While the wedding party is taking the last of their pictures or finishing up greeting guests in the reception line, what will be happening inside the reception venue? Sitting in silence in a mood-killer for any party, including your wedding reception!
Though they probably won’t realize they’re doing it, your guests are going to be listening to the reception prelude music to decide what kind of reception this is going to be. Will it be very formal and traditional? Very funky and offbeat? A lot of fast dancing or slow songs?
If you are being married outdoors, in your local chapel, or some other venue, you’ll be responsible for choosing your own LDS wedding songs. Get ideas for all the music you’ll need during your ceremony here, whether you’re having a traditional ceremony or something fun and unconventional. (If you are being married in the temple, there will be no music during the ceremony – you can skip to choosing the music for your wedding reception.)
Before the ceremony begins, your guests will be seated and waiting. Music sets the stage for the ceremony to come, so this might be the most important…read more
Step-by-Step Guide to DIY Wedding Reception Buffets
Photo Courtesy of JarvieDigital.com
Are you thinking about planning and executing your own wedding reception buffet? It certainly is cost-effective, but if you do it yourself it will be the most labor-intensive event you’ll take on in quite a while. Here’s a general guide to planning and executing your own wedding buffet.
You can do much of the planning and prep work yourself, but on at the reception itself you won’t be available to do the grunt work. After all, you’ll be too busy and distracted to worry about re-stocking the rolls and double-checking that the salad is being kept cool enough! A DIY buffet only works when…read more
Serving Food in the Cultural Hall during an LDS Reception
Photo Courtesy of JarvieDigital.com
The cultural hall of the local ward or branch meetinghouse is the venue of choice for many LDS wedding receptions: it’s able to accommodate a crowd, comes attached to a kitchen for food preparation, and is completely free of charge to reserve and use.
If you’re planning on a Mormon cultural hall reception, here are some of the things you need to know about preparing and serving the food.
Never assume that the cultural hall and kitchen will be available on any given date. Various church events, from Relief Society meetings to Webelos den meetings, may be held in the cultural hall all throughout the week. Before planning anything for the reception, schedule the date with the building coordinator. If you don’t know who ask, the bishop can guide you to the right person.
When reserving the cultural hall, double-check the rules on using the kitchen. Ovens in LDS meetinghouse kitchens are to be used for warming food only, not for cooking. You will need to cook the foods at another location and keep them warm while transporting them to the meetinghouse.
You don’t want to get your guests sick because you weren’t…read more
Wedding Receptions for the typical LDS bride and groom have come along way from the old standby menu of pastel mints and salted nuts. The basketball hoop in the cultural hall hidden by colorful streamers, and lines on the gymnasium floor covered by fake trees from the foyer, has long since faded from the norm. More often, LDS brides want wedding receptions with professional catering to satisfy their guests and take pressure off their mothers.
Professional full service catering? What’s all the fuss? Catering is pretty straight forward: you cook some food and serve it, right? Although that is the basic idea, there is more to it, a lot more! In fact…read more
Traditionally, every bride and groom has a guest book at their wedding reception to help them remember who attended and make sure they have everyone’s current address for thank you cards.
Today’s guest books can be traditional, contemporary, or just plain off the wall – here’s what you need to know about having a guest book at your wedding or reception.
No matter what your wedding reception is like, you’re going to need some type of table covering. The choices range from the flimsy dollar-store plastic tablecloths to heavyweight luxury linens rented from a professional. Most LDS brides prefer to fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.
If you are holding your reception in the cultural hall of your ward or branch, then prepare for some good news: the Relief Society or ward activities committee most likely has a few dozen white or cream-colored tablecloths on hand that they will lend to you for use in the chapel, completely free of charge.
It’s just one aspect of a successful wedding day, but it can be one of the most expensive and overwhelming. The options are truly endless! Should we have a full service dinner or a mid-afternoon hors d’oeuvre reception? Hire a caterer or do it ourselves? How much food do we need? What should we serve? Many of these items are inter-related and you’ll need to think about them all together rather than one after the other. If your budget can handle it the best option is to hire a professional caterer, or at the very least, a day of coordinator to run the kitchen and buffet tables for you. This way you will enjoy eating your food instead of serving it! But if you decide that “Do-it-Yourself Catering” is your best option, the information below will help you approach this aspect of your big day:
The bride tossing the bouquet at the wedding reception to her single female guests is a tradition that is centuries old. Here’s how to plan yours, along with some alternatives to the bouquet toss if you want to do something a little different.
The bouquet toss is usually done just after the cake cutting, about 45 minutes from the end of the reception. There is a lot of …read more
Latter-day Saint couples may be unsure how to handle drink service at their wedding receptions, especially if not all of their guests are LDS. If you are uncomfortable with serving wine with dinner or alcohol at the bar, you’re well within your rights to have a 100% alcohol-free reception.
Having an non-alcoholic wedding reception is simple: think of better and tastier alternatives! Use sparkling cider instead of wine for the wedding toast, and serve a variety of non-alcoholic alternatives like sodas, juices, punch, flavored water, spring water, and other drinks at the bar.
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