Wedding Trends That Take The Cake

There are several things you should consider when choosing your wedding reception location. Shopping for your site is a lot like finding a mate–you obviously want charm and personality–but make sure that all of your needs are met. Looks aren’t everything! Use these tips to help you to find your perfect match.

What’s your budget?

If you’re planning a wedding reception of about 200 – 300 guests, you might expect to spend between $10,000 – $16,000 for the reception hall, your food, your bar service and any additional reception hall rentals. Use this handy budget guide to create a realistic budget for your wedding and reception.  Once you know how much you have allocated to spend, you’ll be able to shop around for the best location within your budget.

What is the size of your guest list?

First, make sure the room is large enough to accommodate the number of people on your guest list. The space will look large, when empty, but wedding essentials–such as tables, chairs, a buffet, a bar, the band or DJ and the dance floor–will take up a lot of space. Also, you’ll want to make sure that your guests have plenty of elbowroom. To get an idea of the actual “living space” of your venue, ask if you can visit the reception site while another wedding is being set up.

What’s your style?

When considering reception site, consider the color palette of your party. Your site doesn’t have to be done in the exact colors as your planned decorations, but it shouldn’t clash either. Also, consider your theme. Besides the basic banquet hall, you might consider a country club, a mansion, a museum or other venue that suits your wedding reception theme a bit better than the typical site. Last, try to visit the reception site at the same time of day that you’ve chosen for your reception, so you can get a feel for exactly what the lighting will look like.

Do any of your guests have special needs?

When choosing your venue, take into consideration any special needs that your guests might have. If you have elderly guests or guests in wheelchairs, make sure that there are bathroom facilities available to them. You don’t want them to have to travel up and down stairs to get where they need to go.

Are there enough parking spaces?

Make sure your reception site has ample parking or is near a parking garage or a street where it’s legal to park. If parking is a problem at your ideal location, look for other ways to get your guests to the reception. Your site might have a shuttle or van service available to take your guests from wedding to reception and back. If not, you’ll have to make these arrangements yourself.

Read next week’s post, “Wedding Reception Planning: Questions to Ask before booking your Location,” for great tips on what to ask your potential reception site managers.

Check out Best Little Wedding Shop for Discount Wedding Invitations.

Even the best laid wedding plans can go awry, as seen in these “Wedding Disaster” videos from YouTube.  Enjoy!

Here are a variety of wedding disasters…some are hilarious!

Trying to pick out your wedding gown? You may want to avoid these…

Remember…wedding vows are a serious matter. Apparently these brides forgot…

Feeling a little stressed? Check out these Bridezillas…

Ladies…don’t let your man make a grand entrance. At least not one like this!

Here, on the other hand, are some GREAT entrances…

Finally, here are some potential “Wedding Disasters” that you’ll have no control over, but if this happens at your wedding,  you’ll end up with your own YouTube viral video to share.

You might not be able to avoid every “Wedding Disaster,” but you can get started on the right foot by ordering your Affordable Wedding Invitations from Best Little Wedding Shop.

Lisa Bakewell

Photo Credit: aus_chick

As a soon-to-be-bride, you eat, sleep and breathe your wedding plans, and you’ve become a super-sponge for ideas. Well, for great ideas and programming you’re going to love, check out WE tv, TLC and the Style Network’s reality wedding shows! They’ll help you with your plans, give you some great ideas AND they’ll teach you what “not to do” in order to avoid being called Bridezilla by your friends and family.

WE tv

Girl Meets Gown

Girl Meets Gown takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Dallas area’s premiere bridal salon, Stardust. Each week you’ll hear stories of real brides and their quest to find the perfect wedding dress!

Platinum Weddings

Imagine a wedding day in which no detail is too miniscule, no wish is too extravagant and no request is unattainable. It’s a dream come true for any bride-to-be. View the ultimate wedding show that captures the drama and decadence of wedding planning on an extraordinary budget!

Amazing Wedding Cakes

Four bakeries are ready to raise the bar! These incredible designers are pushing the boundaries of what wedding cakes can be, breaking the mold with more bold, beautiful and creative cakes.

Bridezillas

Tune in to watch what can happen to a woman somewhere between “will you marry me” and “I do”– complete with meltdowns, confrontations and shocking revelations.

My Fair Wedding

WE tv brings in a dream team, led by celebrity party planner David Tutera, on behalf of beleaguered friends and family members, to transform what could be a disaster wedding into a platinum style affair.

Rich Bride Poor Bride

What does it take to pull off the “perfect” wedding while still managing to stay within your budget? In each episode, follow the journey of one couple and their wedding planner to see what happens when costs collide with expectations. No matter how big the budget, is it ever enough?

Wedding Central Presents

Go inside the magic of weddings, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the amazing, the funny, the unpredictable and the touching side of planning a big day. From the people who make it their business to create, plan and execute some of the most exciting trends, to the couples who want to make their big day an unforgettable celebration.

TLC

Four Weddings

Four weddings and one dream honeymoon. Who will win?

Say Yes to the Dress

The Kleinfeld staff members try to make each bride completely satisfied on what may be the single most important day of her life.

Cake Boss

Buddy Valastro, one of the most successful and renowned wedding cake artists, aims to make Carlo’s Bake Shop a household name.

Masters of Reception

Robert and Jerry Frungillo make dreams come true. Weddings are in their blood, no matter how big or small. And this is a true family business.

Wedded to Perfection

Follow the owners of Fete Events, spouses Jung Lee and Josh Brooks, as they plan high-end weddings and events in New York.

Style Network

Whose Wedding is it Anyway?

The bride may get all the gifts, but the planner’s the real star of the show. Stressed out wedding planners try to pull off picture-perfect weddings for their clients.

Lisa Bakewell

You’re engaged, and you’re ready to start planning for your big day! The best place to start? Right here…with these 13 Top Wedding Resource Sites!

Best Little Wedding Shop: The Best Little Wedding Shop has been serving brides across the country since 1995 has decided to make their top-quality product line available to brides across the world. In this fast-paced world, brides find it easier and faster to shop online for their Wedding Invitations & Bridal Shower Invitations, Wedding Accessories and Wedding Favor needs.

Team Wedding : Team Wedding wants to be a part of your wedding planning team. Just name a wedding topic, and they can help you with it! Browse by category or state for some terrific planning tips and resources.

Brides.com : Brides.com has a wide range of galleries and topics for you to research, and they have tools that you can use such as budget, to-do list, guest list, and seating chart guides.

The Knot: The Knot has tools, great articles, videos and honeymoon ideas. Check out their photo galleries and wedding planning tips, plus peruse “Grooms + Guys” and “Maids + Moms” for some specific wedding strategies.

MyWedding.com: MyWedding.com offers and “Ideas and Trends” blog, free wedding websites and over 100 local wedding guides to help you plan your wedding.

Perfect Wedding Guide : At Perfect Wedding, you can find vendors, get ideas, go shopping and attend events. This is a terrific comprehensive online wedding guide for brides and wedding planners.

Green Elegance Weddings : Offers eco-friendly wedding tips for couples who want to leave a small green footprint when they get married. They offer wedding contests and green wedding news too.

FrugalBride.com: Canada’s number one online wedding magazine, FrugalBride.com,  is a great resource for brides that offers wedding bulletin boards, frugal wedding crafts and budget tracking worksheets for weddings. They also offer a “Bride’s Planner,” a “Groom’s Planner” and “Vendor Tips.”

GayWeddings.com: If you’re planning a non-traditional wedding, GayWeddings.com discusses gay and lesbian wedding questions that you may have. They also offer products, resources and information networking to same-sex couples seeking to affirm their life-long commitments to each other through commitment ceremonies, civil unions, domestic partnerships, civil marriage and other alternative weddings.

InStyleWeddings : Want to plan a classy, celebrity-style wedding? The InStyle Wedding website can help you plan your dream wedding. Even if you can’t afford a lavish wedding, you can get fabulous tips and ideas here.

WeddingChannel.com: If you’d like the answers to all your wedding planning questions, WeddingChannel.com is a great resource, and they also provide tools like bride checklists and budget calculators.

WeddingSolutions.com: WeddingSolutions.com offers “Real Reviews from Real Brides Like You,” “Celebrity News and Gossip,” wedding registries and a multitude of wedding resources and advice.

DestinationWeddings.com : DestinationWeddings.com offers a full service “one stop shopping” approach which has one goal in mind–to make the planning and coordination of your Destination Wedding as simple and stress-free as possible.

Lisa Bakewell