"Spend more on food and less on 'favors'." A number of couples have said they wish they'd paid more attention to the quality of the meal and less time worrying about table favors or mementos. Many people feel the food they served is remembered for a long time, while the personalized golf balls are, well, not. (One bride said only about 30% of her guests actually took home the candy boxes she provided at each place setting.) A common theme expressed is the "quality" of their wedding was judged in large part by the food.
"Tell the DJ to be flexible." While everyone creates a schedule, some events are a little more time-critical than others. While it's important to start the meal on time, exactly when you do your toasts may not be. In one case, for example, the dancing came to a screeching halt - and never picked back up again - when the DJ felt he had to conform precisely to the schedule. Let your DJ know which times are important and which can be flexed in order to keep the fun going.
"Schedule traditional reception activities as early as possible." A lot of guests won't stay for four or five hours, no matter how much fun your reception is. (Older guests especially.) But most still want to see traditional events like the cake-cutting, toasts, bouquet toss, etc. If you space out those activities too much you'll either lose a lot of your guests, or they'll stay long past when they would have preferred to go home. A lot of couples choose to do the cake cutting and bouquet/garter toss immediately after the meal; then whoever wants to stay until the wee hours can, and the others can go home happy they saw all the traditional activities.
"Skip the limo." Clearly this is a judgment call; if you love the idea of leaving the church and arriving at the reception in a limo, go for it. But several couples said in retrospect they wished they saved the limo expense and put it towards something else. One said, "Our reception was only 10 minutes from the church, and we didn't leave in the limo after the reception... so it felt like a waste in the end. It sounded like a wonderful idea ahead of time, but in reality it didn't add anything to the day." That's just one person's opinion, though - if your heart is set on a limo, don't let that sway you.
"Get plenty of help lined up to clean up the church." If your wedding is on a Saturday evening, the church needs to be ready for Sunday morning services. Someone has to remove your flowers and decorations... not to mention your clothing, makeup... and that all has to happen during a time when you'd rather be rushing off to your reception. If you can, line up a group - hopefully made up of people who won't be in your post-ceremony formal photos - to take care of straightening up the church immediately after the service. By the time you're done with your formals, they'll be done with the church... and off to the reception you can all go. We helped several couples remove decorations, carry luggage to the car, etc. We didn't mind at all, but it was obvious they wanted to be doing anything besides policing up the church. Enlist a few friends to help out and you'll enjoy the day a lot more.
So - there are a few of our couples' lessons learned. If this was helpful, let us know and we'll post more tips in the future.
