Things to consider when looking for your reception location.

1 Where do you want to host your reception? Traditional banqet facility, restaurant, hotel, club or outdoors?

2 Are there stairs and if there are stairs is there an elevator? Some halls were grandfathered in and weren’t required to have an elevator. If you have family or friends who have a hard time walking up stairs, is there alternative to getting them up to the reception.

3 How many people are you inviting, put together a rough guest list for the count?

4 How many hours are can you reserve the facility for? What is their overtime policy?

5 What are the policies and restrictions that the facility has for music, food, flowers, décor, etc…?

6 Are you able to bring in outside vendors, or are you limited to their services? (i.e. wedding cake, Hors d'oeuvres , entertainment, etc.)

7 Is there room for a disc jockey or band? On thing to note about entertainment, don’t put tables between the dance floor and the entertainment! The entertainment will end up blasting your guests who are seated in the tables to get the sound to the dance floor.

8 Do you want your dinner served plated, buffet, or family style and what is the cost for those options. Plated will usually be more expensive than buffet.

9 Is there reasonable distance from the place of the wedding ceremony to the reception?

10 Are you able to have your wedding ceremony on site if you wish?

11 Do you want an open bar or a cash bar?

12 Are there time limits as to when your decorations, flowers, the DJ or band are able to arrive and set up?

13 If children are invited, is there an area for them to go if needed?

Labels: Reception, Wedding Planning

What is the proper way to introduce the newlyweds at the reception?

Shelly

Shelly, in our opinion there is no proper way for the reception, this is your reception, infuse it with your personality. The formal way to introduce the newlyweds at the reception would be Mr & Mrs Grooms first and last names. So if your fiance is named Jason Trumbell the formal introduction would be Mr. & Mrs Jason Trumbell. There is also Dr. and Mrs Jason Trumbell or Mr. and Dr. Jason Trumbell for a few variations.

However we say have fun and be yourselves. If you are a less formal type of persons, go with something like Jason and Mary Trumbell. We have even heard just first names at receptions. In our opinion there is no wrong way to introduce yourselves at your own party.

Labels: Reception, wedding day planning question

Photo booths now there are some memories. As a kid I was always begging my dad to let me have my picture taken in a photo booth, when we ran across one. As a teenager my friends and I squeezed 8 of us into one and then proceeded to fight over who got the three photos that had everyone's face in it. Then they seemed to disappear... In college my girlfriends and I stumbled across one while on spring break and had way too much late night fun of margaritas and pictures.

Tonight I was blog surfing and stumbled over a too cool idea!











Mrs. Strawberry over on the Wedding Bee had a photo booth at her reception for all the guests to have fun with!

Evidently this is very popular in the big cities on the coasts but I have never heard of it here. What a fun thing to do! Photographers for a lot of people can be intimidating, but I can see where a photo booth, which brings back memories can be just the thing to get fun and personality driven images of your friends and family! Don't get me wrong, professional photography can't be replaced but this is a fantastic addition to your reception celebration and memories.

I don't know as of yet of anyone renting out photo booths in Michiana, I'm going to look into it. If you have had a wedding locally with a photo booth at it, please email me at michianaweddings at ameritech dot net. I'd loved to hear and possibly feature you in an article!

-Amy

Labels: cool ideas, photo booth, Photography, Reception, Wedding

I just posted a new article on Michiana Weddings On August 11, 2007 at Culver Military Academy, Laura Schrage married Christopher Campbell, but on the Wednesday before, an early morning tornado wiped out their reception tent and all the work that had gone into the wedding day so far. Cynthia Basker of Celebrated Events and her team leaped into action to salvage the day.

Read the article here!

Labels: New Article, Reception, Torndao, Wedding

With the summer passing into memory I thought I would share with you one of the things I have noticed attending weddings this year. If the reception is a full blow party with dancing, the success of the dancing portion is up to the bride and the groom. As with any function, the guests of honor and the hosts set the tone for any function, but most especially the dancing at a reception. Do not get me wrong, the quality of the entertainment is as important and by some degree more important because if you hire the wrong DJ, band or orchestra for your reception, then there will be nothing you can do to salvage the evening.

But if you have chosen the right entertainment that plays the music that clicks with your guests and you, then how of a success the evening is, is up to you. By this I mean that if you as the host/guests of honor/bride and groom do not get up on the dance floor and dance every so often then the party will be far less than it could be. The most successful wedding receptions I witnessed this past summer were the ones where the bride and groom nearly lived on the dance floor for three or four hours. The host/guests of honor/bride and groom set the tone that their guests will follow. If the entertainment is good there will be dancing, but not nearly as much or as fun as when the bride and groom are participating on a regular basis. If you are outside smoking or do nothing but talking to people around the room then that is what your guests will do. If you are up on the dance floor on a regular basis then your guests will follow you onto the dance floor.

So even if you think you have two left feet, if you are having a band/orchestra/DJ for your wedding reception, then get up on the dance floor and have fun! Your guests will do the same and you party will be all the success that you dreamed it would be!

-Amy

Special thanks to River City Productions and McDonald Studio for the pictures.

Labels: Band, Disc Jockey, Entertainment, Orchestra, Reception