@bajamm Being able to go with the flow and being flexible are also good qualities in a marriage!
@kelsmom My D’s dress ripped down a side seam at the hip 30 min before the start of the wedding. Bridesmaid with a sewing kit saved the day!
I don’t know if D1 or her attendants know how to use a needle and thread. Believe me, I tried to teach both girls, sewing was a common talent (a “common thread,” lol,) in my own family. Fixing wedding seams would fall on me.
DD’s wedding day was a bit complex as it was a bi-cultural experience and of course, the usual details to be tended. It was enormously helpful that our individual wedding coordinator who came on board for the last 6 months crafted a detailed timeline for the weekend and especially the wedding day itself. All wedding party members knew where to be when, as did family members. It included such things as who was being photographed when, hair and make-up schedule, when the string quartet was starting, the time of reception toasters, when the first dance and father daughter dance were, etc. The timeline was edited multiple times and spent a few weeks in process. It was both long and necessary. Even a very simple day will be improved by having one. It didn’t all unfold to the letter, but close enough. It was necessary for the vendors and the tedious reviewing process let potential problem areas be anticipated.
We also had food and beverages out for wedding party members, as photos were going on at lunch time. Folks were encouraged to have a big breakfast (and we provided one for the bridal party’s hair makeup session). DD wanted very simple food out of fear for her husband’s tux. (Suggest that groom have a back-up shirt just in case.) We had nice cheeses, grapes, neat sandwiches, crackers and nuts, etc available. The idea was grab and go, as no one was on exactly the same schedule.
Travelnut, our weddings sound similar. D ordered in a big tray of chicken nuggets, fruit salad, etc. for the folks who would be changing make up, clothes, etc. while the Indian luncheon was going on between ceremonies.
Our wedding coordinator also produced a mind-boggling minute by minute schedule that began at 4 am with set up by the hair-makeup folks and ended after 11 pm with post-reception clean-up.
Good tip about the sewing kit - storing away for future reference.
At one of the Duggar weddings, there was a problem with the dress and they had a sewing machine at the church. One of the handy girls just put an entire hem in the dress 20 minutes before the ceremony.
Seeking options for some kind of card holder for wedding reception. My two main objectives are anti-theft and something that is either disposable/not expensive/something we already have we can repurpose or something we can buy/make that is personal or meaningful that the couple can use in some way in their small apartment.
There is not space in our already overcrowded church fellowship hall for a “fake cake box” type card holder. I think they are lovely, but no space for it plus my D doesn’t want something that only has 1 use.
We are inviting 248, hoping to get lots of No RSVPs (invited EVERYONE to avoid hurt feelings) but still need to have a larger card holder just in case.
Wish I could send you the card box we’ll never use again.
You can cover/decorate any box in wedding wrapping paper, cut slit in the top, and tape it to the table it sits on. Then ask a guest or family member who is seated near it to watch it. After the meal is served, take it and the gifts out to the designated car(s).
Your D needs a gift table and the card box would go on that. Extra or large gifts can go under the table.
I may be overthinking this but how do you determine the number of tables you’ll need? Let’s say you have 240 guests so that’s 30 tables of 8, but groupings/families won’t always work out to 8, so then you could potentially end up seating one person at a table and splitting them from their group just to make it work. Is there some rule of thumb? The venue hasn’t given us much guidance.
Our venue was very flexible. Tables could seat up to 12, but we thought 10 was a more comfortable number. Talk to your venue.
Our venue had a little template we used. We had to indicate the number of people seated at each table…with the table number.
Then on another template, we needed to note the table numbers, and who was seated at ez h table with their dinner choice.
We also were able to indicate show the table arrangements (ours was a very flexible room).
I thought figuring out the seating was difficult. But getting it on these two templates was easy peasy.
@taskmstrx - our floor plan included mostly larger round tables that seated 10 comfortably, with 3 or 4 square tables of 8 down the center. It worked out well for the dilemma you describe and the room was easy to navigate. Only the square tables had tall flower arrangements (didn’t obscure view between guests) sitting under a row of chandeliers and they grounded the room. There would likely be another way to achieve this in a space where the center of the room was the dance floor. You have raised a great question to anticipate. Some of our tables for 10 had 9 guests assigned and one had 11, with a toddler in a high chair.
Many venues can offer a variety of table sizes. At my S’s wedding there were tables of 8, 10, 12, and a couple of long tables (mostly for the wedding party) of up to 20. See if there are tables or table combinations of different sizes available and then ask how much notice you need to give them regarding the seating arrangements.
Square tables down the center sounds lovely.
Thinking out loud. With 70, D1 is concerned about a larger room looking too empty. I suggested 10 tables of 6. The bulk of guests will know each other, will mingle as they want.
Separate decisions for the two family tables.
Please don’t just sit one or one couple separate from their group. At one family wedding, they very obviously did that for an outlier family couple. (I think I’m the only one who gets along with them, interacts.) Really weird. I insisted we pull chairs up to our table of 8 and seat them with us. It worked fine.
My D wants farm style tables but they are expensive. She is going to mix rounds with linens and farm style rectangular tables with no linens. We haven’t begun to think about seat placement. We are having a buffet so I think we will lean towards assigning tables but not specific seat.
Wedding is in June. My D just got the invitations from Minted. They now need to stuff and mail.
Has anyone ordered throw blankets for ceremony? Planner is suggesting IKEA. Wedding is on coast and ceremony is outside and it could be cold.
@powercropper, I made a drawstring bag for cards out of material that matched my dress. My sister emptied it now and then and locked the cards in one of the cars. One of the benefits of having people bring their cards to me was that my husband and I got to speak to them one on one.
@mom60 - We were only concerned about our guests in dresses being warm enough (suits were fine with weather), so I ordered enough pashminas on-line for every woman and girl attending. They all went; some more for a souvenir than warmth. They were tied with a ribbon and assembled in a basket at the ceremony entrance.The quality was good relative to the price; they came packaged to avoid wrinkles in a huge assortment of colors. Here is a link to the company in case you are doing pashminas: http://www.wholesalescarvesusa.com/.
Just a consideration, maybe it doesn’t matter to some. My group of friends that dines together monthly is frustrated with long, rectangular tables because those on the ends can’t communicate with each other
We are having round tables that seat 8 comfortably, can add a 9th in. With about 150 guests, we are planning on 20 tables; some will have only 7 people. I am not a fan of rectangular tables unless they seat 6-8. Hard to talk down the table.
Just met with D1 to go over her budget and she’s done a great job with a spreadsheet, anticipated all she can, so far. But it’s not inexpensive. No way to cut back, right now. She wants the particular venue, a hotel, not just because it’s pretty, but very convenient in the ways we discuss here. (Her 2nd choice, eg, a historical site, has few or no close hotels, she’d need to have a outside caterer, and more.)
But all this is before the first visit, which is Saturday.