Planning your wedding is possibly one of the most complicated things that you will ever have to do, including choosing a new home. There are so many different things to take into account that you need a list for just about everything, and then possibly a list of all the lists that you have got!
Probably one of the most important items after the guest list is the actual venue because it doesn’t have to be in the next street or even the same town. Your wedding is one of the most important days of your life, so you can choose where to hold it. However, if you decide to take off to Scotland, for instance, you need to consider how easy or otherwise it will be for all the guests to get there. You might have ageing grandparents, for instance, who are not happy with travelling. Is there suitable accommodation for all the guests if the location is away from your home town?
Another thing to consider is whether you will have the wedding ceremony itself at the same location as the reception. If they are different, how difficult is it, and how long will it take, for guests to travel from one to the other?
Are you planning an outdoor wedding? An outdoor wedding on a beautiful June day can be fabulous, but in July and August it can also get very hot. Not only that, but we have to contend with the fickle British weather, and there is no way to guarantee that it won’t rain just when you don’t want it to. So, you need to have a marquee or other form of outside cover for the actual reception, or an alternative building at the venue so that things can be moved inside and/or under cover if the worst should happen.
Once you have a short list for your venue, you need to talk to the wedding coordinators to ascertain how a typical day flows. For example, at some venues, if the wedding and the reception are in the same rooms, it can take the staff some time to turn things around, and it is quite easy for the guests to become bored with the long interval. You might want to consider something like hiring a magician to entertain while all this is going on.
There are other things to consider about a venue as well. For instance, is there a limit on how late the party can go on for? Are you allowed to have music outdoors? If you are hiring a band, is there sufficient space for them? Can you bring your own photographer?Some venues have a photographer factored into their price, but you probably want to choose your own photographer.
As regards photography, this is, of course, one of the most important considerations because your photographer only has one chance to get it right. He or she is going to produce the memories of your very special day that you will look at for years to come, as will your children and grandchildren, so the photography is exceptionally important.
In fact, when it comes to wedding photography, you may well want to hire two photographers instead of just one. Why? Well, the answer is because a photographer cannot be in two places at the same time. So, if you have one photographer taking formal pictures in one part of the venue the other can be circulating among the guests catching things as they happen, such as cousin Jim accidentally spilling his wine over cousin Marie’s leg. These things all add up to make a part of the day and can cause great mirth when you review them later on, but only provided that you have the photos.
If you are planning an outdoor wedding, at Kenza Creations we can help you with outdoor wedding decorations. There are all sorts of things that we can do with decorations around trees and shrubs, and we can also install lighting, and perhaps water features, for when the sun goes down. You might want to decorate the outside of a marquee with flowers, since a marquee is just a large tent and can hardly be described as attractive. We have loads of ideas, so let’s meet up and discuss what you would like to see.