Reception advice

[journey137]

Nope, no theme in particular. My style is quite plain. I don’t really decorate my home except with figurines which were gifts and my plants. I don’t like elaborate patterns unless they’re geometric, I favor earth tones and detest neon colors.

I’m so bad at stuff like this, and I’ve never had to do party planning before. My family does not do receptions like this at all. We usually have some meat trays and vege trays from the local supermarket, some cake and that’s it. There are of course table cloths and occasionally some confetti and balloons, but we really don’t do elaborate or long weddings or receptions. Two of my cousins got married last year and one wedding lasted literally 10 minutes and that was with the boy fumbling trying to unroll a thing for the bride to walk on and the other lasted about 20 minutes. People were wanting to leave their receptions after about an hour.

My boyfriend’s family however is the total opposite, so we’re trying to meet somewhere in the middle. Since I’ve never even seen a reception like they’re used to, it’s kind of difficult for me to meet him in the middle.

Honestly, I just want to get married. I don’t care what the family does afterward, but since the closest ones will be driving 2.5 hours, I figured the least we could do would be provide them with a nice place to eat and good food.

 

[kage_ar]

Quick question - you mentioned that the Church would be decorated with poinsettas and wreaths on the 22nd. Have you verified this with the Parish?

In my experience, Cathllic Churches do not do the “big” Christmas decorations until Christmas Eve - only an Advent Wreath and a bit of greenery. As a convert from the Protestant world where Christmas decorations went up at Church the day after Thanksgiving, this took me some getting used to.

Just a thought -

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!!

 

[maria29]

Nope, no theme in particular. My style is quite plain. I don’t really decorate my home except with figurines which were gifts and my plants. I don’t like elaborate patterns unless they’re geometric, I favor earth tones and detest neon colors.

I’m so bad at stuff like this, and I’ve never had to do party planning before. My family does not do receptions like this at all. We usually have some meat trays and vege trays from the local supermarket, some cake and that’s it. There are of course table cloths and occasionally some confetti and balloons, but we really don’t do elaborate or long weddings or receptions. Two of my cousins got married last year and one wedding lasted literally 10 minutes and that was with the boy fumbling trying to unroll a thing for the bride to walk on and the other lasted about 20 minutes. People were wanting to leave their receptions after about an hour.

My boyfriend’s family however is the total opposite, so we’re trying to meet somewhere in the middle. Since I’ve never even seen a reception like they’re used to, it’s kind of difficult for me to meet him in the middle.

Honestly, I just want to get married. I don’t care what the family does afterward, but since the closest ones will be driving 2.5 hours, I figured the least we could do would be provide them with a nice place to eat and good food.

**I have several questions, The flower ones are from my mom

1. How many people are you planning to invite/or do you think will show up to the reception?
2. Are you having bridesmaids and groomsman? If so how many and what kind of flowers do you want each to wear?
3. Are you doing corsages for Mother of Bride and future MIL?

4> Are you having a flower girl, ring bearer etc?

5.Pew decorations?

And lastly do you know what your budget is for flowers?
**

 

[journey137]

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted but I’ve been working on a final for one of my classes… wow am I ever glad this semester is almost over…

Anyway, the church will have poinsettas displayed, but not the wreaths or trees. I asked and they don’t put the wreaths and trees up until Christmas Eve, but the poinsettias are up throughout Advent.

For the questions from Maria

1. I’m honestly not sure how many people will stay – like I said, my family is fairly anti-Catholic and I’m not sure how many of them will be able to get over themselves to drive 2.5 hours to go to a Catholic wedding. As a very rough estimate, I’ll guess somewhere between 100-200 with 200 being pretty unlikely.
2. We’re only having a maid of honor and a best man. I was thinking something along the lines of a simple white rose or lily for them but I am completely open to suggestions. I don’t want to have a walking floral arrangement up there
3. Hadn’t really thought about that. Are we supposed to? It’s not a big deal if we do. His mom would like something big that smells strong (she used to own a greenhouse) and my stepmom would probably prefer something more dainty with a faint sweet smell.
4. No flower girl or ring bearer - there aren’t any kids of the appropriate age that we trust in the family to do those jobs.
5. No pew decorations.
6. The budget has not been specifically set yet because we have not priced florists to determine how much we should be expecting, but we were thinking $300ish should be enough for the little that we actually need. Like I said, the church is mostly decorated for us and I only want a few arrangements sitting around at the reception as opposed to a small arrangement at every single table.

 

[Celia]

congrats! Yeah $30 is a really good deal as far as the veil is concerned. I spent over a $100 on mine. (I kinda got taken for a ride as far as how much I spent on the whole dress-veil-underthings went. Looked nice though! ) You have so many possibilities with a Christmastime wedding. Your whole theme is already built up for you- the whole winter time crystal-y red and green and silver accented fun stuff. If I were you I would kind of decide on a central color or 2 to kind of pull things together. Go for simple, elegant. It’s easiest. Our centerpieces were the round glass mirrors with 3 different size candle holders with flower petals scattered on the table cloths. With the low lighting in the room it really just made everything sparkle. (the candles off the glass) We rented everything and it turned out great.

Go through the bridal magazines for ideas too, sometimes they really have great ideas as far as budgeting goes.

 

[maria29]

She said it was going to be made out of illusion tulle and would have a comb attached and it’s trimmed with a sort of silver or white shiny ribbon (I don’t sew, is it that obvious )

I’ve been looking for deals on the internet. Actually I got my dress from a shop online and it was $350 total. **My dress has a flower pattern on it **and my maid of honor is getting a green dress – sage if you want to get specific. The church’s patron is St. Patrick so I thought green was appropriate, but other than that I really don’t have any specific colors picked out as “mine”. I’m more going for whatever happens to look good together; green, red, gold, pink, brown, whatever. I’m not hard to please as long as the colors don’t look like a rainbow threw up over my decorations.

And yes, I know about that forum. I drop by occasionally to read, but I’ve never registered.

**
when you say flower pattern what exactly do you mean? Do you mean a white flower?**

 

[maria29]

Flower Advice:
per my mom

1. Make sure where you go for a florist doesn’t charge you a consultation fee
2. She said she’s never heard of anyone using amaryllis in a bouquet mostly because they have a really fat stem.
3. She said unless you’re going for a really really causal look daises should be left out

So here is her recommendation for a simple bouquet…

1 Stemmed Oriental Lily which should include 1 open and 1 bud
2 long sprays of Dendrobium ( i guess this orchids formal name)
6 or 9 Rose stems
a little greenry and some wax flowers for filler
For the greens she recommended euclyptis (Sp)

She recommended doing it all in white as she thought that all of those flowers whites look really pretty
As for cost it shouldn’t be more than 100 or so depending on where you live.

Are you sure the church is going to be decorated because my mom does several churches and she said that they don’t decorate before Dec 24 because of advent.

 

[journey137]

Flower Advice:
per my mom

1. Make sure where you go for a florist doesn’t charge you a consultation fee
2. She said she’s never heard of anyone using amaryllis in a bouquet mostly because they have a really fat stem.
3. She said unless you’re going for a really really causal look daises should be left out

So here is her recommendation for a simple bouquet…

1 Stemmed Oriental Lily which should include 1 open and 1 bud
2 long sprays of Dendrobium ( i guess this orchids formal name)
6 or 9 Rose stems
a little greenry and some wax flowers for filler
For the greens she recommended euclyptis (Sp)

She recommended doing it all in white as she thought that all of those flowers whites look really pretty
As for cost it shouldn’t be more than 100 or so depending on where you live.

Are you sure the church is going to be decorated because my mom does several churches and she said that they don’t decorate before Dec 24 because of advent.

This list is definately getting saved! Tell your mother thanks for me because that sounds absolutely beautiful. The church has the poinsettias displayed throughout Advent, but they put up the wreaths and trees and other flower arrangements out on Christmas Eve.

Here are some pictures of my dress which show the flower pattern I mentioned: front back back close

 

[RoseMeg451]

Journey- Your dress is so pretty! Where did you find it? Thanks!

 

[journey137]

Journey- Your dress is so pretty! Where did you find it? Thanks!

Thanks. It actually looks a lot better in person. I bought it online at www.elegantgowns.com and I recommend that site for anyone that wants to buy online. Their sizing guide is accurate and they are so accomodating and fast to reply with questions.