by Johanna Docena
(c) December 23, 2006
Your prince charming has finally bought you a ring and ask you to marry him. You said "Yes" and now it's time to say "I do". And so the preparation starts...
Probably the biggest and most important decisions that you will have to make with your finace during the preparation process is where the ceremony and the reception will be held. You've found the place and you're ready to make the reservations. Before you do that, you might want to consider the following:
1. How far is the reception from the venue of the ceremony? If you are serving lunch or dinner and you think you have enough time between the end of the ceremony and the start of the reception (or more appropriately "the time when your guests start getting hungry"), it is okay to hold your reception miles from where you are saying your "I Dos". Otherwise, you might want to change either the cerecomy or reception venue to a place that is closer to the other.
Consider other factors such as traffic, reroutes, etc. when estimating the time it would take for everyone to get to the reception.
2. Number of guests - You would not want to reserve a place that is too small to accommodate the number of guests you're expecting. You should be able to fit enough tables and chairs to seat your guests and still have enough room to party. Similarly, you would not want to reserve a place that can accommodate 1000 people when you're only expecting 200 guests. True, the guests will have a lot of room to move but you would not want your ceremony and/or reception to look too empty.
3. Is there enough parking available for all your guests? Aside from the fact that it is too much of an inconvenience for your guests to be looking for parking, it is also time consuming. This may eventually cause delays in the wedding proceedings. Take this into account... unless, you are okay with starting the ceremony and reception with 200 empty seats.
4. Where are your guests coming from? If you plan on reserving a place that is hours from where most of your guests are coming from, you have to allow them plenty of time to prepare and get to where the ceremony will be held. By this I mean "do not schedule to start the ceremony earlier than you expect your guests to arrive". If you expect at least 10% of your guests to take a maximum of 2 hours to drive from where they live to the venue, do not plan to start the ceremony before noon. This way they do not have to wake up at 5:00am to get all their TO DOs done, have a nice breakfast and prepare just to get to the ceremony on time.
5. When planning for an outdoor ceremony and/or reception, you have to consider the season. If it's in the middle of the summer, make sure that there is enough shade (natural or artificial) to cover the area. Ask the management if they have big fans that could be used for outdoor events. if it's spring or fall, make sure it is not too cold to hold the event outside. If it's the winter then an outdoor event is out of the question.
And most importantly, make sure you have an executable backup plan so that in case the weather does not allow for you to have a ceremony/reception outside.
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