Cheaper day vs gap in the day?

Cloves

Dear MSEs

Would love all your advice on something... I have recently started planning my wedding - likely to be May 2011 and after finally finding a venue that we both liked, got a first quote from them yesterday (although I am still trying not to love it too much before i get all full costs).

Our location is doing packaged deals which includes the wedding breakfast, dj and disco and an evening buffet which are great, however as it is a hotel and the wedding breakfast is effectively in their restaurant they have the following options

Wedding on Friday/Saturday : Must vacate restaurant by 5pm
Wedding on Sunday : Supplement of £450 to allow later use:eek:

Option 1 clearly sounds more logical with it being the prime Saturday and being cheaper... however... how can i entertain people between 5pm and 8pm which is when it gets dark enough that people will feel comfortable enough to dance??
Also - we are only having 50 guests during the whole day with no addition, will canapes at 12, breakfast at 2, and buffet at 9 be too much???

Any advice much appreciated - it just seems odd to me that a sunday wedding will be more expensive!

shellsuit

Maybe they dont use the restaurant on a Sunday to residents or the public and so the extra is for the staff, cleaning and general usage of the place?

The time slot shouldn't be too bad ~ it means people can sit and chill, mingle and gab to each other once the meal is over.

Is your evening do starting at 8pm? Could you ask for it to be earlier?

Cloves

You have a point there, but it just sounded odd to me given lots of places are offering discounts for sunday weddings!

I think the evening do can start whenever we want, but I wasn't sure whether people would run out of small talk after already being with each other for the past 5 hours!
Wonder if i should wheel in a karaoke machine or something....

I was thinking this timeline to break things up a bit

Ceremony - 12pm
Group photos - 12:30 - 1:00
Photos - 1-3:00
Wedding Breakfast - 3-5:00
More outside photos - 5-6:00
Cut cake outside - 6:7:00
Evening do - 7 onwards

Does it sound a bit dragged out?

jackieglasgow

Cutting the cake, with all the associated photos should only take 5mins, tops. Relax!!!!! You are over thinking it. People will be happy to mooch about / gossip /come see you both and wish you luck/ talk about how lovely you look /go to the loo and fix their makeup / have a secret snog /whatever.

Karaoke also sounds good IF you know you have enough people who are into it, to get it going. I personally hate doing it, but with a wee drink in me, love watching others do it.

Kittendreich

Three and a half hours of photos seems a bit much - that's nearly half your wedding! However, photos aren't the important bit to me..I want them to capture my day, not be my day, but everyone is different.

Is everyone just standing about while you get photos done, or is there somewhere they can go? Especially if you are outside people might get cold, need a seat etc

Mingling always takes up more time than everyone thinks - especially if there are people who haven't seen each other for ages.

shellsuit

2 and a half hours seems very long for photos. Then you have another hour for photos, so that's 3 and a half hours set aside for photos, eeek!

Could you possibly eat any earlier?


We're getting married at 11.30am.
Photo's/travel - 12.00pm - 1pm
Drinks 1pm
Meal - 2pm
Drinks/mingle/chat/sit and put feet up cos bellys are bursting lol - 5-7pm
Evening 7pm - 1am



Are you having staged photos for the whole time? Only asking because we will be after the ceremony, usual group shots, but after that, the photo's will just be taken as and when, ie no posing.

I'd like to see photos of everyone enjoying themselves, not stood saying 'cheese' for the 47th time ~ if you get my drift lol

Cloves

Thanks for all the replies, I think i am overthinking it.... but I went to a wedding recently where everything was staged and there were lots of awkward silences which is my worst fear!

Shellsuit - your timetable sounds good, and if its okay with you we may end up copying it (assuming we will go with this venue... convincing myself not to love it too much yet!!!)

The half hour i have put in is for the staged photos, the two hours will just be the two of us, and I have put in extra time because there is a nearby park where we want to go to take pictures as it has amazing skyline. After that i think everything will be action shots and hoping to rope in a friend who always boasts about his photography skills....

I agree with the staged shots.... after a while your face looks a bit frozen... and its the natural ones that look the best when you look back

shellsuit

Cloves wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, I think i am overthinking it.... but I went to a wedding recently where everything was staged and there were lots of awkward silences which is my worst fear!

Shellsuit - your timetable sounds good, and if its okay with you we may end up copying it (assuming we will go with this venue... convincing myself not to love it too much yet!!!)

The half hour i have put in is for the staged photos, the two hours will just be the two of us, and I have put in extra time because there is a nearby park where we want to go to take pictures as it has amazing skyline. After that i think everything will be action shots and hoping to rope in a friend who always boasts about his photography skills....

I agree with the staged shots.... after a while your face looks a bit frozen... and its the natural ones that look the best when you look back

Of course you can copy it!

The last thing we want on the day, is to have to worry about everyone.

I know everyone will either be chatting and catching up, to sitting and taking the day in, to loafing around with their full tums lol

What about having your scenery photos taken in the hour you have allocated for drinks?

Guests can mingle and chat and you and hubby can go off and have your pics taken.

Maybe have a word with the venue you are interested in and ask them for some ideas on times for the day.

Don't worry, it'll all come together soon enough! x

talulahbeige_2

Sorry to say but a 3hr gap would fill me with dread if I were a guest.

shellsuit

The last wedding I went to, we were sat around for 3 or 4 hours.

Bride and groom had gone off for photo's and there was no food laid on.

You couldn't even buy something to eat if you wanted something and we were miles from anywhere that sold food!

Now I know how they managed to be able to afford so many guests to the whole day lol!

dizziblonde

Cloves wrote: »

The half hour i have put in is for the staged photos, the two hours will just be the two of us, and I have put in extra time because there is a nearby park where we want to go to take pictures as it has amazing skyline

Just as someone who learnt this the hard way - make sure you've got a plan B to fill this part of the day if it rains (or nice umbrella shots... mine didn't exactly work with well over a foot in height difference between me and the man - you can see me - and his face blocked with a brolly, or he's got his eyes shut on them all!). We were planning on using a nearby bit of parkland for photos on our day... and it chucked it down relentlessly.