Wedding Receptions: Stay Organized To Save Money
The wedding planning reception takes lots of time and great care because it requires a complexity of services. Before shopping around for locations, you need to choose a date and book the hall or the restaurant at least a year in advance. The budget also needs to be planned starting from the date, because the costs for the reception party depend on the season, the month and the time of the week.
In wedding planning, reception expenses will be higher for Saturday parties than for Sunday events. Moreover, early fall, late spring and summer months are the most expensive to marry. Caterers, restaurants and service providers are willing to grant discounts to people getting married in winter, with two exceptions: the end of December and Valentine’s Day. You can make considerable savings by organizing the wedding at the end of January.
Wedding Reception Budgeting Tips
Setting the budget is also crucial for wedding planning. Reception parties increase the costs not only for hall and catering but for decorations, flowers, cake, favors and videography. Even if the reception party is not the only expense, it is definitely the largest. People make the mistake of ordering too much food and drink; good estimates are essential in order to stick to the budget. When you design the menu, you ought to give an approximate number of people, because caterers usually charge by head.
Many restaurants and halls charge by person. And negotiate only based on the estimates. Include a confirmation card with all the invitations, asking your guests to confirm their participation to the reception party and the religious ceremony, depending on the case. Then focus on the seatings, because you can further experience difficulties with this part of wedding planning.
Stay Organized
Checklists will be of great help, preventing you from forgetting essential elements. Go through each of them step by step, preferably with help from family and friends. You can discover the right location for your wedding reception by going to other weddings or by reading testimonials. Moreover, there is lots of information to read in directories and wedding magazines available not only on the Internet but at newsstands too.
A major task that needs to be added to the list is preparing the wedding speeches and toasts. This key point is lost on many wedding party members and there is a last minute push to just throw something together. The grooms speeches, bride wedding speeches, mother of the bride’s speech, and various other wedding speeches should be planned long before the reception.
Don’t Forget The Music
Don’t forget about how important music is. The reception hall owner or manager could help you with some recommendations for bands. But you can also shop around, talk to friends and relatives and see whether they can give you some useful hints.