guests
do not box in your wedding bartenders :: part five/finale
So far the series of “not boxing” in certain wedding vendors has probably made some sense to you, perhaps you it even made you think, aha?!
So I bet you’re wondering why we would talk about your bartenders and their needs? They just pour drinks, right?
You must recognize that a life-blood area at your reception is your bar. If service is slow due to the small ratio of bartenders to large quantity of guests or the setup is not correct, then your service will suffer. And your guests will be frustrated.
Tips for the best outcome working with your wedding bartenders:
1. If you have a down-time between your ceremony and wedding reception (ceremony starts at 1:30pm and reception starts at 5:30pm) then be sure your venue will not open their doors to your guests until 5:30pm. Guests will always come in and may go to the bar for a drink. Your bartenders have to decline them and your guests will perceive they are being rude.
2. Try not to come up with a complicated, well-intentioned cost-savings idea for your bar. You can thank ill-advised websites for publishing these crazy concepts. Such as:
Open Bar for Pre-Dinner
Bar Closes for Dinner
Bar reopens for Dancing but only serves hosted Beer, Wine, & Signature Drink until 9pm
Cash bar for the remaining wedding reception
Huh? You need a time grid to remember all of this. How do you expect your guests to react to your bartenders and vice-versa?
3. Do not try to squeeze your bartenders into the corner of the room with limited space and light. Sure they are tucked away, but there isn’t enough room to turn around 3x.
4. Please do not skimp and only hire 2 bartenders for 300 wedding guests. The ratio to keep service at its optimum is as follows:
1 Bartender per 75 guests (and some say 100)
But DON’T forget you need a bar back for multiple bars. This is a person who runs back and forth for ice, restocking etc. A very necessary position.
Trust your bartenders.
do not box in your wedding caterer :: part four
Hmmmm….. good food. Hmmm…. good food at one of the biggest events of your LIFE, your wedding!
Sasha Souza once said that your guests will remember 3 things from your wedding: food, fun and service! Isn’t that true? If any of those things are sub par, then you will have problems.
Interestingly, your food costs could be one of your higher expenses depending on your taste palette and your guest count. So keep these things in mind…
Tips for the best outcome working with your wedding caterer:
1. Do not pack in 250 guests into a space challenged venue and expect your catering staff to serve a plated meal in a timely manner. This is where event planners can really help you with the floor plan and the real anticipated serving time (which can dramatically effect your timeline). There has to be enough space for the servers to walk around the table to set/pick up the plates.
2. Like with bartenders, do not skimp on the volume of servers that you are willing to pay for working at your wedding. It takes a lot of people to serve a large amount of guests. Most often there will be a line item on your catering proposal as to the number of servers they will bring. Look closely at that.
3. If you have guests that are suppose to have a specific plate, such as; vegetarian or vegan, make it easy for these people to be identified. Work with your wedding planner on where they will be seated so he/she can let them know.
4. Listen to your caterer when they talk about the best ways to serve the food. If they tell you it is difficult to keep your favorite dish hot and serve 200 people, then listen to them. Order that fave dish tonight for just to the two of you.
Trust your wedding caterer.
Tomorrow, part 5 and finale of this “don’t box us in” vendor series …
jennifer + adam’s wedding
We had our first wedding in Jasper and Huntingburg, Indiana this weekend. What a fantastic area! It was such a great wedding with wonderful family (we heart Jenny’s mom, Cindy).
The new Huntingburg Event Center was fantastic! So excited to have a new venue that is up to code and is a wonderful facility. Cannot say enough good things about that venue and their staff.
Here’s a few photos from the iPhone just to capture the day. Jenny and Adam’s doggie/baby made a quick appearance after the wedding for formal photos. Too cute!
Finally a real professional photo,below of the happy wedding party in the RV transportation! CRAZY fun!
photo: Brian with Clarion Creative
how to get your wedding guests out on the dance floor!
Let’s face it, your guests are looking forward to dancing at your wedding reception. Some bride and groom’s are NOT dancers, but they want to watch their guests have a good time.
Here’s the trick to encouraging your wedding guests to get their groove on. Actually get on the dance floor with them!
It’s not that complicated. Your guests will be where ever you are. So if you are sitting in the back, outside drinking or mingling in a different room; that is where they will gravitate. Don’t blame your band or DJ. And don’t act like you are going to be judged like on “Dancing with the Stars”. Have fun….shake your booty and enjoy yourself. And so will your guests.
For some inspiration; check out our clients Tara Brown and Max Axler at their wedding…and notice where the guests are!
photo credit: jordan barclay photography
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:
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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!
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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.
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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!
easy tips on reducing your guest list
We all know the quickest way to reduce your budget, is to reduce your guest list. In this region, the average wedding is approximately 250 guests. In areas like Jasper, Indiana the guest list could be 500-700 people! Large families = big weddings!
If you have already gone through the excruciating process of selecting your guests and cannot seem to delete any names off the paper, here are a few tips:
- DO NOT send out save-the-dates. If guests don’t know your wedding date in advance, they can’t reschedule their lives to attend!
- Pick a holiday weekend for your wedding. There are always conflicts when it comes to holidays and guests may need to choose visiting family for graduation or going out of town over your wedding.
- Choose a Friday or Sunday for your wedding date. Perhaps choosing a less traditional day of the week may make it more difficult for the majority of guests to attend.
- Destination wedding! Get out of Dodge and fly away to a beautiful destination for your wedding!
Can you think of other ways?
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