Time to Celebrate

It’s somewhat surreal that today is the last post in my “Advice for Brides” series. I’ve been working hard on it for the last 3 years and it feels great to finally have it all accomplished and ready for all of the bride’s still planning. Although, my bride’s do get a magazine with added information than this, I have really enjoyed this process.

The reception is the time when all the planning really pays off. You’ve just married your best friend, your portraits are like 90-95% of the way done (last minute photos before we leave, anyone?), your guests have had a chance to get to know one another and you finally get to relax. There are a few things that I think are pretty obvious when planning your reception and a few others that aren’t so obvious.

Things you need to know before you order your invitations:

1. Have I planned a minimum of 2 hours from the time the ceremony ends before the reception begins?
2. Does my photographer(s) have at least 15 minutes before the guests move from cocktail hour into the reception area to take a few photos of all the details I’ve been deciding on over the last 18 months?
3. Does the kitchen have a specific time they want the dinner on the table?
4. Do I want to attend my cocktail hour?

A few tips on placement:

1. Your cake tends to get pushed in a corner, I would suggest having it in the corner of the dance floor that is furthest away from where guests are piling in, but can still be admired. This is the only time they will really get to see the cake so you want to display it. Please don’t have the DJ booth as the background either, you want to ask your cake person to turn it so that as you are looking at the front of the cake you have a clean background.
2. Please do not put your grandparents next to the DJ booth.. I always feel so bad when I see them trying to enjoy the reception with their fingers in their ears.
3. When you are planning where the parents are sitting, make sure they are closest to the dance floor and have a clean view of you, but you also don’t want them hidden at the back of the table. If you can imagine yourself standing at the head table, I would have your parents on the edge of the dance floor so they are slightly turned to see you. This will ensure that I can capture all of mom’s tears. 🙂
4. The head table is a big one for me. I don’t know why I get a rush of devastation when I see bad backgrounds, but I do. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t have your head table against a door. It will completely ruin the ambience of what you planned. If you are dimming the lights, I am assuming you are going for a romantic feeling. You can always talk with your florist, DJ, designer or coordinator about a cloth backdrop so that you don’t have an exit sign or door handles growing out of your head.

Lastly, enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about the timeline, or about making sure things go on the dot, this is a celebration and you should enjoy it. I NEVER expect the timeline go to the “T” as what I’ve wrote down, I leave that up to the DJ. I only write down times so I know what you do have planned and we’ve at least given you enough time for that. As a general rule of thumb, you should expect at least 4 hours from the start of the cocktail hour for your photographer to be there.