Contain the party to a single room!

There are many beautiful banquet facilities out there, but they’re not all necessarily ‘reception friendly’.   When shopping for the location of your wedding day, try envision the evening.   An ideal reception will have no more than three locations.  The first location would be the church or beach where the ceremony is being held.   The second location might be a cocktail hour outside of the main reception room.   After the cocktail hour, the rest of the event should remain in one room. 

Remember, you are the couple that everybody is there to see.  Wherever you go, your guests will go. 

Here are a few additional tips:

• If the venue puts the bar in a completely separate room from the dancing, you can rest assured that your guests will get caught up at the bar and will forget that there’s music.   If you’ve already selected a venue with the bar in a separate room, make sure that the bridal party refrains from hanging out at the bar.  Get them back out on the dance floor by heading there yourself.
• There will be smokers at your celebration.  However, you don’t want the smoking area to be more appealing than the reception.   As you shop, think about where the smokers will go and try to select a location where the guests will have their cigarette and come right back in for some fun.

 Keep it on the dance floor and enjoy your special day!

Assign someone (not in the wedding party and not in the immediate family) to be the Gopher!

Sometimes this happens in the church after the ceremony, when another wedding is scheduled to come in just a few minutes. Sometimes this happens when the bride and groom are waiting – as the sunset is going down!

Don’t let this happen to you! There are two things you, as the bride and groom, can do to make your wedding photography flow smoothly and seamlessly. First, talk to everyone in your family and wedding party and remind them of the importance of these pictures and that their cooperation is essential. Remind them that, after the ceremony, they will need to meet for photography. Tell them where the meeting point is – usually at the altar – but it can me anywhere, as long as they know and are reminded about it.

The second thing is to assign your “Gopher”. This person is a friend or family member not in the immediate family (and who will not be in most of the photographs). Let them know that they are responsible for tracking people down and rounding them up for their pictures. This will save you a lot of time when time is precious. This is a very simple, yet so very important thing to do. Remember to inform your Gopher about the meeting place after the ceremony and be sure they know who everyone is and where they have to be. This way, you family and formal photography will go according to your plans, without wasting any time, keeping you calm and giving you fantastic results.

Wedding Tips from Jack at www.CustomEyesPhoto.com