Wedding Reception on the Cheap!!

xredwebx

HI

I'm getting married in Las Vegas next september :j a year today infact! and as we're getting hitched abroad we've decided to have a reception for friends and family when we get home. We will have about 100 people there and have decided on a buffet, but I'm having problems coming up with reception ideas

I will be wearing my wedding outfit to the reception (bright red dress) and we'd like to do a bit of a las vegas theme.

Just struggling for ideas for the tables, as we wont be having a sit down meal we didn't want place settings, but I dont want the tables to just be empty.

Any ideas really appreciated!

Also need wedding cake ideas, I hear the ones from M&S are good, so if anyone has already done a red/black/white wedding cake let me know! hehe

And obviously money is always an object, so any money saving ideas would be great (i'm already doing the invitations and favors myself :cool:)

Thanks!

xredx

shelovestobuystuff

It sounds fabulous!!!
First thoughts are for a casino theme.
For the cake how about having a traditional white iced M&S cake but have decorations hand made to suit the theme,instead of the bride and groom figures you could have king and queen playing cards made of icing or sugar paper on the top tier.
I am sure there are events companies which can do a casino party for you,might be worth looking in to if you like the casino idea.
As far as money saving ideas,perhaps you could save money on the reception venue itself by using a hotel or hostel which you can pay for with tesco clubcard vouchers.

Katmc2k

here's a brilliant red black and white m and s cake in a current thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=466337

The little bride is even wearing a red dress!

you don't want place settings-i assume this means you don't want knives forks and so on? are you still having a seating plan though? (people will need to sit somewhere with their food)

If this is the case you could name each table after a famous las vegas hotel, and put out name cards with a wee picute of dice or cards or something las vegas themed next to their names. You could have placemats for them to put their plates on which are blown up and laminated pictures of las vegas, or the casino the table is named after. Or (like on BBC 1's The Big Day) made from playing cards stuck down and laminated over to make place settings (on the TV show they used to it make a tabletop for the bar) Think you can pick up playing cards quite cheap, and it would match your black/white/red theme but making 100 placemates from playing cards might kill you!

so if you have on the tables the name of the table (and maybe some blurb about the hotel or casino it's named after) a centrepeice of flowers or balloons or whatever you choose, placemats, namecards, and favours it shouldn't look too empty. you could always fill up the space with black and red table confetti.

At a recent reception I was at the couple had got married in the Dominican Republic and they displayed their wedding photos at the reception-it went down well and was nice for those who didn't go to the wedding.

are you going to have Viva Las Vegas for your first dance? :T

[Deleted User]

what about hanging giant playing cards as decorations? My local pound shop sells them, you could make strings of them?

bright lights and things! Very glitzy!! And instead of flower centrepieces you could use feathers in your theme colours?

xredwebx

Hi All

Thanks Katmc2k, ideas are fab!:T

We're definately having pictures of our wedding/honeymoon blown up all over the venue, so everyone can see what we got up to and H2B wants to play the wedding DVD at the reception for everyone (one of the reason I wanted to go abroad is so no one could hear me say my vows just in case I messed up!!! :eek:).

Great idea about naming the tables after hotels/casinos. I'm struggling with the whole buffet thing though, as its a buffet and not a sit down meal do I need place setting/cutlery and a table plan or do we just keep the tables free of all that and let everyone grab a chair when they want, how does it work? (bit of a disadvantage having never been to a wedding!) HELP!

Beccus, I love the play card decoration idea!!! and why didn't I think of feathers instead of flowers!!! :T

thank you all

xredx

Katmc2k

Feathers is an awesome idea!

IMO, as someone who is considering buffet versus sitdown, I would have the table set with a name card, a placemat (optional), cutlery, and a napkin, similar to a sitdown meal. I think having a free-for-all seating arrangement could be a bit disasterous and won't work out well for some people (ie tables of 8 and you arrive in a group of 9 and are the only one not to sit at the table) Depending on how drinks are to be served glasses could be on the table or not. Cups or glasses on the table means drinks will be served to people (ie wine on the table/waiter with coffeepot etc) IF this isn't happening then don't put glasses on the table unless there are water jugs.

If the tables are set, people only have to carry a plate between the buffet and their seat and they know where they are going, rather than carrying a plate, a napkin, cutlery and perhaps a drink!

Usually at weddings the daytime guests are told where to sit and in the evening its a free-for-all when the other guests arrive and its all less formal, but as your only having one meal/evening only do I think it's acceptable to organise them for the meal. You can either sit groups of people together or mix families/friends up to get them to mingle. People can always rearrange themselves when the food is over and the drinking and dancing etc begins.


I can't imagine planning a wedding having never been to one, i've been to two in the last week and practically brought a notebook with me

xredwebx

Def doing feathers over flowers now and after discussing it with H2B we're going to ask our guest to follow our theme and dress in black and white, meanwhile we'll be in red and black ) Do you think its ok to ask guests to wear a particular colour? H2B doesn't think so but i dont want anyone turning up in my dress! lol! Plus I love the idea of us being the only ones in red )

Just trying to find feather ideas now, going to have some as centrepieces, and I want to put some on our wedding cake.

Thank you so much Katmc2k, it is a nightmare planning having not actually been to a wedding. no one ever seems to know how to deal with sitting when your not having a wedding during the day or another sit down meal so you have really helped us!!! Just worried about sorting everything else out now, I think I'm going to have to send out the invites a bit earlier to sort everything out before we go to Vegas, my wedding planner (super organised friend!) will be taking over from me whilst we're in vegas as our reception is 3 days after we get back!!! So those few days are going to be manic!!

Another thing (sorry for all the questions) whats your opinion on gift lists? As no one will acutally be at our wedding is it right to have a gift list? We've lived together for 2.5 years so we dont need any toasters! hehe

thanks

xredx

wiggly

what about suggesting people help with different bits of the day? rather than a present as such?

danielle24

I like the idea of peeps dressing in those colours - at a wedding I went to at the weekend everyone wore red, white and black and it looks amazing - it meant that there was no need for decorations.

xredwebx

Thanks danielle24, I love the idea of everyone in black and white and we're in red and black, it'll fit our theme perfectly and be a bit of a wow factor when you get all of us together for photos

Katmc2k

yeah getting people to wear a colour is a great idea, everyone has something black in their wardrobe!

I think people will still want to give you a gift even though you're not having a day do, although I think evening guests usually give slightly smaller/less expensive gifts. I think its ok to have a gift list with smallish items on it . my brother's was john lewis and whilst being ridiculously expensive it was all broken down so people could buy one cup, one glass, one pillowcase etc, it sounds a bit rubbish until you realise the glasses were £40 each :eek:

you could write something on the invitations that says what you want without appearing greedy, like "having you to join us on our special evening is the best gift we could get, but if your wallet is really weighing your trousers down you can relieve it at www.giftlist.com" or something like that I think we'll make ours jokey like that but obviously you could have a more serious one! if you don't want household stuff just say on the invitations you would prefer money to do up the house, charity donations, etc. honeymoon fund doesn't exactly fit in though since you're doing that before it! i think you'll find lots of people give money anyway. well that's what H2B and I are hoping :o:o:o

It might be better to have an actual thing to spend the money on: "honeymoon fund" sounds a lot better than "general spending money, saw a nice new jacket I wanted and I've got credit card bills to pay...."

can you tell i've thought a lot about gift lists? my darling MIL 2b is anti-gift list (hence her first son to get married got 2 toastie makers and 6 years later they have unused gifts under their bed) but I will not be beaten by her! got a fight on my hands :rolleyes: