As the guests arrive for the cocktail hour, I make sure that the wait staff is butlering the drinks, that food is being replenished, keep an eye on the time and keep in contact over the phone with the team member left at the church to help with pictures. We need to know exactly when they leave the church so we can move guests from the cocktail hour to the reception area just before the wedding party arrives.
I make a quick last minute run through of the actual reception area checking to make sure any flowers brought over from the ceremony site are correctly placed and everything looks perfect. I also meet quickly with the band to make sure that they have my timeline and we go over any questions they have.
I try to snap a few pictures of the setup before the guests actually go in the room. Since the bride and groom will not arrive before the guests are let into the room, I think it’s nice for them to have a few pictures of how it looked beforehand.
As soon as my team member from the church calls to let me know they are on the way to the reception, I jump into action. I let the caterer know that the bridal party is on their way. We let the band know we are going to open the doors to the reception area and we move as a team to the doors of the reception area and invite the guests in. We try to have everyone out of the cocktail area and in the reception area before the wedding party actually arrives. Sometimes this can be just like trying to herd cats, but we get it done.
The wedding party pulls up to the site and we start lining them up to be announced in. Not an easy job with people wandering off to try and find their husband or wife, going to the bathroom or worse yet heading to the bar. The bridesmaids flowers were being used as part of the centerpieces on certain tables (to save on money) so we had to quickly gather these up and send two team members to slip in and get the flowers on the tables, hopefully before guests notice that some tables had no centerpieces.
Also, we have to get the bride's dress bustled. I always tell brides to have someone that knows exactly how to bustle the dress. It never fails that this person is no where around. So my team is up under the dress trying to figure out the bustle.
Once everyone is set, we signal the band to begin and open the doors. Everything goes perfect. Bridal party goes in and circles the dance floor. The new Mr. and Mrs. are introduced, and begin their first dance. We meanwhile are finding Mom and Dad and getting them ready to make their welcome speech to the guests and finding the minister to be ready to say the blessing.
Everything goes off without a hitch and the reception begins….
More tomorrow.
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