How to create a beautiful reception on a budgetThe wedding reception is the most expensive part of any wedding. The reception is based on two fees: the cost of the food per person and the cost of the venue. This is generally broken down to one cost per person. This is the cost that you will then need to base your guest list on. When the cost of the reception is thirty pounds per person and you invite one hundred people then the cost for the reception will only be around three thousand pounds. When the cost per person is fifty pounds and you invite fifty guests the cost for the reception will be only be approximately two thousand five hundred pounds. These are great prices and depending on where you live you can possibly get the cost down this low. This may be a challenge is you live in a major city. However, you can always find a way to get the price that you can afford per person. Here are some suggestions on how to dig up the very best possible prices on a reception. You can call local restaurants and ask them if they have a space that they will section off for your wedding reception. They will be able to give you a price based on the selection of items that you pull off of their regular menu. For example, you can select one type of salad and two different plates (the invitation to the reception will allow the guest to select their preference) along with two side dishes and a desert. You can ask for a small area to be created for the first dance. The restaurant will usually cater to your needs and may even have the wedding cake be a part of the cost. Having your wedding reception at a restaurant will save you money on some other items as well, for example, you will not need an MC. You will simply have the quiet restaurant music in the background until the first dance. You can get a wedding reception at a local restaurant to cost less than twenty pounds a plate. Be sure to ask for prices on buffet as well, the cost difference may make this option worth considering. You can also create a beautiful and cheap reception by having the reception in a garden. You will of course need to find an attractive looking and available garden. You can have loved ones bring dishes and deserts. This will remove the bulk of the cost of the wedding reception. You will then need to rent tables and chairs unless a local church that you or a loved one are affiliated with will loan you some. You can rent plates, eating utensils and linens or you can purchase disposable items for an easy cleanup and an even cheaper cost. Such a reception could get the cost per person down to four or five dollars per person. There are several ways to save money on your reception and to get a cheap reception without losing the quality and beauty of the special day. Another hidden expense can be found in horderves and drinks. Be sure to compare the cost of these items before you determine if there will be an open bar or one or two hours of horderves before the dinner starts. Saving money on a reception takes planning and preparation along with a good dose of creativity, a cheap reception can still be beautiful, romantic and all that you have been dreaming of. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Keeping the kids happy at the wedding receptionAre you going to invite children to your wedding? People have different ideas about whether or not this is a good idea, but if you are going to include them you need to cater for them properly as well. Otherwise things could go downhill and become very stressful very quickly – and that could ruin your whole wedding day. Luckily there are plenty of things you can do to make sure the kids enjoy themselves as much as the adults do. Remember that they will have been required to sit still and be quiet during the wedding service (assuming you are allowing them to attend the actual wedding). So by the time the reception rolls around you will want to make sure they have plenty to catch their attention. If the wedding is taking place in good weather you can make good use of outdoor space if it is available to you. Think about providing outdoor activities such as giant garden games – these are equally as popular with adults too. A children’s entertainer of some kind can work well also, as they are trained to keep kids occupied. The trick to keeping the kids amused for the duration of the reception is to think about their needs separately from those of the adults. For example, a three course traditional wedding breakfast may not interest a child of four, who would rather tuck into a burger or fish fingers. So consider having a separate menu planned for the children. Another good idea is to have an area they can call their own. You aren’t segregating them completely from the rest of the wedding party; you’re just giving them the opportunity to be kids and to enjoy themselves without running around and disturbing everyone else. Tripping over young and hyperactive children is not what most people want at their wedding! If you opt for this make sure someone will be available to watch them as well. An integral part of many weddings is the tradition of having wedding favours for everyone who attends. This is a nice way of thanking people for attending, and you can extend the same idea to cater for the children in attendance as well. Instead of providing wedding favours, select some party bags and fill them with toys that the kids can play with them then and there. Another good item to provide them with is a bottle of bubbles. They can use it in place of confetti as well as using it in general, and it doesn’t annoy people or make any noise either. And since these bottles only cost a few pennies each, they are a cheap and easy way to keep the kids entertained. Incidentally, some people have provided these instead of confetti in general anyway. It could be worth considering at your own wedding. So as you can see it is possible to invite children of all ages to your wedding without them taking over and causing too much noise. You just have to make sure you are properly prepared for them. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Wedding receptions! Your wedding reception is a time to celebrate the beautiful union of a husband and wife and also a time to celebrate that the stress of planning and organising a wedding is finally over! While there is a suggested order of events that has been used traditionally, you can certainly choose to customise any portion of it to fit your personal circumstances, but keep in mind that this order has worked successfully for countless couples and is likely what your guests will expect. Suggested order of events at the wedding reception: The guests arrive at the reception. They may be there for a while before the wedding party arrives due to wedding photos being taken so you will want to have drinks and hors d'oeuvres ready for them to enjoy. The wedding party arrives. You may wish to have a Toastmaster announce the Bride and Grooms arrival only or the entire wedding party. Toasts. This time honoured tradition allows kind words of encouragement to the Bride and Groom and sets the tone for the reception. The Best Man offers a toast first and may be followed by the Maid of Honour and possibly other family members such as the Bride's father, but you will want to consider how long to leave the guests waiting before dinner. Blessing of the meal. The Toastmaster should ask everyone to take their seats for dinner before the blessing. The blessing can be said by the Bride or Groom's father or Grandfather or other special person that the Bride and Groom choose. Dinner is served. Whether this will be a buffet or sit down meal, the Bride and Groom are served first followed by the wedding party and parents. Then the Toastmaster may want to call tables up one by one if it is a buffet, otherwise the guests should be served at this time. The Bride and Groom's first dance. This is the time your song is set for life. You will always remember this first dance together. The Father-Daughter dance and any other special dances. The bride’s father gets his "last dance" with his little girl. You may want to make this just the first part of a song and then the DJ can announce the wedding party as they enter the dance floor, or you can do two separate songs. After this you want all the guests to join in on the dance floor as soon as possible so they don't become lethargic after dinner and want to leave too early. The tossing of the bridal bouquet and garter. The bride tosses the bouquet over her shoulder to all the single ladies, keep in mind that single means "never married" and not divorced and the groom tosses the garter to all the single men. The lucky guy who catches the garter then gets to place it on the leg of the lucky lady who caught the bouquet. Cutting of the cake. Now the DJ can announce the cutting of the cake. The Bride and Groom make the first cut together and then serve each other a piece with their fingers. This is a great photo op. Someone else, even the kitchen help, can then cut and serve the cake to the guests or place the slices on the dessert table for people to eat when they want or wrap up and take home. Dance until they drop. Now guests should feel free to dance and party until their hearts content. The Bride and Groom are free to dance or leave early if they have a plane to catch or just want to get the honeymoon started. Once again, this order is just a suggestion because this is your big day and everything should be planned to make it feel right for you. The most important thing is to just enjoy yourself and take some time to remember what is really important about this day—you got married! Everything else is really secondary to that. Source www.countywedding .co.uk

Service & reception at different venuesWhen you are planning your wedding, there are two crucial things you need to think about. Firstly you must consider where you actually want to get married. Are you going for a church service? How about a quieter and less religious registry office? And of course today you can also get married in any number of other stately homes, venues and more unusual places that have been granted a licence to marry people. Secondly there is the question of where you will celebrate afterwards. You might want something fairly low key with only close friends and family present. Alternatively you may want the party to end all parties! It is completely up to you and every happy couple has their own idea of what will work for them. But there are distinct benefits to holding the wedding ceremony and the reception in separate locations. If you are still at the planning stages of your forthcoming wedding, you may want to consider the following points. For starters there is the essential fact that it makes things more versatile. There are plenty of venues that can accommodate you for the whole day – ceremony and all. But you may have a very specific idea of where you want to be married. If a church service is what you want, you will definitely have to find another venue for the reception for example. Basically it opens up all kinds of venues for both the ceremony and the reception that you would not be able to consider if you wanted an all inclusive package which catered for everything. In addition to this it also gives you and your guests a valuable breather in between the wedding ceremony and the celebrations afterwards. Depending on what you want to do, you could have a couple of hours in between just to relax and get rid of all those nerves that have been mounting for days! You can then look forward to the evening celebrations elsewhere. Some couples like to have a smaller and more intimate wedding ceremony, and this is also easier to do with separate venues. If you opt for one venue for both parts of the day, you couldn’t pick a small venue for the ceremony if you wanted everyone to attend the evening do. There simply wouldn’t be room. The question of travel may also be an issue. Some people like to get married in spots that have a particular resonance for them. For example, if you met in a small church a hundred miles away from where you now live, you might want to go back there for the service. In this case you could do that and then hold a celebration for everyone to attend a day or two later. As you can see there are lots of possibilities available when you focus on two separate locations for the wedding services and the celebrations afterwards. You might find your wedding is much easier to plan if you go down this route. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk