Blog Archives

These are the Top 10 most recommended things NOT to do at your wedding reception. While some of these are hard to avoid, the rest may not be. These are a matter of opinion of course.

1. Having the Bar outside of the room from where the reception is. The atmosphere is in the room and on the dance floor. If your guests are old

wedding bar set up

college roommates and they haven’t seen each other in a while, they will be hanging out in the bar area and most likely can’t see or hear the dance floor. Keep the energy and focus in your room

Utilize the Djs talent and experience

2. Controlling the entire music selection. The goal in hiring quality entertainment is to utilize their knowledge, talent and skill along with your input in creating the perfect mix of music. If you are in too much control and you don’t have any experience with choosing wedding music, then how are your guests going to react if it’s not working. Trust the pros, but give them input.

Elegant wedding cake

3. Cutting the cake after dinner: too much time goes by and by the time they serve it, 1/2 of your guests either don’t remember the cake cutting or don’t even get to enjoy it, cause the festivities and dancing have started. Cut the cake after the introductions. Everyone sees it, and they are cutting it up while the guests are enjoying dinner so it can be served immediately following dinner. (providing you are having it for dessert or serving it)

4. Party favors:  one of the biggest wastes at a reception. Here’s the hint: do something that they can use and won’t

wedding party favors? do they really care?

sit in the bottom of their drawer for years to come. No to picture frames, yes to candy.. The best and newest trend is to make a monetary donation to a cause in your guests honor and not only will they furnish little cards to place at the table, but it is a very classy gesture.

5. Top shelf Bar.. Unless of course you are rich and have extra money. Middle to lower shelf is fine. The money is the same in the envelopes and unless you’re trying to impress someone, you don’t need it.

6. Huge, expensive cake: really? Why not just get a small beautiful looking cake and have sheet cakes in the kitchen where the venue can serve. Think anyone will notice? no one except you and your mother in law? so unless you have extra money and the cake us THAT important to you?

7. Doing shots with your guests: Truthfully we say, don’t allow shots at your wedding at all. In the past 5 years, we have had more than a dozen weddings end early or get closed down because of drunkenness. IN addition to that, we have had countless brides and grooms over the years, pass out, get sick and even not make it to their own reception because of excessive drinking.

8. Greeting guests at tables after dinner: Here is one that we will get the most frowns upon. take this into consideration.. 30 seconds you may spend with each guests, 100 guests, that 50 minutes JUST for 100 guests. WOW! and to top it off, your guests are sitting there after dinner with nothing to do. If you must greet guests at each table after dinner, do 1/3 of the room, then get into some dancing and go back and finish. DO NOT go through the entire room and EVERY table, It will kill the mood and your guests WILL be bored to tears.

9. Single sided buffet service: Read this closely: if having a buffet dinner for over 125-140 guests, find out if there is going to be a two sided buffet line, if not ask them if it can be done.. In addition, if you decided to add a carver for roast beef or Turkey or something like that,  there should be one carver for each 100 guests (if not, ask for 2) they may charge you an extra 50.00-75.00, but it will be WELL worth it. Your buffet line will be gone through in 1/2 the time, which means more time for dancing and having fun.

wedding disposable cameras

10. DO NOT buy or put cheap disposable cameras on the tables. Yes, you heard it, NO.. Why you ask.. Simple, there are most likely 25% of your guests that have a camera and are taking at least 20 pictures each. The way you collect these, is there are free file sharing sites that you can customize online where ALL of your guests can upload their photos and everyone can share.

These are just a few examples of some things we have learned over the years. These are opinions only and I surely welcome some opinions from everyone else.

Tasty and good food

Having over 22 years of experience in the wedding industry, I have several suggestions to help you prioritize your budget and even save you some money on your wedding reception. With over 5000 weddings under our belts as a company since 1987, we have seen it all at weddings and have had the opportunity to work with scores of vendors. These ideas are opinions based on real facts. Feel free to contact us with additional questions and ideas.

classy wedding food

First, think about your budget practically. A great portion of your wedding budget is on the reception itself. The U.S. average cost for a typical reception is $17,900. Food, venue and decorations are of the most expensive. But think about that: Is the party, the fun and the memorable time, really affected by the room it is held in? If you and your guests are having an amazing time, does it really matter what room the party is in? If it is a great party, you could move it to an entirely different room and it would still be great!

Second, simplify things. You will be serving your guests dinner. Does the food need to be the complete focus and the most amazing part of your reception, or can it be attractive, presentable, tasty, hot and plentiful? You can serve an amazing meal that nourishes guests and still have a fantastic party. Yet, everyone gets tied up on “the meal”.  For example, you can have a wedding at the Ritz Carlton Cleveland for $110 per person. While it may be more elegant, will your guests dance more or truly have a better time? Will they be more uptight because of the elegance around them makes them less likely to relax and have fun? What if you had your wedding at a downtown hotel (for half the price of the Ritz Carlton Cleveland,) still fed your guests a tasty meal and had great entertainment to keep them dancing all night long? The end result of your guests being full is the same.

On the extreme side of things, you can go with your locally-run facilities, even some of the ethnic facilities and church halls, that start at $20 per person for food. You could increase your food budget with these caterers by adding variety. Most of these are updated and clean venues. Guests get the same result and will dance the night away, all without having to worry about the glitz and glamour of downtown or downtown driving and parking.

Elegant wedding cake

Third, are decorations that important? When the lights dim and the party gets fun, are the decorations going to enhanced that fun at your reception? Think about it — probably not! What is really important for your wedding day? What vendor will control the flow of all the formalities and events? What vendor will make announcements and help build the atmosphere of fun at your reception? What vendor will set the right mood and ambiance? The answer: your DJ/Emcee. Your DJ/Emcee can make or break your reception. Consider placing more emphasis on the budget for your DJ/Emcee since they are the person who will capture that fantastic time your guests will never forget.

A wedding that never ended

Fourth, what will you have to remember it all? You want someone to capture all the moments of the biggest night of your life. Leave that task to your trained professional photographer and possibly a videographer. It depends on what you can afford and what your budget may be, but really consider how important photography really is. Ten years down the road, what will you have to remember the night of your life. A night that can never be duplicated! What really is your priority? Of course, you’ll examine each item you are budgeting for to decide if it contributes to the priorities you have set.