Pearl of Wisdom
Here’s a small pearl of my wedding wisdom.
When new brides ask me what I think the key elements of a ensuring your guests have a good time, and your wedding is yardstick to which other weddings are compared, I say this;
1. Waiting for Photographs; having been a guest at many a wedding, I can honestly say that nothing can get up a guests nose quite like waiting for EVER for the Bridal Couple to return from having photographs. Believe me when I tell your absence will not make their hearts grow fonder, if you take two hours they will spend two hours clock-watching waiting for the reception to begin.
If you have no choice and your photo’s are going to take a while to get through then make sure your guests are entertained while you are gone to make the time fly by…you can serve your cake and leave the guests having a tea-party, you can setup a “photo-booth” for guests with disposable camera and let them take their own photos (this idea is shamelessly pillaged from a wedding mag). Serve a light snack because around 4ish people will start to feel peckish and feeding them something small will keep those hunger pangs at bay.
2. Food: Another one of my absolute musts is decent food, please please don’t scrimp on the food. This is not to say you need to serve a five course meal of veal and lobster, we had a carvery and it was delish. But let’s be honest, people will remember a bad meal.
3. Music : Again, the music played at a wedding can make or break it, if guests don’t want to get up and dance the whole evening can feel a bit flat. Try and use a DJ recommended by a friend who has used him. Don’t be shy to ask your DJ for references before hiring him.
I really believe that by keeping the above in mind that a wedding will be a huge success. Trust me, Aunty Janice won’t remember if your roses were cream or pink, but she will remember dancing the night away with Uncle Ernie after having eaten a fabulous meal!
That is what I keep trying to tell myself about the flowers and other details. I never remember the flowers from weddings, so why should they? But damn straight they will remember the food and dancing fun! On the other hand, the photos are all I’ll have afterwards, and they have to be stunning, so while I HOPE they don’t take two hours…if they have to, then I don’t know. But I think they will only take an hour, and we are leaving the guests to have cake outside.
Mizz Honeysuckle, I felt the same way in the beginning about the flowers, I thought it was an unncessary expense, but although people dont remember it, you will and it will be in your photos. Plus people might not rememebr the flowers, but if they walk into a room and its beautiful they will remember that :)
Food is NUMERO UNO and the entertainment is a big must.
Well, we’ve been for one tasting there and the food was good. I hope our DJ is good – we’re going to give him a list of definite must-play music, but it’s so hard to say what the mood of the room is – that’s his job, and I hope he’ll do it right!
[...] was thinking about this the other day after I commented on Mrz Tiger Lily’s blog about people not really remembering the details of a wedding. Which they don’t! Why, then, [...]
I am getting married to a Polish man in August 2009. In their tradition, all guests have to stay outside the actual reception area until Mr-2-Bee carries me into the hall.
So I will have to think of fun ideas to keep the guests entertained outside while we do our photos…the cake stand and snacks outside sounds perfect.