Here it is another Sunday that I relax and hang around the house watching wedding shows and movies after doing the normal Sunday routine things. I decided to watch Four Wedding on TLC since I am almost never available to watch it on Friday nights.
For those of you whom have never seen the show it is about four brides competing for a honeymoon and have to critique the other brides on their dress, venue, and food. At the end the ratings are revealed along with the overall experience.
One of the brides had her DJ make an announcement “If you did not RSVP for the Reception you have to wait outside”.
Yes…I’ll wait until you go back and read that again……you read right! This is a No No…
Unless you can afford unlimited food and seating please manage your guest list. As a planner I strongly suggest during the consultation that the couple be realistic in the guest count and also leave room in the budget and guest estimate for additional guests. This particular wedding was for 200 guests within a $30,000 budget.
To avoid or narrow down any confusion for the guests and attendants have your hostesses in place to assist with the escort cards and/or seating cart. If a guest’s name is not on the list the hostesses will know how to handle this particular guest. Have a default table available for possibility of overflow. This table can be used to house your vendors and a few extra guests, your vendors will not sit and eat for long, most just enough their meal and go right back to working.
If you run into an overflow problem please don’t have anyone make an announcement that your overflow guests will have to go outside. This will leave a bad impression on the guests overall, the guests outside and also the ones inside. Don’t take over as a bride, after all this should be a day for you to enjoy, make sure you have a planner or someone as your point person to troubleshoot your day. However, this individual should know all your details to the entire wedding….you must give up all information to them to be successful. Plan accordingly to prevent having to extinguish a fire that could be prevented in the planning stage and last minute logistics of the reception.
Happy Planning!
