Wedding Wise Tips – April 2018

Photo: Ether and Smith; Location: Heritage Square Museum

Fixing your fake ceremony time, having the wedding you want, and remembering not to forget certain rentals. Wedding advice that’s both random and helpful, just like the weather this month:

4/1 – Wedding Wise Tip #87- Wedding Wise Tip #87 – Fixing your fake ceremony time. 1. DON’T Have a fake ceremony time! Your 1st guest is still going to show up 30 minutes early, so you’re losing set up time. And latecomers are STILL going to be late, they always are. More fixes tomorrow, jic you insist.

4/2 – Wedding Wise Tip #88 – Fixing your fake ceremony time 2. Make sure your guests have somewhere to sit, at least 30 minutes before your ceremony starts. Chairs first.

4/3 – Wedding Wise Tip #89 – Fixing your fake ceremony time #3. Adjust your “pre-game” schedule. If you have to leave the hotel at 2pm to get to your venue by 2:30, to take pictures for an hour before guests show up 30 minutes before your fake ceremony time, then you might have to start hair and makeup earlier.

4/4 – Wedding Wise Tip #90 – #fixyourfakeceremonytime #4. On your wedding website, tell your guests that your fake ceremony time is when they should arrive, so the wedding can start promptly at your real ceremony time.

⅘ – Wedding Wise Tip #91 – #fixyourfakeceremonytime 5. Manage your expectations. Nothing you have to do pre-ceremony is going to take less than an hour. When your guests show up 30 minutes before your fake ceremony time, that might be during picture time, which could be…distracting.

4/6 – Wedding Wise Tip #92 – #fixyourfakeceremonytime #6 – Have a guest wrangler on standby to keep guests out of the way. This is usually one of my team, but it can also be a family member.

4/7- Wedding Wise Tip #93- #fixingyourfavoriteceremonytime #7 – Don’t be afraid to flip the script, maybe. For example, have your cocktail hour before your ceremony. So your guests who arrive 30 minutes before your fake ceremony time stay busy.

4/8 – Wedding Wise Tip #94 – #fixyourfakeceremonytime latecomers will still inevitably late, so don’t up your (fake) ceremony time waiting for a full house. Start within 10 minutes of it, at the most.

4/9 – Wedding Wise Tip #95 – You will feel pushed by friends, family, and/or the internet to do this or that, but there are no “have to’s” in Wedding World, just “want to’s”. If you don’t want to spend the money, or if you just don’t care, don’t it.

4/10 – Wedding Wise Tip #96 – Addendum #1 to Tip #95 – if it means more to someone else (family) than it does to you, AND they’re willing to pay for it, then have the discussion. But don’t pay for someone else’s agenda with your money.

4/11 – Wedding Wise Tip #97 – Seriously? Even if you are on a budget, do not have a self-serve bar.

4/12 – Wedding Wise Tip #98 – You do need the same # of staff – 1 per every two tables – if you have a buffet. Food quantity and quality should be monitored.

4/13 – Wedding Wise Tip #99 – Check if your rental company is also setting up your tables and chairs, after they drop them off. If they’re not and they can, make sure they do. If there is an additional cost, the saved time and labor are worth it.

4/14 – Wedding Wise Tip #100 – something something two people can’t do 100 guests

4/15 – Wedding Wise Tip #101 – is parking at your venue is very tough or nonexistent, first ask your venue for a list of valet services. More on this tomorrow. #askliz silvercharmevents.com

4/16 – Wedding Wise Tip #102 – 2. Another solution to sketchy venue parking is hiring a shuttle service to ferry guests from their guest hotel or a parking lot.

4/17 – Wedding Wise Tip #103 – 3. Scheduling Shuttles can be tricky, most people have no trouble arriving at the same time, but they usually want to leave at different times. One bus in at 5pm, and one bus out at 10:00pm might not work. One bus in, two buses out at different times? DISCUSS.

4/18 – Wedding Wise Tip #104 – Option #4: Uber and Lyft both offer “party codes”. You give them a code that only works for that day, they use it to get a ride back or forth (or both), you pick up the tab.

4/19 – Wedding Tip #105 – Another decision you want to make, flower-wise, is when personal flowers – bouqs and bouts – need to show up, vis a vis picture timing. Drop them off at the hotel, or pick them up at your venue. Discuss with your photographer.

4/20 – Wedding Tip #106 – 2. You can also send someone to pick up the flowers from the florist shop and drop them off at your getting-ready place. Lately, that’s one of my crew or I will do. Pick the least complicated option.

4/21 – Wedding Wise Tip #107 – #forgottenrentals – 6-8ft table for behind the bar, for mixers, extra alcohol, and ice.
4/22 – Wedding Wise Tip #108 – #forgottenrentals -Trashcans

4/23 – Wedding Wise Tip #109 – #forgottenrentals – Outdoor heaters. Here in L.A., at least, people forget that the sun goes down and the temp drops like a mofo. How about where you live?

Tuesday 4/24 – Wedding Wise Tip #110- #forgottenrentals – serving tables. Where is the buffet, cake and coffee going?

4/25 – Wedding Wise Tip #111 – #111 – #forgottenrentals – serving ware

4/26 – Wedding Wise Tip #112 – As a cuter cheaper alternative to a dance floor, how about a large rug?

4/27 – Wedding Wise Tip #113 – #forgottenrentals – napkins. EXTRA napkins. Again, this not a one-one-ratio thing. Think 2.5 to one.

4/28 – Wedding Wise Tip #114 – Anything you tape down or scatter (flowers, glitter, silly string) or pin at your venue has to be taken down or picked up or swept up by the time you leave and most likely by YOU.

4/29 – Wedding Wise Tip #115 – #forgotten Water.

4/30 – Wedding Wise Tip #116 – #emailnotwebsite When your hotel block is booking up, or you’re running out of time to book at all.

What else do you need to know or do about your wedding. Let’s talk. Complete the form below to schedule a complimentary consultation, or contact me directly at liz@silvercharmevents.com or call/text 323-592-9318.

See you at the end of the aisle,

Liz Coopersmith