This is how it usually begins. You have met Mister Right. You’ve gotten to know each other, then one day, at a restaurant, in the park, or while on a hike, he got down on one knee and asked you to be the one and only. Tears well up in your eyes, your head spins, and your heart flutters, you say yes and then, you have a wedding to plan! The dress, the flowers, the date, your attendants, the catering, the guest list, the music, the location, the photographer, the honeymoon…….The list just keeps growing and growing.
Putting together a great wedding celebration requires a combination of vision, research, and planning, making all of the details come together to make the celebration the experience that you will be remembered for years to come.
Your vision of what your wedding is going to look like is the first place to start. Is there a dream of the bride riding to the wedding in a horse-drawn carriage, or the wedding taking place in the back yard of a cherished home, deep in the woods or on a beach? Is the wedding a formal affair, casual, or somewhere in between? Will the menu be tropical and island foods, formal passed appetizers followed by a sit-down meal, a picnic or barbecue, or an eclectic blend of features? In which season will the wedding take place, will it be a spring wedding with all of the signs of new life, an autumn wedding with the abundance of the harvest, or a white winter wedding with the invigorating cold and crisp freshness? The vision is the framework that the plan is built on.
Take the time to do a lot of research for your wedding. Use the web, magazines, friends, and family. The web and magazines are great tools to get ideas about new and exciting trends in weddings and wedding catering. The web is also a tool to find wedding vendors, plan timelines, pull together realistic budgets, and find unique items that can be incorporated into your wedding. Also, use the experience of friends and family. Talk to people who have recently gotten married for tips of what things were especially memorable and referrals of wedding vendors that they were particularly pleased to work with.
Your vision will suggest the level of formality you are looking for in the catering. A very formal wedding will usually have passed appetizers during the cocktail hour. The guests will then be seated at assigned tables for two or more served courses, with full wine and beverage services. Colorado is a little more laid back, many bridal couples opt to go with a buffet dinner. Buffet service allows the guest to get up and mingle during the meal, as well as not requiring people to choose one entrée or the other. In a buffet, the portions should be ample so that the guests can try a little bit of all of the offerings on the buffet.
Another fun thing about a buffet is that you can mix up the menu. Maybe one side of the family prefers meat and potatoes, but the groom is looking for a favorite fish dish. On a buffet, you can incorporate many items into a mix that will be very appealing to the guests. I never like to see a couple choose the buffet menu that everybody will like. That only leads to boring ‘banquet chicken’. Mix it up, have some ‘safe’ foods but give your guests an opportunity to try something new and different, a special ethnic dish or a unique dish from the family’s history that you can share with your guests.
Make a plan on how the event will flow. There are a lot of traditions and practical details that need to happen during a wedding celebration. With proper planning, the flow of the day will be seamless and one event will transition into another like water flowing in a stream. But this will take planning before the big day as well as a good team of people making the plan work. Work with your wedding coordinator, the caterer, and the other vendors such as the DJ or Master of Ceremonies, the photographer, and the videographer. Use their experience to make all of the many events flow from beginning to end.
Many couples come to the initial planning meeting with the idea that after the officiate says, “You may now kiss the bride,” and the couple walk arm in arm down the aisle, it’s time to PARTY! I have to let them know, not so fast, they still have work to do. When most couples do not see each other before the wedding ceremony, the best time to take formal pictures of the newly married couple and their family is right after the ceremony. A quick glass of water or soda is great, but putting off that glass of red wine or forgoing that great spinach dip is a small price to pay for not having to worry about even a small wine or food accident while the formal pictures are being taken.
Doing your research, sharing your vision with your wedding vendors, and being organized and detail-driven in the planning stages of a wedding will pay off with a celebration that is unique to your vision and seems like it was effortless. At the end of the day, as you relax with that smile on your face, you will know that your wedding will be remembered by your family and friends as the fantastic celebration that was the start of your happy ever after with Mister Right.
