How to Plan a Wedding

This is an easy way to plan a wedding which you can use to check what you are  missing for your wedding reception.
After you obtain your wedding date with the priest, the next step is to prepare the wedding reception. To get ready you should know how many people are coming to your wedding day. This will help you to measure what hall size you need, how many chairs, tables and other things you will order. And because we all love to save money knowing how many people are coming to your wedding reception is the best way to do it. As an example I will prepare a sample wedding to guide you and I will also give you some sources to get all the things you need.

Sample Wedding Reception

Guest list. 100 guests
The bride's family.
The Groom's family.
The rest are friends.

Renting the Hall.
You need to reserve the hall 3 month before the wedding so in that case you will have time to chose the best for you.
Sometimes the hall provides you the chairs, tables, table clothes, food and drinks. However, some hall are cheap to get and they do not provide chairs, tables, table clothes, food and drink. In this Sample wedding we have an empty hall which does not provide anything, so the next step to do is.

Choosing a color theme for the wedding reception.
What kind of color do you wish to decorate the hall? In this sample wedding I chose white and gold color.

Visit a party decoration store in your city or search in Google about places where they rent chairs and tables. Lets say this wedding has a party decoration store in the city.

What to obtain from a party decoration store?

Invitations, one per family or one per friend. You can find invitations in AC Moore, Party City, Michael's and Dollar Tree. 

100 chairs according to the guest list.

100 white chair covers with 100 gold sashes.

A 50 inch round table can place 10 guests, a 6 ft square table can place 8 guests, a 40 inch round table can also place 8 guests. For this sample wedding we will chose the 50 inch round table. The guest list shows that 100 guests are coming so eleven 50 inch round tables will be needed.10 tables for guests and one for the cake.

10 white table clothes with 10 gold table cloth topper. 10 tables for guests and one for the cake.

10  flower center pieces for each table.


Feeding Your Guest.
Some party decoration stores have connections with catering businesses that specialize in buffets for events with these many people but also you can find these caterers in Craigslist or Google. For this sample wedding we found a local caterer in our town using Craigslist. contacted the caterers and asked for references, just to make sure that they are reputable. Contacted the references.

Make sure that the caterers provide forks, plates, glass cups, food warmer, food servers and the food together so it will be less stress for you getting those items. If you decide not to get those items from them just visit any party city store in your city to get the items and ask some friends to help you serve the drinks and food.

100 party favors.
These are given to guests as a gesture of gratitude for their attendance. All party decoration stores provide these items. If you desire to do it yourself Party City, AC Moore, Michael's and Dollar Tree stores provides them. For this sample wedding we have 100 party favors from Virgie's party decoration store.

The Cake.
Most party decoration stores can provide you reference to some good local bakery stores or go to Google to search for one in your location.  For this sample wedding we found a store called Silvia's bakery and we ordered 6 pound of cake.

Photography and Video.
Party decoration stores provides them but also search in Google for local photo and video studio. If you want to save some money, ask a friend to help you out taking pictures in your wedding but remember quality pictures are the best.For this sample wedding we found a local photographer that also does video. We checked out his references and look at his past work.


Drinks. 
In certain cultures a weeding godfather is chosen for this aspect of the wedding reception. The following may or may not apply to you.
The person in charge of the drinks in your wedding needs to let you know what guests will drink so that you make sure that what is severed in the wedding all people can drink. You can put in each table one bottle of wine or champagne as you desire. For this sample wedding we will use one bottle of wine on each table, 10 cases of beer and one jar of non alcoholic cocktail on each table. Drinks are your choice it is not necessary serve all these drinks.


The DJ.
Most party decoration stores provide a professional DJ or you can search in Google or Craigslist for a DJ service. Some people have family members be the DJ to their wedding reception. 


Hall Decoration.
Party decoration stores always have a package for a hall decoration, if you desire to decorate your wedding you can search the tools and items at AC Moore, Michael's, Party City, Dollar Tree and others to make your reception a dream come true.

  And that's basically how to plan a wedding / wedding reception.
Remember to check back with us at Basic Arts and Crafts for future tips and tricks.


                            Sincerely,
                                            Carol.