if they get tired.
It's also a good idea to
hint to your parents and wedding party to keep
the line moving quickly. The receiving line can get very long
and backed up when people stop to catch up on the past few years
with people they haven't seen for a long time. Tell the members
of the receiving line if they could quickly greet people, do any
introductions and then mention that they can catch up with them
later at the reception. If this is done in a warm and inviting
way people will understand.
Throwing of Garter and Bouquet
If you are planning
on throwing a garter and/or bouquet at your wedding
reception let your 
music
provider know of your wishes. Most will have you fill out a schedule
for the night so that they can announce it when the time comes
if your Master of Ceremonies isn't going to announce it. There
are many ways of having the throwing play out. Sometimes the lucky
catchers have a dance together or some even have the woman place
the garter on the man's leg with some music.
Romantic Touches for Your Wedding
Having your wedding
guests blow bubbles at you instead of throwing confetti, bird
seeds or rice is becoming more popular. Many facilities don't
allow confetti or rice on the premises. 
Bubbles
are much more environmentally friendly and don't require any cleanup.
Bubbles can also be fun and romantic. Remember to make sure the
bubble mix is the non-staining type especially made for weddings.
Assign someone to hand out the small bottles to your wedding
guests and instruct them when you would like them to blow the
bubbles. It could be when you are leaving the church, when you
are announced at the wedding reception or around
you as you have your first dance together. You could also leave
them on the wedding guests' tables with instructions
on when to blow the bubbles. Keep in mind that some bottles may
be opened before the time you have asked for. If you are planning
to have your bubbles blown outdoors you may even consider taking
a larger bottle of the non-staining bubble mix and putting it
into a child's bubble machine that makes an amazing amount of
constant bubbles. Only do this outdoors where the bubble solution
will not make the floor dangerously slippery.
Sparklers can also add a
romantic touch to your wedding reception.
You can have your wedding party hold lit sparklers
around you for your first dance. In a darkened reception
hall the sparkling light gives a very romantic atmosphere for
you to remember. Have your wedding party make
a loose circle around you so your wedding guests
can still see you dance and make sure they don't light the sparklers
until just before you start dancing. Also remember to keep in
mind that sparkers are hot to touch even after they go out, so
take care with them. Also make sure they are approved by the venues
regulations.
Another great idea to add
some romance to the atmosphere is to rent a fog machine for the
dance floor. Have it going during your first dance together as
a married couple. Make sure it is running enough to add a little
magical ambiance but not too much that it makes it hard to see
you dancing.
Making a Memory Box
Be sure to save a wedding
invitation, wedding program, paper serviette,
a few flowers dried or pressed, and other wedding
mementos as keepsakes. A nice idea is to arrange them in a Victorian
shadow box so that they are all together on display for the years
to come.
Wedding Guests Signing
and Well Wishing Ideas
Some couples have moved away
from the traditional wedding guest book, or in
addition to it, opt for other ideas like having an 11 X 14 engagement
picture on the guest book table and letting the wedding
guests sign the matt around the photo, or having a white 
tablecloth
with a laundry marking pen available for the guests to sign along
with warm wishes. The tablecloth can then be brought out at every
anniversary for those romantic dinners for two. Another alternative
or in addition to the guest book is to have a calligraphic poster
of your wedding vows by the wedding
reception entrance for your guests to sign. If you prefer having
photos of people, consider having someone take a Polaroid photo
of your wedding guests as they arrive to the
reception. Then have them write a message to
the Bride and Groom at the bottom of the photo. The photos can
be put in an album or scrapbook to look back on in the years to
come. Another idea is to have a large art book at the guest book
table for people to write their best wishes in. You can even get
a reliable volunteer to take it around to your wedding
guests throughout the evening to make sure everyone has had time
to write in it. One more scrapbook idea is to have your guests
write notes to the Bride and Groom
with gel pens on black paper. Place the paper, gel pens, and instructions
on the guests' tables. Have a container made up especially for
the notes or have a small tree or decorative branch set up for
guests to tie the notes to it with ribbon that is provided. Then
the couple can take the notes home and put them together in a
special scrapbook to keep and display. You could even have a silver
tray and engraving tool available for your wedding
guests to sign right into the tray itself. You should probably
have someone assigned to help with any of these projects and to
be there to instruct the wedding guests of your
wishes. All of these ideas are much more interesting than a list
of names in a book that you tuck away and hardly ever see again.
Wedding
Gift Care
More and more people are asking
for the wedding gifts not to be brought
to the wedding reception but to be taken to the
home of the Bride before the wedding.
Some Brides and Grooms still
arrange for a gift opening party. Gift openings are usually planned
for the day after the wedding so people can come
and see the wedding gifts opened by the Bride
and Groom before they leave for their honeymoon.
It isn't proper etiquette to open wedding gifts
at your wedding reception. You should have a
gift table set up in case people do bring a gift to the reception.
Have someone responsible transport the unopened gifts to your
home after the wedding reception if you are not
going home after the reception. For security reasons, you may
wish to open the wedding cards discreetly. If
there are any cheques in them write on the back of the cheque
"For Deposit Only". This way the cheques must be deposited
into your account and may not be cashed.
Using Video as a Tool
You can video
or audiotape record the wedding reception speeches
and some thoughts of thanks. It can be a nice keepsake for parents
and other special wedding guests. 
For far away relatives and
friends that can't attend your wedding, consider
having them send a video or audiotape that you can play at the
wedding reception. It will feel like a little
of them is there with you and all your wedding
guests. Make sure you have all the equipment to play the tape,
cd or DVD at the location and make sure the equipment is tested
so that you know working properly. You may wish to send them a
copy of your wedding video if you feel it would
mean a lot to them.
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Wedding
Reception Planning