Friday, February 1, 2013

How to Avoid Wedding Day Disasters!


Got an inspiration of this post from the Wedding Channel website.  


The following wedding disasters are very common and I, myself had witnessed it on several occasions I attended weddings! And in disbelief, I often cringed on the disasters that had just unfolded before my eyes. Just imagined the hysteria and anxieties that the newly weds experienced when they noticed that the most important event in their relationship suddenly turned into a big wobble of clutters!

Wedding day happens only once so everyone wants the best for their big day and disasters definitely is not part of their excitement. So here, I will share the tips how to avoid catastrophes in your wedding day.

Wedding Day Disaster One:
As the bridal entourage started taking their turn on the aisle, you noticed they became so hesitant with their walk, they stumbled, they were confused what to do where to sit, the flower girls and pages fought and cried , photographers were taking wrong, unimpressive shots, and during the picture taking at the end of the ceremony, hosts endlessly roll called everyone to come to the altar overshooting your time table of starting the reception. You and your spouse seemed clueless what to do in front of the altar and where to end the pictorials, when to take your steps leaving the church.

Prevent it:
Prepare a detailed wedding day script ( sometimes I called this an event skeletal script) one week before your big day. Have a rehearsal dinner two days before the wedding, invite everyone from wedding attendants, parents, sponsors, hosts, photographers, videographers, ushers, usherettes, and everyone who has a role to play on the ceremony and at the reception. Explain the detailed script of your wedding to the group. Orient them with their function/role on the big day. Instruct them what to do, where to position, when to leave their post, present the time table of each event including the pictorial session at the church. Take a general church rehearsal so that everyone will know, including yourself and your future spouse, what to do. Important: A rehearsal dinner is a must to avoid disaster on your wedding day!

Wedding Day Disaster Two:
The church ceremony took so long to finish, the guests obviously were hungry and you overshoot the time of the reception indicated in the wedding invitation. The reception started very late and everyone was so pissed off with the whole event, they were hungry and bored. The program was so dry and lacked enthusiasm and worst, the hosts were rude and talked nonsense.

Prevent it:
In your detailed wedding script, include the time table. Browse here my detailed wedding script. Stick on your time table. Work it with your future spouse and organizer if you hired one. Determine the gap minutes of each event, for example, the ceremony starts at 3:00 pm so it will surely finish at 4:30 pm. From there, allow 10 minutes for the signing of registry (with someone singing at the church) then allow 15 minutes for the picture taking. Hand over to the host(s) at the church the groupings of your picture taking. 

Avoid calling everyone for the pictorials, you will really overshoot your time. They can have it at the reception anyway. Tell the hosts that the picture taking at the altar should only take 15 minutes then make a cue to proceed to the exit of the entourage. 

Wedding attendants (bride's maids, groom's men, maid of honor, best man) and ushers and usherettes should work together. They will arrive first at the reception ahead of everyone. Wedding attendants should stand at the receiving line while ushers and usherettes should stand at their back and lead the guests to their respective seat. Upon their arrival, offer a welcome refreshment to the guests and have an entertainment (a song number or a dance number) to keep them excited and happy.

Personally prepare a program by yourself, check the flow to keep everyone interested. Scrap unnecessary portion that would embarrass guests, orient the host what to do and how to treat the program.

Wedding Day Disaster Three:
Your reception venue will supposed to have 15 tables with eight occupants each. So naturally, the table must have eight chairs. But suddenly at the reception, the people involved prepared only 12 tables!But you already made up the list of groupings, no one figured it until you noticed there were guests navigating around finding their tables, scratching their head because they could not find a place to sit!The staff at the venue scrambled to find additional tables, rolling it over before the presence of bewildered guests. The problem was solve but the circumstance was so embarrassing!So how to avoid this unfortunate event?

Prevent it:
Prepare by yourself a visual presentation of the venue, as much as possible draw and sketch the area so that you can visualized where to put tables. Double check your guest list and the late confirmation of other guests. Personally check the venue a day before the wedding. Meet the staff who will handle the event, give them the seating chart and the list of groupings to let them aware how many guests coming and how many excess you are expecting. Tell them to prepare at least three additional standby tables to accommodate excess heads. Assign ushers and usherettes to check the actual number of guests who come to the reception from the church.



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