5 Tips To Select The Best Wedding Reception Location

Being disc jockeys, we get the opportunity to evaluate many reception facilities while having little or no bias to “sell” one location over another. Most Brides and Grooms know where they will be holding the ceremony before they decide where to have the reception, so we have compiled five observations that can help you when selecting your venue.

Distance – If people have to drive a long way to get from the ceremony to the reception, some will get distracted or decide to do something else. Try to keep the reception within a 15 to 30 minute drive of your ceremony. If it is not possible to get a reception hall close to your ceremony, make a caravan. Have the Bride and Groom lead the parade, and people will follow you to your reception.

Time – Time is just like the distance issue. If your reception is several hours after the ceremony, people will get busy doing other things and not show up for the reception. Try to start the reception within an hour or two of the ceremony. If you don’t want to start your wedding dance at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, have a Meet and Greet mixer before your reception. Serve some punch and get people to mingle. This will be one of the few times that both families will be together. Encourage family members to share stories about your childhoods.

Size – People like their personal space, and they have most likely spent an hour packed into a church for your ceremony. If you let them spread out, they will enjoy themselves more. Make sure your reception hall has plenty of room for your guests. The people renting the location might tell you it holds 200 people, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will hold 200 people comfortably! Make sure to visit the venue before booking.

Climate Control – Having a summer wedding? Is your reception hall air conditioned? If people sweat while just sitting, they won’t dance. On the flip side, if they are cold they won’t dance either (who wants to dance in a parka?). Also make sure you know who has control of the thermostat so the temperature can be adjusted if needed. Chances are your reception will be warm and stuffy while all the guest are there, but as they trickle out during the night the room will begin to cool down.

Smoking – This is a hot button issue, but if your reception hall is non-smoking, you can fully expect smoker’s to leave your reception for 15-30 minutes every hour. If enough of them leave the reception area, you may find a large percentage of your guest just hanging out in the smoking area. This can be a big problem if you have many smokers in your wedding party. You don’t have to allow smoking, but it is something you should consider, especially if anyone has any health problems like asthma or allergies that could be triggered by smoke. If you decide not to allow smoking in the reception area, how close is the nearest place for a smoker to go? Is it close enough that you will be able to get needed wedding party members during events like the bouquet toss or garter auction?

Facility coordinators will no doubt bring up several other factors for you to consider when you interview them for your booking, but these are often missed items, especially if they don’t favor the potential venue. If you keep the overall picture in mind and work with your wedding planner or event coordinator on the decorating ideas, you will no doubt have an enjoyable and memorable wedding reception.

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Couples who are planning a wedding in the wintertime may wish to incorporate the idea of winter into the overall theme of the wedding. They may also wish to give their guests wedding favors which are related to the winter season. These wedding favors can be items related to winter or the holiday season depending on the preferences of the couple. This article will provide a few ideas for wedding favors which would be appropriate for winter weddings.

Couples who are getting married around Christmastime may be planning to incorporate Christmas into the theme of the wedding. If this is the case they will have a great deal of options available to them in terms of wedding favors. One very popular idea is to give each guest an ornament with the names of the bride and the groom and the wedding date. This is an excellent idea for the wedding favor because it is not only something the guests can use but it is also a personalized wedding favor which will help to ensure the favor will be associated with the wedding and will help the guests to remember the wedding fondly.

Tiny, artificial Christmas trees are another great idea for a festive wedding favor idea. These tiny trees can be adorned with wedding bell ornaments or kept plain to allow the guests to decide how to display the favor themselves. Alternatively the couple may wish to give each of the guests a few packets of seeds for Christmas trees. This will allow each of the guests to plan their own trees if they desire to do so.

Snow globes are another example of a favor which would be very appropriate for a winter wedding. The snow globes can feature a bride and a groom amidst the snow or can simply be a winter scene which the couple finds appealing such as ice skaters or a mountain scene. This type of wedding favor is likely to be appreciated by your guests because it is not a very common wedding favor so most of your guests will not likely already have a large collection of similar items.

Another idea for a wedding favor for a wedding during the winter season is a miniature sled with the name of the bride and the groom and the date of the wedding painted on the sled. This is a rather cute decoration which can be displayed as a knick knack or used as an ornament on a Christmas tree.

Even items such as coasters can be used as wedding favors for a winter wedding. Coasters come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and designs. You can find coasters shaped like snowflakes or featuring winter scenes. By selecting these winter themed design a very practical wedding favor instantly becomes one which is also very appropriate for the theme or the season of the wedding.

Hot chocolate, coffees and teas are also great wedding favor ideas for winter weddings. These edible favor ideas are great for the winter season because they are all warm drinks. You can even find wedding favor distributors who will personalize the packaging of these favors for you so that you can make these wedding favors even more festive and appropriate for distribution as a wedding favor.

The purpose of wedding favors is to thank your guests for coming to your wedding and ultimately showing their support for your commitment to each other. As a result you should really try to find wedding favors which your guest will love. In some cases this may mean you have to give your guests a wedding favor which may not appeal to you but that you know the majority of your guests will love. However, in most cases the wedding favor you select for your guests will be something you know they will love as well as a favor which you would also love to receive. This article will provide a few wedding favor ideas which are enjoyed by many guests.

Edible wedding favors are one type of favor which the majority of your guests will love. There are a lot of options available for couples who wish to give their guests some type of edible favor. Candy is one of the most popular options available. Many couples like to give their guests a candy bar with a personalize wrapper which includes the names of the bride and the groom as well as the wedding date. Other candies such as mints or hard candies are also very popular. These candies can often be distributed in personalized containers such as tins or glass containers. Cookies are another type of edible wedding favor which is very popular. The cookies can include a photo of the couple or may be a fortune cookie with a quote from a love song or phone inside.

Miniature wedding cakes are another type of edible wedding favor your guests will appreciate. These are not as popular as other types of wedding favors because they can be rather expensive but if they fit within your budget, your guests are sure to be delighted by these favors. These wedding favors can be distributed in small boxes so your guests can take them home easily.

Picture frames are another example of wedding favors that many guests love to receive. Guests like to receive this type of favor because it is a very practical gift. They can use the frame to hold a picture of the couple or for any other purpose they wish. Giving picture frames is also a great idea because they come in such a wide variety that finding a suitable one should be easy. Picture frames can be purchased to reflect the theme of the wedding or can be romantic in nature to reflect the underlying theme of love which prevails at all weddings. Alternately picture frames selected as favors can be rather plain in nature. This helps to ensure the pictures frames will be used by the guests because it makes it more likely that they will work well with the décor in the guests’ homes.

Another example of wedding favors guests love is basically anything which they can use and which will help them to remember the wedding fondly. One way to accomplish this is to provide wedding favors which are not only practical but also closely relate to the theme of the wedding. Wedding favors which incorporate the theme of the wedding are much more likely to trigger the guests to remember the details from the wedding each time they see or use the favor.

Around the globe couples celebrate their unions with a wedding dance of some sort. Most religions, with the exception of those who still frown upon dancing, have some sort of wedding dance that is a part of this joyous event or the celebration of this event. This is much more than a simple dance. It is the dance that will begin your life as husband and wife. For this reason alone, many couples spend a great deal of time and effort choosing the perfect song to symbolize their love for each. Once decided, this is the song that is to be played for their wedding dance.

Your wedding dance is one of the few memories of your wedding that you will have forever. Most of your wedding day will go by in such a blur of faces that there will be few moments that stand out above the rest. Your wedding dance however, is the one time during your wedding reception that you and your spouse are truly alone within the crowd. All eyes may be on you both but this is your moment together and no one else in the room should matter at this moment. This is the reason that most people will remember their wedding dance long after they’ve forgotten other details about their wedding.

Some couples actually take wedding dance lessons in order to make sure that nothing goes wrong during their wedding dance. Many instructors often suggest that you use the shoes you will be wearing for your wedding as well as a skirt that is very similar to your wedding dress in order to actually get an honest feel for how you will be dancing on your wedding day. It is amazing how much of a difference the height of your shoes and the length of your skirt or train can make when it comes to dancing. These classes are very important for couples that truly want to have the fairy tale wedding experience though not necessarily practical for couples that are already working at the end of their budget constraints.

Ballroom dance lessons will often suffice for wedding dance lessons and in many cases are much less expensive if you can take them at a local community center rather than taking private lessons. Group lessons are almost always more economical and can be a great way for you and your future spouse to learn to dance together in time for your big night and your wedding dance.

If budgets won’t even allow for this indulgence to make your wedding dance a little easier to handle you can always opt to purchase an instructional video or DVD. It would be great fun to practice your wedding dance together before the big night and it is a great way to have fun together as a couple even after the big night. You can find videos and DVDs that teach all manner of dance steps that you may find appealing.

Otherwise you can always wing it. Pick a song you love, a dance you like and have fun without worrying about getting it perfect. You are beginning your new life together as a couple and who really needs the pressure of dancing perfect, right? It is also your day and that is one thing that far too few brides really realize when getting caught up in the pressure of creating the perfect wedding within a limited budget.

The thing to remember when planning your wedding and your wedding dance is that you and your spouse to be are the most important people in the process. Do not allow yourself to feel pressured into something that you don’t want in order to appease others. Make your wedding day and your wedding dance completely your own if you are not interested in or comfortable with the idea of taking lessons from someone else. You and your partner will be glad that you did what was right for you when all is said and done.

When it comes to wedding planning, it’s incredibly easy just to let loose and forget your budget. It’s your big day, and you should be able to throw caution to the wind and have everything that you’ve been dreaming of since you were a little girl.

The problem is, your budget might not agree with this and before you know it, if you aren’t exceptionally careful when considering every element of your wedding planning, you may end up using your entire budget before your planning is even complete.

Here are a couple of budget crunchers to avoid:

Budget Cruncher: Invitations And Wedding Favors

Your guests attend your wedding to celebrate your love and witness your special day. They don’t need to leave with a bottle of wine or a knick-knack that they just don’t really want. While it’s sentimental and thoughtful of you to give your entire guest list a wedding favor, the costs can quickly add up.

Instead, if you really want to hand out favors at your wedding, consider ones that you can create yourself, such as a CD with your favorite music. This is a far more personal gift and won’t cost you all that much to create. Just buy a pack of CD’s from a bulk store like Costco and you’re in business!

Budget Cruncher: Oversized Wedding Cakes

This is a very common mistake that brides and grooms make when trying to determine an adequate size cake for their wedding. They go over the top and end up with lots of wasted cake that cost them a small fortune.

Do your best to choose a cake size that is reasonable, considering that smaller cakes can be just as beautiful as three or four tiered ones. If you really want an elaborate cake, consider building tiers with false centers or filling it in with roses that match your wedding’s color scheme.

You could also have a “display” cake (the cake featured at your reception) with extra sheet cakes in the kitchen in case you run out. These will cost you far less than your actual wedding cake, and will give you assurance that you have plenty to go around.
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Almost all brides and grooms have some jitters before their wedding. The closer it gets to your wedding day, the more nervous you will probably become. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly natural!
You should discuss your feelings with your partner. The two of you might be able to work together to resolve some of your tension, and you may even be surprised to find out that he or she is having some jitters of their own!
Learning to work through feelings together is part of what makes a marriage work. If the two of you can work closely together to work through issues, it will make a very strong foundation for the marriage.
If you have trouble discussing your feelings, you can start out by writing notes to each other about how you feel. Sometimes this can help if you’re too nervous to talk, or if you’re worried about starting an argument.
Once you both understand how the other is feeling, it will be easier to talk about your issues. You have to learn how to talk to each other sometime, and it’s best if you do it before the wedding!
If you’re worried about finances, you’re not alone. One of the biggest causes of pre-wedding jitters is worrying about how much the wedding is going to cost. Getting into thousands of dollars in debt is not a good way to start a marriage!
But there are ways you can save money and still have an amazing wedding! Spending a fortune isn’t necessary if you know the best money-saving tips.
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