Are you worried about how your wedding is going to take place? There are so many tiny details in the wedding that will turn into a huge mess on the wedding day if they are not properly planned ahead of time. And trust me you don’t want any trouble on your wedding day because any poorly planned detail can affect the whole atmosphere of the wedding. If you are lucky enough to stumble upon this article, read on, to know the secrets on how to plan a wedding perfectly.
1.Determine the number of people you want to invite
The first step in planning a wedding reception is going to be estimating how many guests are going to be participating in it. You can list down all the potential guests on a piece of paper so you don’t forget to invite any important people from your circle. Once you have made a complete list of guests you will know how many people are coming to your wedding and you can pick the right-sized venue for your wedding. This simple step is going to save you the trouble of not having enough room at the time of wedding reception when guests start to arrive. It is recommended that the capacity of the chosen venue should be larger than the number of people you have invited. While it is a possibility that more people might arrive at your wedding than you have expected but it can be other way around as well and fewer people than you expected might show up.
2. Determine the theme of your wedding
What you need to determine is what style of wedding you are more interested in because there are so many different themes for wedding receptions these days. For example, you can hold a wedding indoors or outdoors or you can have your wedding to be very festive, or classic themed. Be sure to get creative when selecting the theme of your wedding reception because it is a great way for the couple to express their selves.
3.Pick the date for wedding reception ahead of time
The factors you need to consider regarding the choice of your wedding date are:
- The weather conditions on the day you pick should be suitable for wedding reception especially if you are holding an outdoor wedding.
- Whether it is convenient for your relatives and friends to come to your wedding on that day and make sure they aren’t occupied on the day you picked for your reception.
- Whether the day conflicts with any important holiday or any religious event.
The choice of the day is an important factor when planning for a wedding reception. So choosing a good day for your wedding reception can greatly improve the overall atmosphere of the wedding.
4.Shopping for the wedding items
When you start the buying process for your wedding items, list the things you want to buy, and more importantly determine the amount of money you want to spend on each item. You should also prioritize the important items on the list so that you don’t end up missing any important item. For example, some items such as wedding dresses and bride’s jewelry are extremely important and should be in the priority section of your wedding shopping list. This can help you reasonably purchase the important items while you can avoid buying unnecessary things, and can also help you save a lot of money. When you go to purchase an item, you can ask for help from the salesperson this will surely help you pick the best options that will be suitable for your wedding reception.
5.Choose the wedding contractor that suits your needs.
In the entire planning process, choosing an experienced wedding contractor to arrange different aspects of your wedding can save you a lot of worries. But if you are working with a wedding contractor, you need to make your requirements for the wedding as clear as possible. It is very important that you should be honest about what you want and do check the samples of what the contractor is offering before hiring them.
6.Prioritize your wedding guest’s list
Use the “prioritizing” trick to cut down your list of visitors to only the closest and important guests. Place immediate family members, bridesmaids, and best friends in the top place of your guest list. Then comes the aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends at the second priority level. Below, these two priority sections you can list your parent’s friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc.
If you need to make some cuts, start at the bottom of the list and cut down from the section that is below the two priority levels. This way you can make sure that all the guests will know each other and get along well. You might want to be a matchmaker at your wedding and provide an opportunity for your guests to meet new people that they potentially end up marrying. But trust me it is way more convenient for your guests if they get to spend time with more familiar faces and avoid any awkwardness. Not to mention it will bring down your seating cost if you cut down your guest’s list to only the most important people.
7. Hotel selection
When your wedding day has been chosen, you can look for hotels at different price points for the guests to stay in. Many hotels have an option to book a room for wedding guests at specially discounted rates. You can also inform the hotel about any guests that will not be booking the rooms one month before the wedding. If the hotel management insists on signing a contract to pay fine for any unbooked rooms just say no because it will greatly increase the cost of hotel booking.
8.Have a plan for kids
No, I am not asking you to plan for having children just yet what I mean is you should pre-arrange a play area to let the children play away from their parents so they don’t run around in the main area of the wedding. In a separate area, arrange some kid-friendly movies, games, and activities for the children to play.
9. Music Band Selection
Choose the band to play music at your reception that you like and would enjoy dancing to. And understand that the band will need some time to rest because they can’t play music nonstop. So you can specify the dance time before the wedding starts so that the band is fresh enough to play through the dance session. And communicate with the band about the type of music you want them to play at the wedding. While you would want to only play the songs you like the most you should pick some songs that everyone in the guest list can dance to.
10. Selecting the wedding food menu
The choice of the wedding meal is also an important item in wedding planning. Before you sign the contract with a wedding food supplier, make sure you test the menus they provide first. Then talk to your supplier about what combination of food you want on your wedding reception. After determining the main menu of the meal you can set up small surprises between dishes, such as offering some short toasts and desserts.
11.Take It One Step at a Time
Make a wedding planning timeline and complete every arrangement one after the other in a logical method so that you don’t overload yourself. Do not hire any suppliers until the date of the wedding is confirmed similarly don’t choose a wedding cake without selecting flowers and decorations first and so on.
12. Have a Plan B
Be sure to have a plan B for your wedding reception in case something goes wrong. For example in case of an outdoor wedding and unexpected rain shower can mess up the whole reception so you should have a backup plan such as rain covers setup so your wedding reception is not affected.
13. Practice, Practice, Practice
The last step is when you have all the details planned. You can rehearse the things that you can ahead of the reception to make sure everything is perfectly executed.