planning….forever events blog

let’s compare reception timelines…

Last week I was able to visit Kelly McWiliams in Cape Coral, Florida. She is an unbelievably talented Destination Wedding Planner and I was lucky to spend some time with her discussing the differences between Florida and Indiana weddings.

When creating your reception timeline … be sure to not get boxed in go with the usual flow. Look at your guests, your venue, the time of day of your ceremony and what fits you best. Below is what Kelly and I compared to what “usually” happens at our respective receptions.

Indiana: (typical 250 person reception)

Florida: (typical 120 person or less, destination reception)

Other Major differences:

Interesting, isn’t it?

Tags: reception, wedding planner

make a grand entrance to your wedding

Getting introduced into your wedding reception is a tradition that we LOVE to keep. It’s obvious you both are the guests of honor and it’s proper to make that recognition.

Here’s a couple of ideas:

1. Let your wedding party go into the reception and start the party. Only you and your groom will be introduced into the wedding reception. It’s quick, clean and easy.
2. Consider being introduced about half way into your cocktail party. Why miss all the fun?
3. Make a real splash and do something fun and funky (but safe too). Like our clients Amanda and Brian. They had a super fun wedding party that were doing impromptu dancing and lots of fun antics. Amanda turned to my intern, Aubree, and asked, “What should we do?” Aubree suggested that Brian put Amanda on his shoulder….before the next beat, up she went!

photo credit: walker studio

What a fabulous entrance that made a great photo and the audience totally whooped it up!

So how will you enter your wedding reception?

Tags: brides, groom, reception, rehearsal dinner, traditions, wedding

the LAST wedding at Executive Inn, Evansville IN

We will have the last wedding at Executive Inn in Evansville, Indiana, tomorrow August 1, 2009. I’m so sorry to see this venue go, especially after the renovations that were completed in the ballrooms and atrium. The downtown stadium project has picked this location, and the hotel will be torn down.

Below are a few events that we planned and are fond of:

two photos above were taken by: studio b

Tomorrow, Alex Harlen will celebrate her wedding reception with her new groom, Kris Jones. We’ll be setting up today to make it look fabulous.

Big hugs out there to the Executive Inn staff who work tirelessly on so many private and corporate functions!

Tags: business, decor, wedding

what wedding traditions should you keep? part three

Here we go with part three of the series what wedding traditions should you keep?

#3 Wedding Tradition: Garter

Approximately fifty percent of our clients are not throwing the garter or bouquet. However, if you wish to keep this time old tradition, consider purchasing only one garter. Most couples will buy “two”; one to throw and one to keep. So we question, what would you do with the one that you “keep”? Hang it on your rear view mirror on your car? We hope not. Stick it in a box? Probably. Just buy one and toss it to your friends!

Tomorrow we’ll continue this series…

Tags: series, traditions, wedding

what wedding traditions should you keep?

Weddings are chock full of traditions. And if you’re planning for the first time you will understand what we are talking about. Tradition is awesome, but as you know, we like to shake things up a bit around here and give you some alternatives. Especially when the wedding tradition can cost you money.

This week we are going to be discussing wedding traditions and reviewing them. The level importance is up to you decide.

#1 Wedding Tradition: Wedding Toasting Flutes

Tradition dictates that you need a special set of champagne flutes. Often these are quite expensive. Many people don’t even like champagne, so the question is, what will you do with them afterwards? My expensive Mikasa champagne flutes are collecting dust on top of my kitchen shelf. I like champagne but never get them down to use them. Instead, why not borrow a set of nice toasting flutes from a close friend/family or simply use a set from your venue?

Tomorrow we’ll continue this series…

Tags: series, traditions, wedding

tips on securing your wedding gifts at reception

It’s a huge concern for brides and grooms on how to secure their wedding gifts at the wedding reception. Short of having a security guard stand by the gift table the whole evening, it’s difficult to have this situation 100% effective. Usually the concern is not the large gift boxes, but the little treasures that come in the envelope cards. That’s where the real “Benjamin’s” are.

Instead of hiring the FBI to guard your gifts, let’s try these real life suggestions:

1. Have someone in charge of the gift table.

   Especially watching the gift cards. We monitor the gift cards for our clients by removing them and putting them in another secure location. We also move all the gifts to a predesignated family member’s car before the end of the meeting. Security is best!

2. There is no such thing as a totally safe gift card box.

   We’ve seen jars, birdcages, boxes that look like a cake, treasure chests, huge heavy mirror boxes and more. All of them can be opened. Obviously, how else would you get your cards out? So short of putting a safe on top of your gift table, you’ll just have to let that theory go.

3. Change the location of the gift table.

It’s normal to have your gift table by the entry doors at your reception, this is so guests can drop off their gifts as they enter the room. However, if your reception is in a busy hotel you may want to consider moving your gift table across the room to a more secure location. If you do that, you’ll want to appoint a hostess to take the gifts to the table to help your guests.

If your gifts or gift cards are stolen, you should report them to the stores immediately. Through the use of surveillance cameras, the culprit can often be caught.

Bottom line; you do your best to secure your gifts, but it should not be something that you overly stress about at your wedding. There many more fun things to do!

Tags: guests, wedding