With my wedding coming up in seventeen days, the finishing touches are being put on everything. All is properly planned, everything is more or less paid for, and I'm ready to do this.
HOWEVER...I have a few questions.
1: For those already married, how did you deal with wedding crashers? Either people you just don't know, or people who arrived at the reception sans RSVP?
2: I want to broadcast the reception to my fiancee's family who live overseas - what's a great (free) service that can do that? I don't want anything viewers have to sign up for - I just want to email them a link to a videocast.
I bet I'll have more questions in the future, but those are the ones that are pressing on my mind at this moment.
First, Congrats. I can be of no help as we were married in 1980. Wedding crashers weren't a concern for us and consumer video cameras were almost unheard of, let alone PCs or the web.
I had a couple wedding crashers (2 or 3) who were friends of an invitee. I had room to accommodate them, so I just let it ride. Honestly, while it's kind of an irritating thing to happen to you on what is, everything else aside, still kind of a stressful day, but it's more trouble than its worth to kick up a fuss about it. Unless they're making trouble or you don't have enough food/drink/room for them, my recommendation is to just let it go.
Originally posted by Oliver2: I want to broadcast the reception to my fiancee's family who live overseas - what's a great (free) service that can do that? I don't want anything viewers have to sign up for - I just want to email them a link to a videocast.
The only service I can think of that fits this is uStream (ustream.tv). I've never used it myself, but, when I worked in radio, I knew people who were using it for their low end projects.
As far as your first question, my advice is to not worry about it. Have fun, enjoy the day, because it goes by REALLY fast. Crazy fast. You don't want to waste any of it worrying about little details. And sometimes, the stuff that 'goes wrong' is the stuff you laugh about later.
Originally posted by Oliver2: I want to broadcast the reception to my fiancee's family who live overseas - what's a great (free) service that can do that? I don't want anything viewers have to sign up for - I just want to email them a link to a videocast.
The only service I can think of that fits this is uStream (ustream.tv). I've never used it myself, but, when I worked in radio, I knew people who were using it for their low end projects.
As far as your first question, my advice is to not worry about it. Have fun, enjoy the day, because it goes by REALLY fast. Crazy fast. You don't want to waste any of it worrying about little details. And sometimes, the stuff that 'goes wrong' is the stuff you laugh about later.
Originally posted by LeroyAs far as your first question, my advice is to not worry about it. Have fun, enjoy the day, because it goes by REALLY fast. Crazy fast. You don't want to waste any of it worrying about little details. And sometimes, the stuff that 'goes wrong' is the stuff you laugh about later.
Agreed on all counts. We didnt have any "crashers" per se, but we had invited family members give their invites to UNinvited family members that came in their place. High drama at the time, but we laugh about it now.
ONE MORE PIECE OF UNSOLICITED ADVICE: Make sure you eat!! My wife and I didnt get to eat any of our wedding food THAT WE PAID FOR, and it looked good too. Everytime we went to sit down and take a bite, we'd get interrupted by a well-wisher or someone wanting to pose for a photograph, etc. THAT still bugs my wife today. So yeah, EAT!
No wedding crashers for me, but we had a problem of people saying they were going to show and did not. About ten people, all my side of father's family, boy was he pissed. It pissed me off as well since I had to take my good friends from college and their wives off. My suggestion is get a head count a week ahead and then invite some other friends or save yourself some money on food and drink. It will also make it easier on you to know who to look out for and not run into what DJ ran into.
(edited by lotjx on 23.8.12 1359) The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
Thanks for all the kind words and advice - lots to consider. I can't imagine that we'll have too many wedding crashers, but ya never know. My main concern is having enough food for everyone.
Which leads me to the next question:
I'm planning on 120 people - well, 110 with about ten kids. How much beer should I purchase? Should I have a cash bar? Twoonie bar? We're planning on about four brews and a mixed drink, like Smirnoff Ice or Mike's Hard for the occasion. Now, I don't drink, so there will be a case of Red Bull with my name on it, but still...
(for those curious, a twoonie is the Canadian two dollar coin.)
Originally posted by Oliverhow did you deal with wedding crashers? Either people you just don't know, or people who arrived at the reception sans RSVP?
We didn't really have any, but I was paranoid about not having enough food and we knew there were some last-minute "maybes" so we over-ordered to be on the safe side.
Originally posted by OliverHow much beer should I purchase? Should I have a cash bar? Twoonie bar?
We were in a hotel so I didn't have to buy anything beforehand, which was nice. As far as who paid, we gave everyone two drink tickets when they showed up and after that, they were on their own. This was a little bit chaotic at the start, making sure that everyone got their tickets, but a free bar could have gotten out of control. If you're supplying everything, don't forget ice. And pop. And water.
Originally posted by Oliver I'm planning on 120 people - well, 110 with about ten kids. How much beer should I purchase? Should I have a cash bar? Twoonie bar? We're planning on about four brews and a mixed drink, like Smirnoff Ice or Mike's Hard for the occasion.
Best people to ask are your caterers. They do this for a living. I understand that you want to be prepared when you deal with them, but the whole experience is a lot easier if you can just trust the vendors you've chosen (actually, my most important piece of advice is to trust your photographer - when he tells you how much time photographs will take, listen to him. You and your guests will be better off for it). As far as cash bar vs. free bar, my wife and I felt that if we were throwing a big party for everyone in celebration of our wedding, that meant providing the drinks as well as the food and entertainment. If it's an issue of cost, and you're paying for everything else yourself, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask one or both of your parents to contribute toward that one item.
Originally posted by Oliver I'm planning on 120 people - well, 110 with about ten kids. How much beer should I purchase? Should I have a cash bar? Twoonie bar? We're planning on about four brews and a mixed drink, like Smirnoff Ice or Mike's Hard for the occasion.
Best people to ask are your caterers. They do this for a living. I understand that you want to be prepared when you deal with them, but the whole experience is a lot easier if you can just trust the vendors you've chosen (actually, my most important piece of advice is to trust your photographer - when he tells you how much time photographs will take, listen to him. You and your guests will be better off for it). As far as cash bar vs. free bar, my wife and I felt that if we were throwing a big party for everyone in celebration of our wedding, that meant providing the drinks as well as the food and entertainment. If it's an issue of cost, and you're paying for everything else yourself, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask one or both of your parents to contribute toward that one item.
(edited by Tenken347 on 24.8.12 0418)
Our caterer doesn't deal with alcohol - they have a server on staff, but if we want booze, we have to supply it ourselves. The good part of that is if we have full cases, we can return them and get refunds.
The caterer is supplying coffee and pop...and hopefully my Red Bull. :)
Originally posted by OliverOur caterer doesn't deal with alcohol - they have a server on staff, but if we want booze, we have to supply it ourselves. The good part of that is if we have full cases, we can return them and get refunds.
Our caterer didn't supply booze either, but they did tell us how much to purchase. I don't precisely remember the formula, but it was something like 2.5 beers per person, and 2-3 bottles of wine per 10 people (I'm relative certain about the beer - the wine is a ballpark guess). I think you can adjust depending on the Hemingwayness of your crowd.
Originally posted by LeroyAs far as your first question, my advice is to not worry about it. Have fun, enjoy the day, because it goes by REALLY fast. Crazy fast. You don't want to waste any of it worrying about little details. And sometimes, the stuff that 'goes wrong' is the stuff you laugh about later.
Agreed on all counts. We didnt have any "crashers" per se, but we had invited family members give their invites to UNinvited family members that came in their place. High drama at the time, but we laugh about it now.
ONE MORE PIECE OF UNSOLICITED ADVICE: Make sure you eat!! My wife and I didnt get to eat any of our wedding food THAT WE PAID FOR, and it looked good too. Everytime we went to sit down and take a bite, we'd get interrupted by a well-wisher or someone wanting to pose for a photograph, etc. THAT still bugs my wife today. So yeah, EAT!
The place we had our reception made a point of taking my wife and I to a side room the second we got to the reception so we could nosh on some finger foods before anyone saw us arrive for that specific reason.
Kentish might also tell you to make sure everyone you've contracted with to do something at your wedding is actually going to show up to do that work ;-) (hopefully that's one of those things he and his wife can laugh about now . . . )
And congrats~!
"You are going to get a certain amount of snarkiness on the Internet no matter what, and my rule is that you don't post anything that you wouldn't say to someone's face." Marc Andreyko (Writer of DC Comic's "Manhunter")
We had a cash bar during the appetizers and that was it. We were supposed to have champagne, but the place we were holding decided to open it at the rehearsal dinner and didn't tell anyone til we were going to do the toast. My advice is the more alcohol, the more problems. We had a limited budget as well to be honest, we broke even for the cash we got at the wedding to what we spent if not lost money. If I had to do it over again, I would have spent the money on a trip to Vegas and then come back to the reception. The plane ticket was the price of the church.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.