Wedding Reception at home..???

marisco_2

tubie22 wrote: »

At first we were going to take our guests, who will be just our family members, to a restaurant/bar for a nice dinner and lots of drinks and dancing. But I suddenly had the idea that we could have a wedding reception at home and it might work out a good bit cheaper. We have just moved into a brand new apartment, large open spaces, very high original brick ceilings etc.

What are peoples' opinions on wedding receptions at home?

I think it sounds like a brilliant idea. It could definately reduce costs. By holding the recpetion at your home you can guarantee feeling happy and relaxed in your surroundings and can personally oversee the quality of the catering for your guests. Far less stressful than placing trust in others to make your day special for you.

However you decide to celebrate your wedding day I really hope it is all you want it to be. Congratulations :beer:

maman

Person_one wrote: »

Are there any nice bars where you could book a private room? There are lots here where it doesn't cost you any extra as long as you can guarantee numbers. It might make it feel more special and like part of the wedding and it would stop random drunks annoying you.

You could get them to rope off a private VIP area for your party like they do in all the most upmarket clubs. This is going to be the poshest wedding of the year!!:D

tubie22

maman wrote: »

You could get them to rope off a private VIP area for your party like they do in all the most upmarket clubs. This is going to be the poshest wedding of the year!!:D

Haha thanks! :beer:

tubie22

Thanks so far everyone! Really surprised how 'for it' everyone is! Was expecting some tirade of abuse about how can I POSSIBLY have a reception at home?! *GASP*

You have all made me really confident with the idea now! So thank you

TeamLowe

OP have a look at www.offbeatbride.com
they have some wonderful examples of at home weddings and other unusual ideas

MrsDrink

:D This is how we did it!! And it was fab!! Not that I'm biased in the slightest.
If you go over to the Weddings board, and have a search around you can find all of my planning details in the July 2012 thread. (Be warned it is a very long thread full of all of our chit chat as well as wedding related topics).

We got married on the Tuesday in the company of 11 of our immediate family members (parents, grandparents, siblings, their partners, and nieces/nephews) at our local registry office. No cars, my mum drove me. The night before MrD stayed at his mum's (round the block from ours) and my mum came to stay the night with me. My Granddad walked *with* me down the aisle (I wasn't given away as we've live together for 9 years there was very little left to give ha). I didn't have bridesmaids & he didn't have any groomsmen. (With only 11 guests we didn't want to outnumber them). Our mums were our witnesses, MrD's dad held the rings, one of my brothers and his sisters read some words. It was a very informal lovely ceremony. (I walked down the aisle to 'Home At Last' - the final piece of music from my fave film Labyrinth. We signed the register to 'the rain song' a love ballard from Led Zeppelin. And we left the ceremony room to a piano version of 'It's the end of the world as we know it' by REM).

Then after the ceremony it was back to our house, still with just those 11 guests. It was July so (luckily) we had a BBQ at our house. No frills, just a normal BBQ. I banned speeches (it was written on the invites). We didn't have a first dance (we never dance together when we're out - I'm a boogier while he's a stand on the edge with a pint in his hand kinda guy so why be false to us). We didn't cut the cake. It was just a BBQ with our family.

But lol. Obviously our parents (his) wanted to be able to celebrate our marriage with the rest of their family. Which I can understand, and I wanted to celebrate it with my friends (we didn't have any friends just immediate family at the ceremony). So we had a 'reception' (just a party really) at our house on the Saturday.
I hired tables and chairs - think we had around 45-50 people and I'd catered for 30 seats. It was a mixture of a reception and a house party and lets face it not everyone at house parties sit down, most can be found in the kitchen (ikea advert anyone?).
Again it was incredibly relaxed. No formal sit down meal, it was a buffet, which I did myself (with the help of our mums). This was stressful though, and I wouldn't advise any bride to do her own buffet if they reception is on the same day as the ceremony - you have enough to think about!!
We didn't have a 'wedding' cake. I did individual sized cheesecakes (which went down a storm).
Our music was streamed from our computers to speakers in the garden, lounge, and kitchen, and was a mixture of songs from the years we met and was clubbing, and current favourite pop songs.
I got some garden games so the kids had something to do.
It was just a lovely day.
In total we spent around £3k. (Not including my dress because that was a gift from my mum). It really was the best couple of days of my life. The 'reception' party was amazing because everyone just came and had a good time. There was no falling outs, no bust ups. There was plenty of alcohol flowing (we were still drinking the left overs at Christmas lol). If I could do it all again I wouldn't change it for the world. For us it was important to celebrate 'us' with the people we care about, and this was so 'us'. We aren't into the formalities at all.

Cor I've rambled haven't I?! Hahahaaa. I'll see if I can find some photos on my flickr... bbs!

Person_one

tubie22 wrote: »

Thanks so far everyone! Really surprised how 'for it' everyone is! Was expecting some tirade of abuse about how can I POSSIBLY have a reception at home?! *GASP*

You have all made me really confident with the idea now! So thank you

Its not called money saving expert for nothing.

Plenty of us are pretty appalled at how out of hand the wedding industry has got, and how people are being led to believe its perfectly normal and fine to spend 20 grand on one day.

As long as you make sure your guests are fed, watered and comfortable, the two of you enjoy the day and that all the right documents get signed, that's all that matters.

daska

I had a reception at home when I married my first husband, it can be brilliant but I would strongly suggest that you engage some help. You may not want to go as far as getting caterers in (but they'll bring all their own crockery, urns etc which means you and your guests aren't cleaning up before you go on honeymoon) but you could ask around and find a couple of students/babysittery type people who'll just come and help you set up, wash up, put away etc. Don't underestimate how much work there will be! Hope it all goes well for you!

MrsDrink

Taking Daska's comment - it is a lot of work. As I said ours was on a Saturday and 'doors opened' at 5pm so we had all day to get everything set out. It was actually a lovely day with us both setting it all up. We played the music as we did it, had a few games of giant jenga (lol well we had to test it out). (I didn't want any help other than MrD's in actually setting the house up because I wanted every single guest to have that 'wow you've done an amazing job' feeling when they first walked in the house/garden... that being said the MIL did come and help blow up nearly 200 balloons the Thursday before ha!)
And we literally left everything when everyone had gone, got up the next day and as we were tidying up those who were close by came and helped us tidy up. Again it was just lovely - everyone just wanted to show their support for us as a couple.

jar_fairy

Had my wedding reception at home. Well at my parents house as it is bigger. Just made a buffet, bought drink and provided chairs. Was really nice, I hate fuss so it was perfect!