Category — ceremony & reception

Choosing how much alcohol to serve at a backyard wedding is often one of the hardest decisions. Too little, guests won’t have a good time. Too much, guest go c-razy and you get a lot of nipple shots at the Smile Booth (not always a bad thing).

Party Central has a great guide to serving alcohol at parties. Keep in mind that this is for a full bar, not a limited specialty bar. I’m also assuming that this is geared towards an evening event. If you do end up buying more than you need, check with the supplier ahead of time. They may let you return unopened bottles of wine and alcohol.

Other Resources: Liene at Blue Orchid has posted a great guide to alcohol (part of her 30 Days to Planning a Wedding feature). I also found a drink calculator at That’s a Wrapper, including this break down of drinks per bottle.

The legal stuff: Keep in mind that with a DIY bar, you take on a lot of liability. Make sure your (or your parents) home owner’s insurance covers a party, and you have en experienced bartender who can set limits on guests.

A

For our final day, we’re focusing on the interactive. People love anything that makes them feel like a kid again and guests will stay longer if they have something to do. Keep your friends and family entertained with activities like miniature golf, a silhouette artist or a couple of professional ballroom dancers a la Dancing with the Stars.

Clockwise from top left: Golf Photo {Rae Leytham Photography}; Photo Booth {RentPhotoBooths.com}; Ice Cream Station {Marble Slab Creamery}; Dancers {Dancing With the Stars}; Silhouette {CutArts.com}

Are you planning any interactive surprises for your guests?

If you’ve ever stopped by Once Wed before you probably noticed I am a HUGE fan of the fabulous wedding photographer, Leigh Miller. I always jump at a chance to post one of her weddings, so when I came across Erin and Michael’s gorgeous wedding I was delighted Leigh agreed to a feature on EAD.

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Because our ballroom was so grand and elaborate, our reception didn’t require a lot of decoration. We chose a ballroom with a gorgeous damask fabric wall covering in gold after we determined that our colors were pink and gold. The room had gorgeous chandeliers and beautiful gold drapes. The room is actually called the Gold Room at the Westin Poinsett Hotel.

Our biggest issue with the hotel was the linen choice. We didn’t have any choice. If we used their linens, we would have white polyester linens. I’m not a linen snob or anything, but I knew we could do better. We went to BBJ Linen in Dallas and ordered beautiful sheer pink and gold linens. We ended up having 9 round tables to seat 10 each because we wanted people to have the option to sit down if they wanted to. We also had 4 high top tables and a giant round buffet table in addition to the 3 food stations. The linens turned out to be gorgeous and I’m so glad we splurged there.

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Todd and I arranged for every single posed picture to be taken before the ceremony started. We saw each other before the ceremony and took all of our wedding party and family photos before. We were really looking forward to leaving the ceremony and getting to the reception as soon as possible so we could party with our friends and family. We exited the chapel and the entire wedding party boarded a trolley. We waited about 20 minutes before we made our grand entrance to the ballroom and the dancing began!

We had our first dance to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and my dad and I danced to “Your Song” by Elton John. Our friend, Rick, played the music and sang to us and that was a really sweet moment. After he was finished, our fabulous band, The Root Doctors, took the stage and we never looked back! The night could not have been any more fun.

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The chapel at Furman University was very simple and we knew that our ceremony wouldn’t need a ton of decoration. We did, however, want it to be very warm and inviting. With the ceilings as high as they are, we knew that we would need to bring in some height with some plants.

My vision was to have very light and airy flowers. I love cherry blossom trees and curly willow. I wanted little buds and blooms and lots and lots of candlelight. Our biggest issue with flowers was that we didn’t want to put a lot of money into it. It may be a wedding planning faux pas to say this, but we understood the importance of flowers, but felt like it was the worst way to spend our money. A lot of brides will disagree. I spent more on my dress than we ended up spending on flowers and I don’t regret it for a second. I won’t wear my dress again, but at least I can gaze at it in my closet. The flowers were gone after two days. So sad. We also put a lot of our budget toward our fabulous band, The Root Doctors, and I don’t regret that for a second, either. We decided to get creative to get a big look for a lower price.

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Weddings are extremely personal and special, not only to you but to your loved ones as well.  What better way to honor your family and friends than by incorporating photographs and memorabilia?

 
{The Knot via A Practical Wedding}

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Hi everyone!

(Our venue, the YWCA in Fort Worth!)

Today I wanted to talk about the reason we buy the special dress, the reason we throw a celebratory party - the wedding ceremony which will join you in marriage to your fiancee. It’s definitely the most important part of the wedding as a whole, but it’s so easy to get wrapped up in choosing colors, a dress, and registering for all those gifts that you kind of forget about it. It may be that you’re going to have a ceremony that is pretty much planned out, where you only have a few choices or options. But, since we are not getting married in a church, and the ceremony will be officiated by one of our friends, we have a lot of decisions to make. Do we want a formal service? Do we want it to be religious? Do we want speakers? Or do we want to keep it short and sweet?

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No matter what you do with your wedding, I think finding small ways to make it personal is the most important thing you’ll do. Its hard to admit (I know!) but no one will remember the flowers or the color of the napkins. They will remember what made it your wedding. I wanted to share some of the small things that we did - and some of them we might have been the only ones who knew about them - but made the day our own.

Image from Special Effects Photography.

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I, like a majority of brides, had round tables at our reception. I, unlike a majority of our brides who read this blog, was not terribly obsessed with the table decor (yes, I know this is strange. My obsession with details started after the wedding planning).

Well, for those of you who are looking for something more visually stimulating and light on the floral. Let me suggest the following:

• Vary the heights of each object on the table.
• Vary the textures of each object on the table.
• Vary the colors (everything doesn’t have to be the two colors you’ve picked). Exception: a monochromatic theme.
• Apply this to food displays, gift tables, etc. Anything you will have on display.

{Image Credits: Love Apple Farm, BV Weddings, HGTV, House Beautiful, Social Whirl}

Don’t be afraid to use fabric with floral, glass with ceramic and wood with terracotta. As always, if you need more specific ideas, don’t be afraid to email your favorite bloggers for advice!

A.