Step 95 - Review Entrance Way of your Wedding Reception

(1 Week to 2 Weeks before your Wedding)
If you can afford it and their is room to manuever you want your wedding reception way entrance to dazzle. Hopefully the first image your wedding guest see's is an awe inspiring beautifully decorated color schemed or wedding theme sight that hits them that they are truly at a special event, an event they will always remember, when they see the couple.

If there is an entrance hall or entrance way before you enter the wedding reception area, you want to add to the ambiance of the event by setting up the entrance area as well.

At many weddings often you will see an elegant guest book on a table. The guest book comes in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and styles, the couple should get one that matches their personality and a book that is very sturdy that should last for about a hundred years. Along with the guest book you want a pen set that writes easily, ledgibly, which won't run out of ink for the occasion.

You want the guest book table to be luring too. Surrounding the guest book and pen you want to add other enticing items such as an engagement photo of the bride and groom in a nice picture frame and you can add a few smaller photos of the couple growing up, adding a little nostalgia touch which allows wedding couples to reminesce of their good times with the bride and groom. This touch adds an essential element for the wedding reception.

The guest book allows wedding guests to send them their best wishes which will become a cherished memento for the married couple, which they will always remember. Also add decorative touches to the wedding guest book table to create a beautiful site. You might decorate the tables with color schemed table linens and pretty up the back corners with decorative pillared candles or tapered candles lighted on mirrors. If there is room you always might add a decorative floral vase or have a vase filled with pretty color schemed water beads. You can add little touches to the table too, you might include a wish bowl or a basket filled with a little wedding favors, or a program or menu card or a little dish filled with after dinner mints. Lastly decorate the table with color schemed flower petals or wedding confetti.

Next attention moves on to the entrance way. If you have an open area when you enter the wedding reception you might start with a large poster board to the right of the entrance way. Make sure the poster board does not impede the traffic flow of people walking by. Poster boards can be designed a number of different ways. The poster boards can be set up to show people seated at each table numerically (Table 1, Table 2, etc) or could show the tables alphabetically (Alcapoco, Bahamas, Cancun, etc.). The Poster Board can also show your wedding guests alphabetically by their last name and to the right of their name the table number or name of table that they are seated at.

The poster board also can be drawn up according to the seating arrangement of the wedding reception facility with names embedded of who sits at each table. Wedding guests often have fun with poster boards filled with seating arrangements, it allows them to find where old friends are seated and help them remember names of people they once new and keep them from embarrassment. It's amazing if you have not seen somebody even in a few years how easy it is to forget one's name. It's helpful also to identify some of the ladies because their maiden names have changed. Some online companies can help you to create a wedding poster board are listed below. There are some software companies that can help you with a seating program which you can download a file and bring to an Office Store like Staples or Office Depot and create a poster board for you. Print out a big seating chart and add a large picture frame to it and set it upon an easel.

Sometimes the reception hall has their own tool to help you create a seating chart or a tool may be offered on their website. Talk to the wedding coordinator or manager to see if they offer a seating plan tool.

Companies that Create Seating Chart Poster Boards


www.cordially-yours.com
www.custompapersworks.com
www.documentsanddesigns.com
www.elscards.com
www.events-ink.com
www.gourmetinvitations.com
www.ido-events.com
www.kiwicards.com
www.liwedding.com
www.majesticgardens.com
www.perfecttableplan.com
www.projectwedding.com
www.seatingboards.com
www.seatingchartboutique.com
www.sky1tech.com
www.stylemepretty.com
www.weddingbycolor.com

If the entrance way is wide for the entrance way, to counterbalance the effect of the poster board of the seating arrangement you can set up another easel and create a poster sized portrait of the wedding couple. This portrait is a special tribute to the wedding couple and makes a nice gift for a wall of pictures in their new home. Check with your photographer to see if he/she can create a poster sized photo of your engagement photo or create a photo special for the wedding reception.

If there is not a lot of room for a seating chart poster board or don't have a budget for it and you have assigned seating, many couples will consider having a special table for place cards. Arrange the cards in alphabetical order in rows on the table or the place cards in a circle. You can decorate the tables with fabrics of the color scheme, add pillar candles or tapered candles with mirrors at the corners or decorate the table with a vase of flowers or plants or include vases with color schemed water beads.

Another option, if you don't have a table but have a wall. Create a space with a clothes lines effect like you see in fast food places or pizza parlors going across the wall. Put place cards in alphabetical order using decorative clothes pins. You can spray paint the clothes pins to your color scheme if you wish. You can place numerous lines of string depending on how many wedding guests there are.

If you have an open reception entrance way area, you might consider decorating the area in other ways. You could add statues, indoor fountains, ice sculptures, plants, flowers, water bead vase designs. If you have empty wall space you could rent a fancy oil painting or you can find someone who sells them and have them displayed and show them for sale, if any of your wedding guests is interested in buying any oil paintings have a card available for contact, share in the proceeds and you might end up with extra money for your honeymoon or buying home goods when you get back.

You might also consider renting furniture with some sofas and coffee tables so wedding guests can escape the music from the wedding reception and have a private location to talk with an old friend with a drink in hand or a chance for singles to escape and mingle.

Another idea which is a hit when it's brought to weddings is to create a poster sized ancestry tree chart. Since the couple just got married, the ancestry chart becomes anew. You can leave spots with those attending the wedding where they can sign their names. Those they have passed on you can honor them by showing their place on the tree. On each side of the bride and groom create a cloud for wedding guest's signatures. Leave spaces for future children. Make sure spots are create for all at the wedding, don't forget to show where cousins and great aunts and uncles are on the chart so they don't become offended. Familys sometimes get fascinated with ancestry charts and family historys can be talked about at the wedding which can be a learning experience for many of the relatives. The family chart could also go along with a photo wall in the wedding couple's new home.

With the upcoming wedding it is also a good time to update a catalog of the family history. Create a diary of each ancestor, schools they went to, places they lived, where they worked, hobbies they had if known, when married, info on their children, and if they are still not with us when they died. A good family tree goes up to the time of the great grandparents and include divorces too, but how much and how far back is really up to the wedding couple.

When you are setting up the reception area you want to consider the ambiance of the atmosphere too. You might want to set up the area with colored lights to your color scheme with updraft flood lights, par can lights or submersible lights in water bead centerpieces, Christmas style lights hanging in trees or with fabric meshing under tables. You might consider piping wedding music if you don't have a wedding musician in the entrance area or play music with a good stereo system, make sure you use a system that has a strong base sound and has good volume with no static so the music almost sounds live. Test the sound system before deciding to use it at the wedding reception entrance area or hall.

Downloadable Wedding Music Websites


www.customweddingsongs.com
www.downloadweddingmusic.com
www.ez-tracks.com/wedding.html
www.indianweddingsite.com
www.myweddingmusic.com
www.pianobrothers.com
www.royaltyfreemusic.com
www.tcartermusic.com
www.themusicbed.com
www.weddingmusiccentral.com

In recent years video equipment has become a lot less expensive and many companies sell video equipment enabling equipment to be bought at many different price levels. Some wedding couples have started to create video style guest books either on a DVD or using "Youtube". Videos can be created using a Camcorder (many good choices including Coby, Kodak, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony, or Toshiba), Web Cams, many Laptaps include video, and some Cell Phones, IPads, and Blackberrys.

Remember, while some wedding guests might be good at spontaneous questions, some people are not. Your best interviews for a guest book style interview is when you give your wedding guests a script and a moment to think about what they want to say.

Idea of a Wedding Video Guestbook Script

1. What's Your Name, Who You Are?
2. How do you Know the Wedding Couple?
3. Share a Past Memory with the Wedding Couple?
4. What's your Crystal Ball and Predictions for the Couple?

Decide if you want to edit the scripts and get editing equipment, and where to put the videos, "Youtube", wedding couple's website, online wedding album, or create a Guestbook DVD!

Another fun item for your wedding reception area if there is room is to include a fun Photo Booth. Photo Booth companies provide them and some Photographers too. Make sure you provide plenty of props, wedding bouquets, funny hats and glasses, empty picture frames, Mardi Gras beads and hats, a mini white board to write a statement, use your imagination for good props. Share the pictures from the Photo Booth, one as a wedding favor and one for the back of your photo album (create a collage of photos the couple likes).

Make sure your wedding reception entrance area is decorated and fun as your wedding reception area, if you can afford it make it beautiful and create a special memory for you and all your wedding guests! Don't forget to take pictures of all the pretty areas that have been decorated.

See you on the other side!

Step 18 - Interview and Book your Wedding Reception Facility

(9 Months to 24 Months before the Wedding)
As you begin your search for your wedding reception facility, the word that describes what you are looking for is "wow", the moment that when guests arrive on the scene. Your guests know they are at a special event so it's the biggest day of your life, so you need to create a place that will generate an atmosphere of "one enchanted evening".  A place that generates warmth and leaves your guests spellbound with an aura in the air. They are witness to something big, the hunt is on for that "magical place".

As you begin your search, you first need a place to get married which is your ceremony site. The wedding reception facility ideally should be within a fifteen minutes drive from the ceremony site, but no more than a thirty minutes drive or you may lose some of your invited guests. The only exception is if your reception is at a remote estate or mansion or at an upscale hotel or resort. If the drive is more than thirty minutes between the ceremony site and reception facility, you may consider leasing a party bus so you are less likely to lose some of your guests on the trip.

Some reception facilities do have ceremony sites on their premises, so you may investigate the possibilities if it's not a church wedding. Many upscale hotels & resorts, golf clubs, country clubs, museums, banquet halls, estates, mansions, yacht clubs, yachts, and even a few restaurants are set up to handle both a wedding ceremony and wedding reception. Keep in mind, the best reception places get taken early, so if you want a wedding at a highly desired locale, you must book the place far in advance. Some of the exceptional places even get booked two years in advance.

Another option for a reception facility is to have the wedding reception in a wedding tent. Wedding tents nowadays can be made to look very elaborate, you feel and think you are inside of some type of building and can be decorated beautifully with a lot of less restrictions as many reception facilities have. A wedding tent starts off with a blank canvass and with adding tables, chairs, serving tables, and adding a colored linen fabric design and by adding matching hanging fabric drapes and adding updraft colored flood lights and Christmas lights you can create a fabulous atmosphere.

As you begin your search for a wedding reception facility, you want to first identify about 3 to 4 wedding facilities to check out. You can find many wedding reception places from your yellow pages and wedding related websites. Even some wedding vendors will recommend places such as musicians will show where they have performed.

Almost every reception facility has a wedding coordinator who handles the wedding coordination of the venue. Seek out this person, there are many questions to ask and a lot of materials to cover. You want to find a wedding reception facility that can comfortably handle your guest list, a place not to big for your guest count and not too small, you want a place that is comfortably crowded.

One thing about wedding reception facilities, there is no standard fee structures. They all handle fee structures differently, you will need to request an itemized listing of fees. You must ask a ton of questions about everything, including the tables and chairs, about the china, flatware, and glassware, about the linens and what colored linens are available, about do they have an in house caterer and what staff comes with the place? You also need to request if they have brochures on the seating arrangement, do they have photographs of the facility from other weddings?

You will need to check out if they have any bartenders or waitress staff, and who handles cleanup. Do they have any rooms available for the bride and bridal party. Is there a place to take photos? Do they provide decorations and do they utilize a preferred list of musicians or disc jockeys? Is there a coat room and where are the bathrooms located? What are the restrictions of the venue? Is there restrictions on decorating? Is there music restrictions? Is there parking restrictions? Does the facility have to be closed at a specific time? Does the hall provide wedding cakes? Is there a table that is away from a wall that can be used for the wedding cake? (Photographers prefer a table away from the wall when the groom and bride cut the cake).

As you continue your interview with the wedding coordinator you want to try to take a tour of the premises and take photographs, you can do this with a camera phone or if you don't have that make sure you have a camera with you. Picture in your minds eye what the reception hall might look like the day of your wedding.
Note, how the entrance is laid out, is there a buffer from the front door to the reception area, is there a place to show seating upon entering for showing names of guests or a place to place an easel with guest names and table numbers.

Many reception places can provide you with a seating guide and floor plans for their venue to make the seating and table layouts easier for you. You might inquire if they have special wedding packages. Some places will present their wedding packages to you while others show their packages only if they are asked. You want to cover everything you can think of, do they have bartenders and a bartender's station, what about the waitress staff. Can you have a photo booth, a chocolate fountain, an ice sculpture, or a candy buffet? Is there valet service? You want to try to understand everything, your goal is to walk away with a price quote showing all expenses?

Make sure all fees are on the price list, there are no hidden charges, no surprises! You want to be sure you get in all the reception facility interviews done and all material reviewed before making your final decision. Many facilities will push you to commit that they will offer you a discount if you book today only. Their purpose is not to let you escape and commit with somebody else. In all likelihood, if you come back a week or two later, they probably still will honor the discount they offered to you. They want your business and there are many other places you can go to. The places you might have to commit are those exceptional places.

When you are seeking out a reception facility, share your ideas with the wedding coordinator of the facility, what things will you like to do and what limitations are there. Can you decorate the hall with your wedding theme and color? Can you pick up colored fabrics from a wedding supply store or does the reception facility only allow there decorations to be used? Can you bring along a photographer and videographer? Can you bring your own wedding cake? Can you bring musicians and disc jockeys? Can the place handle additional electrical needs and what about a dance floor? What about your own bartenders and liquor? What about the table centerpieces? Review the contract in detail and fully read and understand everything! Ask yourself, can you make the facility "awesome" and "that special place" for your wedding day?

That's all you need to do when you interview and book your wedding reception facility! See you on the other side!

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