Wedding details not to miss for the big day
Weddings are one of, if not the most, important event in many people’s lives. Though as magical as they can be, they naturally involve plenty of planning and organising to ensure the day is a success.
When first planning your wedding, some of the first steps should be pretty self-explanatory – what venue will host your wedding? How many people are you looking to invite? What sorts of food and drink will you be looking to provide during the reception?
Yet as the day draws closer and the excitement builds, some of the smaller but no less important details can be easy to overlook and miss. From having a backup plan to having your suppliers to hand before the big day, here’s our rundown of wedding details not to miss.
Suppliers
From photographers to live entertainment, there will likely be plenty of suppliers also in attendance on the day helping to ensure it is a success. While everything will be organised and planned in advance, you’ll want to ensure all suppliers are contactable on the day, which means ensuring you have the phone numbers of all the necessary suppliers to hand.
Should the need to get in contact occur, you don’t want to be scouring through emails or websites trying to find the right person to call. Having everyone to hand will make getting in touch that much easier and help avoid any stress on the day.
When it comes to specific suppliers, such as photographers and videographers, it’s important to ensure they have been briefed accordingly beforehand. It can be helpful to provide them with a list of must-have shots to capture throughout the day, so you end up with photos and videos of everyone and everything you wanted.
For food and drink, make sure you know what caterers provide in the price and what they don’t. Do you need your own plates/cutlery or is this provided? Is a cake stand available for the cake? What about cutting utensils? Ensure you ask these questions beforehand so you don’t end up in an awkward situation when it comes to sitting down to eat!
Travel
If your wedding reception is in a different venue from the ceremony itself, it's vital that travel for yourself and your guests is organised in advance to make the travel between the two easier.
For your guests, it can be helpful to remind them to coordinate their own transportation beforehand to ensure everyone arrives on time to begin celebrating.
Throughout the day, you’ll likely receive lots of gifts from loved ones and friends, so make sure to have a plan on how to transport it all back home or to your hotel. It can help to have nominated family members or friends to help with this but it’s also a good idea to speak to the venue to see if there is a place items can be stored/kept during the reception.
A backup plan whatever the weather
Even if your wedding is taking place inside, it’s important to consider the weather on your wedding day and plan accordingly.
It can help to always have a plan B in case of weather changes. If your wedding is taking place in summer, having things in place such as air conditioning and fans to ensure everyone remains cool should the heat become too much can be a huge help. Having multiple rooms available can also help avoid with overcrowding and avoiding people getting too warm inside.
Access to water for guests during warm weather is also essential. It’s easy to worry about drinks such as alcohol for the guests but ensure that simple things like water are also freely available.
If your wedding reception does have an outside element, always be prepared with a backup should it need to be moved inside. Is there another room to move to if it does rain? If not, do you have things in place such as umbrellas to keep people sheltered?
Lighting
Good lighting can often be overlooked when planning a wedding, yet not considering it could lead to disappointment on the special day. Poor lighting can have a detrimental effect on the ambiance of the room, not to mention poor lighting will only make the photographer and videographer's job that much harder too.
Speak to your venue about what is possible, as well as what is allowed in the venue. Don’t go out of your way to buy fairy lights to decorate the room for example if it turns out you aren’t able to use them.
The venue itself will likely have options to help as well, such as the use of uplighters to change the colour of lighting and help set the right mood throughout the day and evening.
At the Royal Society of Chemistry at Burlington House, we pride ourselves on creating a truly memorable occasion for you and your guests. Click here for more information on our wedding offerings, or get in touch with a member of our experienced team.
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