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Who's decorating for you?? I am just curious. My own mother refuses to set up, decorate, or take down anything......:(
In the church, I am allowed a couple vases and if I want to I can decorate the pews...
At the reception I want to do centerpieces and maybe a little more decor(petals or something)
Who are you using??
I am wondering if my groom and the best man(his brother) can set up the church..... We have an hr and a half to decorate it before my wedding. I'm also tempted to ask his grandmother who graciously keeps offering *any help*.
As far as the reception place, I am wondering if one of my sisters could do it, or maybe my FMIL, because she wants to do the decor/centerpieces there.
What do you think I should do?
Should I try to set up anything myself?
My wedding is at 1 and reception is at 2. The reception place you can drop things off the night before or set things up yourself a couple hours before or so.
I went and set up for a friends wedding a few months ago and she will be setting up mine. I would see if there a fellow bride might be willing to help you in trade for the same.
I did a sample set up of my tables, took pictures, and make a kind of map of the hall and mapped out where everything goes with corresponding photos of the items. Okay, I know it's a bit OCD of me, but it was the best way to make sure eeverything goes to where it is supposed to go.
Good Luck
thanks....hmm...no one is going to be a future bride at my wedding (I am a little older: 30) so that won't work. However, I do have one friend who's offered to help, and loves to help with weddings/decor, so maybe I can convince her to help...
back to square one again...
@starry:is there another bee close to you? You might put the offer out there on your local board.
I plan on doing as much as I can myself but thats only because I'm a bit of a control freak. My venue will handle everything for me but I'm the type of person who believes that if its going to get done right, I have to do it myself. I'm totally fine with it. I am staying at the resort the night before our wedding and our ceremony doesnt start until 5:30 pm so I'll have plenty of time to set up the day of.
@UpstateCait: I wish I could do it myself, I probably could the church! But for the reception I am not sure if I could(too close to wedding) but my parents also always discourage me from doing anything I want to do: like decorate/set up/not stay at hotel etc.......
A friend volunteered to be my wedding designer, so she'll be the decorating overseer on the day of the wedding (ceremony is at two, reception at four). It sort of drives me crazy when guys do *nothing* the day of the wedding, so I may ask the groomsmen to help her put the decorations up. But that will depend on how many hands the reception venue will provide for setup. The church will be easy to decorate.
If you ask around, you'll probably find someone who's willing to help. :)
Doesn't your reception venue have a coordinator and staff to take care of this for you? Mine did and they, along with the caterer's staff and my florist, took care of everything. I got the feeling that is normal procedure so talk to your venue and your caterer and florist, they will be able to fill you in on how things are usually done. I would be wary of doing things yourself or asking family or anyone in the wedding party to help. The wedding day is a very busy day for everyone involved. Thinking back on how mine went, it would have added a TON of un-needed stress if any of us had to be concerned with set up. We were able to relax and get ready and take photos at leisure which was GREAT. Don't underestimate how the time will fly by. Not to mention that never in a million years would i trust any of the GM to set things up in a satisfactory way. If your boys are anything like ours, they will be clueless lol.
@Kemi82JP: My venue said they didn't set stuff up, but they keep changing staff members and stories....originally they said you could just drop stuff off and they would set it up for you and put it out. If my FMIL makes the centerpieces, she might have to set it up/decorate....if I use a florist, maybe they can also help. I'm talking about at least dropping stuff off, etc.....
As far as the church it should be easy, put the vases, a few pew bows, the Unity Candle, the programs, the directions cards......
We did all the setup of the reception site, but it wasn't supposed to be that way. Our caterer was supposed to have 4 people meet us there early, but by the time anyone showed up, we had done it all ourselves. We had 5 men and 4 women, and it still took us 4 hours. We had the outside to set up for the ceremony, the decks to get ready, and the reception tables and chairs/centerpieces/ favors/flowers. Then there was the cake , gift and placecard/guest book table....dessert bar/coffee bar area, mantel, outside areas,etc. It was a pretty small wedding (only 85) and there was plenty to do. We were pretty exhausted and then had to go and get showers and be ready for hair and makeup. Ceremony was at 5.
I'm the MOB and would have preferred to have it go as planned, and was supposed to only set up one table so they could see it and they'd do the rest.
If you can find several people that aren't really involved in the wedding to get it done for you, that would really be the best idea. The same people (or maybe a few others) you should be able to recruit to break everything down afterwards, but again, we ended up doing it all ourselves and missing most of the after party too.
Weddings are a lot of work during the planning and execution, especially if you have certain things you want done the way you want them done. If you're pretty laid back and can trust the groom and his brother to set up the church, then go for it.
Good luck to you!
Forgot to add that this was our last wedding in May where all we did was rent the space and bring in our own caterer. Even when we had the first one at the Sheraton and they had a coordinator for us, I still did most of the work. I wanted to hire a DOC for both weddings, but my daughters wanted me to do it all. I should have said NO. :P
We're getting married at a house in the middle of a beautiful park. Sadly, we're not allowed to get into the house until 8 the morning of the wedding (which is at 2) and we can't set up the night before. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my groom? He'll be the one getting there EARLY and supervising the party rental people putting up the tent and placing chairs and tables. Our parents will arrive and help to put on the linens and centerpieces and set up the reception area inside. Small guilt trip, as I'll be getting pampered all during that time. I am so fortunate to have an awesome family!
me and my bridesmaids did it! most of it the night before, after the rehearsal and then some the morning of (had a 3pm wedding). it was not too crazy..i think it gave me something to do so i did not have a chance to freak out :) (not about being married but about being photographer and the center of attention for so long!)
The one thing i do regret was who packed up at the end of the night. My bridesmaids and friends were on pack everything up afterwards duty. my bridesmaids and their friends were all drunk so they VERY carelessly packed up my stuff (broken vases, ect.) and then they THREW AWAY THE REST OF THE CAKE!!!!!!!!!!! Their was still half of teh cake left...and it was not cheap and they just threw it away. They said they did not have anything to take it back in so they just threw it away! I cannot believe we did not think to bring containers for the cake to take back but they should have went ot the store or back to my house and got containers! SERIOUSLY! my reception was over at 9pm its not like it was 2am. UGH! sorry...i think that is the first time i have "said" anything about how much that upset me.
So..i suggest having responsible ppl on pack up duty if you want your stuff to come back in one piece! and for who should set up everything, make sure you have plenty of people and you should atleast be there at some point to oversee everything.
Good luck! ;)
My venue doesn't set stuff up for people and we can't get into the reception site to decorate until 9 am. FI and I have helped out with enough weddings that it's time to ask those people to help us! I'm taking an idea from a super organized friend of mine plan on having decorating teams. A group of about 3 people will be in charge of reception decor, another for ceremony decor, and another for taking things down and putting stuff away at the end of the night.
My bridesmaids/some friends and I will set up. Since you have a few people volunteer to help, I'd take advantage of the offer.
You made a sad face about your mom not helping but personally I think it's too much to expect the MOB or the bride to set up the church and reception venue. They key people have other things to take care of - like getting themselves ready and relaxing to enjoy the day!
Set-up should be taken care of by the venue people, day-of-coordinator or if those are not options, then by friends or by friends of your mom's. Two of my mom's close friends took care of certain aspects of church set-up which was great. I was able to go with them to the church a couple weeks prior to the wedding and make a list for them. The wedding coordinator oversaw the reception set-up along with the venue's coordinator. My advice - make your detailed plans and lists in advance and leave the actual set-up to others on the wedding day. You don't need those additional responsibilities to stress you out or tire you out on your wedding day.
Our ceremony venue is beautiful on it's own, so there will be nothing to set up.
Reception, I think my cousin is going to help just making sure everything is just so. The venue staff will put the tablecloths on, a friend is doing our flowers so she'll put those around the site.
i want it done the way I want it done, this means I will be doing with the bridal party and family the day b4
I am going to ask my MOH to help and my Aunt trudy and whoever else will help. I am also going to ask my brother to set up heavier things. Hopefully my brother and his friends will help take everything down. But I am not sure who is going to break down yet after the wedding.
I didn't decorate our ceremony area. We weren't allowed into our reception area until 3"30 pm for our 5:30 reception. A few of my aunts, cousins and wives of the groomsmen that I'm friends with helped set everything up. If you have a gap to do pictures, the groomsmen's wives are good people to hit up, since they'll likely think it's a better alternative to hanging out along.
My caterer said they can set up pretty much anything related to the reception for us. Only thing is, since I'm diying my flowers I don't really know what the logistics will be of transporting the flowers to the caterer already arranged so they can put them out? Or maybe I will just take the flowers myself and set them out with some friends? Idk. I'm sure I could set up the decor myself, its just a matter of wanting to vs wanting to relax on my wedding day.
My husband, myself, and a few friends and family decorated our venue. We went in the day before and set everything up. It took us about 3-4 hours with 8 people helping. We had a small wedding of about 50 people, and we assembled and set up tables, chairs, chair covers, table clothes, centerpieces, and a flower archway for our "altar". It was a lot of craziness, but we did it!
As for after the wedding - we had some friends and family stay behind to help us quickly disassemble the site. It actually only took about 45 min, and people were happy to help. I had emailed my friends in advance to ask for help. Then we had an after party elsewhere.
I'm kind of lucking out because I get to decorate the night before my wedding. I am planning on doing it myself with the help of my MOH because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and don't trust many people to help. It works out though because I don't party and everyone else does. So while they're off partying that night I'll be setting up. I'm not sure yet when I get to start decorating but they said I would get to the day before they just aren't sure how early I can start. I did just realize that I don't know about clean-up so I guess I should email them about that.
I'm probably going to do it myself, with help from my bridesmaids and mom. I'm getting a hotel really close to the venue the night before, and they are opening it up to us at 8 am, and the wedding is at 12:30. Hopefully as a team we can get most of it done in about an hour, then head back to the hotel to get ready and be back by 11 for pictures.
I delibrately selected venues that needed no decorating! The college's garden was lovely and the conference center was classy!
I can't do it because we can't be into our venue until a few hours before the ceremony starts and I'll be busy getting ready and whatnot. Because everything is all in one space, we don't even have to do all of the decorations though. We'll need to decorate the cocktail area, the ceiling (lanterns), and the ceremony. My friend/DOC is going to do that with my dad. The servers will do the centerpieces because the tables are getting set up where the ceremony was. The servers also tear everything down at the end of the night except for the stuff on the ceiling, which the friend/doc will take care of. And the servers carry everything to whatever car we want.
This is exactly why I hired a DOC. Yes, it costs a bit of money. But now neither myself nor my wedding guests have to worry about working on our wedding day. That is priceless to me.
I had an amazing DOC... she and her assistant did it ALL. I initially didn't think I needed the extra help, since I have lots of friends and cousins and other family members... but it was SOOOOOOO worth it. All my guests and the wedding party were able to enjoy their day/evening rather than be put to work. If you can find a good DOC who is reasonably priced, I would suggest going that route!
I asked a friend of mine to set up - we all work in theatre and setting up events is what we do best. There's a core group of us that set up weddings for our friends so we're all used to it.
We don't have to break down or set up tables, linens, or anything.....just wondering about minor decor....i am only going to have a little bit of slight decot. i like your idea of setting up one table for people to see. or laying out a map, etc. I am thinking we can leave centerpieces on a table and favors for caterer people to do it. I will have to show them the contract where it said they would do that...... because the college student said they didn't do it, but i saw it in the contract...
I can't really count on my bridesmaids to help set up as they are married and not staying in the hotel......coming from afar....one has a baby. they aren't helpng at all, just really going ot be in my wedding and thats it....
however the venue is close to the church and the hotel, so it should be easy for someone to go set up and make it back okay........i might ask my friend or someone....
Our DOC, florist and caterer set up everything. A couple of my friends ended up setting up some of our shepherd's hooks, but other than that, we left everything to the pros. I kept my DIY energies on the pre-wedding crafting and took the wedding day to just focus on getting married.
Yeah, I mean we will have to drop off things like the guest book, etc...I don't think my mom realizes that a wedding is completely decor free...you have to have SOME things like favors! You have to have a Unity Candle, etc....... I wish my mom was a little more in the loop of things....
we get our venue for 10 hours so we can get in at 2. well we dont actually start till about 6 so we are all going to meet up at noon and pack everything into the cars and hustle to the venue to set up. once everything is done then me and the girls will go back to the hotel to get our hair and make up done then get something to eat then be at the venue by 4 for our kinda first look. we wont be dresses up for our look but i want to see him but he dosent want to see my dress yet. once all those are done we will go get all dressed, lined up and married
I'm hoping I can get into my ceremony and reception site the day before the wedding to decorate and have my wedding coordinator go back the morning of to make sure all the decorations are just right. If we are unable to setup the day before, then I do not have a clue what we will do.
The event coordinator at my venue is going to set up, but really, there is hardly anything to set up. Just putting out placecards. Our venue is already full of bright colors, so we are not even having flowers.
My venue will be doing the entire set up. I'm a bit nervous because I'm very type-A when it comes to this wedding stuff so its going to be interesting. I can just see myself walking down the hallway with someone trying to curl my hair and someone else trying to do my make up while I'm in there trying to fix centerpieces and fold napkins :-)
we "hired" our florist. She set everything up at our reception. She was going to be there anyway and she charged us a little extra to set up our personal items. We brought them over the week before and she set up decorations, table #'s, candy bar etc.
Both Moms have offered to help - but we're going to be doing photos before the ceremony so that won't work. My FI owns a company so we think we're going to get a couple of his staff to help us out. He's got too many employees to invite them all to the wedding... so we're going to ask 2 of the girls to help us set up on the day. Then they'll get to come to our wedding and drink for free all night! We're most likely get them a present and/or cash for their time.
Could you find a friend or cousin who'd be willing to help?
I'd suggest setting up whatever you can the night before since your venue allows you to drop off stuff then. Plus then maybe you can get some people to help after the rehersal.
We couldn't set up the day before because there was a wedding that night so we took everything over at 10 am (our wedding was at 2) and I had my family help (there were 6 of them).
I think the best thing to do if you're going to have friends help is to be as organized as possible. I had everything boxed for each table so they just had to open the box and set it up. It went really smoothly because of that and I didn't have to worry about forgetting anything.
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