Most people have been to very fun, successful events and they have been to events that are boring, poorly attended or to wedding receptions that just plain flopped. Through it all, the most successful events have the same characteristics in common. This is a list of 15 tips that, if you follow them, will give you the best chance of hosting a wedding reception that will be well attended, fun and one that flows properly from start to finish.
Special events do not happen very often and planning them can be a daunting task. Most people only plan two or three special events in their lifetime. Through the years, we have planned, coordinated and performed at thousands of special events. These tips are the culmination of decades of experience working in the trenches at events and what we have learned from them all. This should help you greatly with your planning process.
Please give us a call at Entertainment Northwest at 1.888.738.4281 or email us at service@entertainmentnorthwest.com with any questions you may have. We have professional event planners that can help to guide you toward a successful event.
Tip 1: Reserve a great venue that is the right size. A top notch venue to hold your reception should be a top priority. You can expect to pay from $1000 to $2500 for a banquet room rental at a resort, hotel or banquet facility. If you use their in-house catering, the room price is often “comped” at a discount or is given to you completely for free.
The best room for an event is a single large room (as opposed to a multi-room facility) that has the bar and the dance floor integrated inside the room. The room needs to be the right size for your wedding . . . not so large that it is cavernous, nor too small where your guests are stacked on top of each other. The room should be genuinely beautiful, requiring little decoration. Most importantly, the facility needs to be in an appealing location that is more attractive and beautiful than where your guests live. What guest would like to leave their breezy, scenic Puget Sound waterfront home to come spend an afternoon with you in a dark, muggy basement of a church or community center?
Choose a room that is warm and impresses as you enter; indoor/outdoor venues with patios or verandas with views are always pleasing.
Tip 2: Have your event on a Saturday night. You will have to pay more for your room rental, but it is worth it. If your food and beverage budget is high enough, the room will be comped for free anyway. If not a Saturday night, have it (in order) on a Friday night, a Sunday night, a Saturday afternoon and finally a Sunday afternoon. If you have an event on Saturday night, your guests should have plenty of time to prepare for your wedding, arrive on time and they usually plan to spend their entire evening with you. We would recommend a ceremony start time of 5pm or 6pm, with your reception to follow. This allows your ceremony to be outside (or inside) during daylight hours, yet it will be dark when dancing starts later in the evening.
For Friday night events, plan for a late start to your ceremony—your guests will have difficulty arriving on time due to horrendous Friday rush hour traffic in Puget Sound. Sunday night events, in spite of popular misconceptions, are very well attended and guests tend to stay late (they would much rather dance and party than think about going to work on Monday).
All afternoon events are much more low key, as guests do not usually party much, rarely dance (usually because of the bright daylight and time of day) and often leave early to go and do other things that night.
Make sure your venue offers plenty of free parking for your guests—your guests will resent having to walk long distances or paying for valet parking. At the most elite venues (like Salish Lodge or The Edgewater Hotel), valet parking is customary and is to be expected.
Tip 3: Hire a great caterer. While we are sure your Aunt Marge makes great potato salad and barbequed meatballs for the church potluck, that is not what you want (or your guests expect) for the greatest day of your life. You can expect to pay $30 to $35 a person for each guest at your event and that should include their food (usually quoted at $18 to $26 a person), the service, gratuity (typically 17%) and sales tax. Often all the linens, china, silverware, coffee and water service and decorations are included in this price. A top shelf caterer is priceless. Their food is outstanding, their service is great and it is memorable. For a better percentage of RSVP’s, place the name of the venue and caterer on your invitations.
If you cut corners on catering, you are not fooling anyone. If budget is of concern, hire a top shelf caterer and invite fewer guests. We have done some VERY memorable, elegant events with fewer than fifty family members and guests. If you are doing a buffet style dinner, make sure your caterer has “one side” or one line for a buffet table for each 50 guests. We once did an event where the “rookie” caterer had a single sided buffet for 325 guests. It took 2-½ hours just for the guests to all get through the buffet line! The first guests ate in fifteen minutes and then waited 2 hours 15 minutes for the last guest to go through the buffet. No surprise their reception was a disaster.
We have worked in all the top banquet facilities in the Northwest and we have tasted the food from all the top chefs and caterers. If you need a recommendation, we are more than happy to oblige. Our current top recommendations include Tony’s Catering (University Tower Hotel), Salish Lodge, The Edgewater Hotel, Schwartz Brothers Catering (Columbia Winery/Hedges Cellars/Seattle Design Center), Kiana Lodge, Appulent Catering (Shilshole Bay Beach Club/Marine View Banquet Center/Paramount Theater), Gallucci’s Catering, Sun Mountain Lodge and Rosario Resort.
Tip 4: Arrive to your reception on time and stay there front and center. What can we say? We have seen the bride and groom arrive as late as 2 hours after their first guests have arrived. Here’s a test: sit and stare at a wall for the next 2 hours and see how “excited” you are to be a part of that function.
In our experience, arriving late irritates your guests who are waiting on you at your own reception, especially if they are waiting for you to open the buffet line! We literally have seen receptions empty out before the bride and groom even arrive. What does that accomplish?
While it is a long standing tradition to have the groom first view the bride as she walks down the aisle, this creates other challenges. Doing so requires that ALL your wedding photos will need to be taken after your ceremony and during your reception. Wedding photographs take HOURS to complete, while your guests impatiently wait for you. Family pictures taken during the reception are very disruptive as well to the natural flow of an event.
There is a new tradition! A better solution is to have the groom “surprised” by the stunning appearance of the bride a couple hours before the ceremony. This can be captured on photo and video. Then all the bride and groom, family and wedding party shots can be taken BEFORE the ceremony, allowing you to arrive at your reception no more than 20 minutes after your guests.
Having a receiving line? This is best done at the reception site, not at the ceremony site. That way, you are in view of your guests at the reception—they know you are there.
Tip 5: Hire a top shelf photographer. Once again, professionalism and experience can be bought. A great photographer has a fabulous portfolio, an on line photo gallery, dresses professionally and is able to work easily with your wedding party and guests to get the best shots. Pay them extra to hire them for the entire day. We have seen bouquet tosses happen in the middle of formal sit down dinners and “faked” cake cuttings just because the photographer is off contract at 7pm. Some of the best shots come later at night as the reception develops.
We have seen very formal weddings being shot by scroungy photographers in blue jeans and dirty baseball caps. Embarrassing to say the least. Ask your photographer how they AND their assistant dress for formal events. Put the style of dress on their contract and let them know what you expect. If you have a tight budget for photography, it is best to hire a great photographer for an all day shoot and purchase a smaller photo package up front. This way all the shots are taken and when you have more cash a year or two down the road, you can purchase the entire portfolio and/or negatives for your event.
Tip 6: Hire top shelf entertainment, like Entertainment Northwest DJ’s! A typical wedding reception is running you anywhere from $1000 to $5000 an hour, so why have your guests leave early because of poor entertainment?? If you hire a high quality DJ & Emcee (like those at Entertainment Northwest Disc Jockeys), they will help you plan and coordinate a reception that moves at a good pace and so your guests are informed and involved in the formalities of the evening.
Song lists and other announcements may be worked out in advance so your event flows smoothly and the ambiance is enhanced by the styles of music and specific selections that you select.
If you go with a live band, only the very best will do. There are only about five bands in the entire Puget Sound region that are talented and educated enough to do a great job at a wedding reception. These bands typically run from $2000 to $5000 a night and are worth every penny.
Our recommendation? Hire a quality string ensemble for your wedding ceremony and Entertainment Northwest DJ’s for your wedding reception. If you wish, we have packages where you can book both through us.
Tip 7: Plan for a three to five hour reception, adding an additional hour for the ceremony. Most weddings and receptions in the Northwest run four hours to six hours total time, including the ceremony.
A ceremony typically is 30 minutes for the Prelude (seating music), 20 minutes for the ceremony and 10 minutes for the Postlude (after you walk back down the aisle).
A reception typically consists of a 30 to 60 minute cocktail hour, 90 minutes for dinner, 60 minutes for toasts, cake and formal dances, then one to two hours of dancing. We have advised clients of this and have seen them plan for events up to 13 hours long!
What happens at a 13 hour event?? Same as a regular wedding and reception—they wind down naturally five or six hours in and the guests leave. Better to plan an event that fits the attention span of the average American and an event that moves briskly (without feeling rushed) and ends naturally (without a long, dragged out ending).
Tip 8: Arrange for mobile flower arrangements that can move from site to site. Work with your florist to develop floral arrangements that can be used at your ceremony, then easily moved to decorate your reception site. There are many options for arrangements in stands and baskets. This will save you a lot of money on the cost of decorating two locations and allow you to be able to afford more elegant floral displays.
Tip 9: Host beer and wine. It is expensive to host a full bar and often results in many guests that are more liquored up than is comfortable for an elegant wedding. Dry events are rare and often result in guests leaving early, either from boredom or to go out to a restaurant or bar that serves alcohol.
We aren’t here to judge whether alcohol is a good thing or not—all we know is statistically over thousands of weddings, events that are dry or have a no-host bar often end one to three hours earlier than those with hosted beer and wine. We have seen dry receptions end as early as just one hour. Basically, if you are planning a dry event, arrange to leave early because your event WILL end early. They always have, EVERY TIME without exception through thousands of events. For a dry event, our recommendation is for a one hour ceremony and two to three hour reception and you may not want to plan for open dancing—even when planned for, it rarely happens (especially at dry events during the day).
Tip 10: Eat first, then greet your guests. Instead of a receiving line that takes an enormous amount of time to chat with every guest individually, better to get things going. Arrange for a 30 minute to 60 minute cocktail hour, make your “Grand Entrance” half way through the cocktail hour, then open the buffet line with your wedding party. Since you are the first through the line, you will be the first done eating AND have a chance to eat in peace, as your guests will be waiting to get in line. Once you are finished with your dinner, walk around and great your guests one table at a time! This allows you to greet eight to ten people at once, while the event continues to move along at a good pace.
By speaking with your guests proactively, they won’t feel as inclined to seek you out later or as they leave for “one on one” interaction. If you have 200 guests and speak with each one for only one minute each, that takes up 3-½ hours of your reception!
Tip 11: Only pour champagne for toasts for guests that like champagne. We have seen hundreds of glasses of champagne poured for toasts, only to see dozens of glasses left untouched on the tables and poured out into the sink later in the night. Why?? A lot of people don’t like champagne and will not drink it even if it is FREE and placed directly in front of them.
It is better to have the bartender pour a few dozen glasses at the bar and have your DJ announce that the toast will be “With whatever drink you have in your hand.” The DJ can instruct your guests to go to the bar to freshen their beverage or pick up a glass of champagne if they so wish. This little tip will can save you $100 or more in wasted champagne and/or corkage fees.
Tip 12: Do your toast and your cake cutting together. Many photographers prefer to shoot the toasts at the cake table, a very photogenic and decorated location. Once the last toast is completed, it is a good idea for the groom (the new “man of the house”) to greet the guests and thank them for traveling so far to spend your special day with you. As soon as that is done, the DJ can slide on a nice background song and you can cut your wedding cake while you have everyone’s attention. It is good to then wait at least 15 minutes before your formal dances so the caterer can cut and serve the cake to your guests. The best time for your first dance is while everyone is sitting at their table eating wedding cake!
Tip 13: Have a combined parent dance. Not one to be in the spotlight?? Want to save some time and move your reception along?? Do a combined parent dance instead of two separate Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. The bride can dance with her Dad while the groom dances with his Mom, all at the same time. There are many great songs that work well for both and they can be found on the Song Lists section on the Entertainment Northwest web site (entertainmentnorthwest.com).
Tip 14: Ride off into the sunset. It is sad to see the bride and groom as the last people lingering at the reception. Arrange for a car or limo to be available an hour or so before the end of your reception to whisk you off to your wedding night hotel room. If it is winding down, the DJ can send everyone outside to “send you off”. Often, there are send offs with bubbles or sparklers. If the reception is REALLY hopping, the car can wait while you dance awhile longer and you can leave when you wish.
Tip 15: Arrange for the caterer and family to wrap up the event. A good caterer will handle the venue clean up and a good wedding planner will make arrangements for family members to clear out all the wedding presents, flowers and leftover food and beverage.
“What do you regret the most about your wedding day?” Many brides have been asked this question after their wedding was over and they had time to reflect. No guys, it wasn’t you!
The most common answers are brides didn’t feel they had quiet time with their new husband to reflect on their wedding ceremony and that they didn’t have enough time to talk with their guests and enjoy their reception. They were too busy running things in pursuit of the “perfect wedding”. What good is a perfect wedding if you don’t get to enjoy it?
By following these Top 15 Tips For A Great Wedding Reception, you can spend those precious few minutes together with your husband in a quiet room or riding in a limo while your guests enjoy a hosted cocktail hour. As well, our time saving tips will allow you to spend more time visiting with your guests instead of “running the show”.
Best wishes on your special day. Entertainment Northwest will be here to help you make your dreams come true!
© 2005 - Entertainment Northwest Disc Jockeys