Easy steps, articles, videos, and more to plan an elegant LDS wedding reception
Plan Your LDS Wedding Reception
Photo Courtesy of Kimbry Studios
The perfect wedding reception means a lot of different things to different couples. When you begin to plan your reception, draw up a list to help you determine what kind of reception you want. Will it be casual or formal? Afternoon or evening?
Name the types of services you’d like to include in the open house, as well. Would you like guests to have access to a dance floor? Do you want the elegance of a live band or will a DJ playing recorded music do? Providing some type of food is a given, but will it be a full meal or just a light selection of refreshments and appetizers? A sit-down dinner or a self-serve buffet?
You’ll soon find that planning the wedding ceremony was the easy part (especially if you are to be married in the temple, where so much of the planning is done for you.) Limitless choices await you when you plan the reception. Every single detail is up to you…Read More
Choose a Wedding Cake Design
Photo Courtesy of Lin and Jirsa Photography
Do you ever wonder how professionally-done cakes get that flawlessly smooth layer of frosting on top?
Most wedding cakes are coated with fondant or buttercream icing that is rolled out with a rolling pin and draped over the cake to provide a smooth working surface. Rolled fondant or buttercream comes in a variety of colors and can be rolled out to a variety of thicknesses.
Once you have the smooth “base” of your cake – usually fondant or buttercream – it’s ready to be decorated with piped icing. (“Piping” is the term bakers use to describe icing that is squeezed through a cake decorating bag to create shapes and patterns.)
Look through your baker’s portfolio to identify piping techniques you like to help…Read More
The most important dance of your life is the first dance at your wedding reception. You want to make it special, you want it to look polished, and you want it to be remembered. Many couples take dance lessons together in the months leading up to their wedding so that their first dance can be everything they hoped it would be.
Benefits of Wedding Dance Lessons
Of course, lessons will help you to look good when you’re on the dance floor in front of everyone you know. But aside from the obvious, there are other benefits of taking dance lessons together.
If you’re not familiar with the basics of dance and music, this is a great way to learn. Lessons will help you get more confident about moving to music with everybody watching, get comfortable dancing with your spouse-to-be, and you can even use what you learn at parties and events during the rest of your married life.
Photo Courtesy of Burnt Exposure Photography
Moreover, dance lessons during the busy phase of wedding planning are a perfect stress reliever and a regular carved-out date when you are tempted to get too busy to really spend time just having fun together like you used to.
What Kind of Dance Lessons?
Before you sign up for a class or private dancing lessons, you need to know what your main objective is. Are you a complete novice who would just like to get a general feel for dancing? Would you like to learn some kind of specific ballroom dance, like a waltz? Or would you like a customized choreographed first dance to your song? What kind of dance lessons you take depends on your answer to these questions.
Where to Take Wedding Dance Lessons
There are many sources for quality dance lessons, with a wide price range. For a general overview of dance, an inexpensive session of classes at a local community center may be best. If you want one-on-one instruction or you’d like custom choreography for your first dance, private lessons at a professional dance studio are a good idea.
If you choose a private instructor, see if it’s possible to sit in on a lesson before signing up. The personality of the instructor makes a big difference in what you will get out of the class and how much you will enjoy it. If they will be creating choreography for you, ask if you can see videos of their previous work for other couples before they get to work on yours.
Dance Lessons for Father/Daughter or Mother/Son Dances
Just like with the first dance, you and your parents may also want to take lessons. They can help you feel more natural dancing together (odds are that you haven’t done it since you were a child) and choreograph a dance for you if you ask.
Even though parent/child dance lessons aren’t vital, they are a really nice gift for your mom or dad. Probably what they want most in the world at this busy point in your life is to spend some time with you.
Taking couple or parent/child dance lessons before your wedding reception is a fun way to spend time together and great preparation for the most important dance of your life. Find a good instructor and pay attention in class – and don’t forget pictures of your lessons for your scrapbook!
Having food stations, a buffet, or a dessert bar at your wedding reception is a great choice: both are economical, easy, and convenient. But you will need to worry about how to decorate your food tables, which inevitably become the focal point of the reception as the guests file past.
Wedding Buffet Tablecloths
Just because your caterer will cover the buffet tables with a boring white linen tablecloth for free doesn’t mean you have to go that route. Match the buffet tablecloths to the guests’ tablecloths, and incorporate your wedding colors.
Wedding Food Table Centerpieces
Photo Courtesy of JarvieDigital.com
The food tables will look crowded with too much going on, but tasteful centerpieces placed at strategic locations can add just the right touch to the table. You have lots of options for centerpieces: balloons, mirrors, and floral arrangements, to name a few.
Just be careful about choosing fresh floral arrangements and stick with flowers that have a minimal scent. Super-aromatic flowers may not smell so good mixed in with the various food aromas on the buffet table.
Dress Up the Wedding Reception Food
Don’t forget what’s center stage at the food table: the food! Work with what you’ve got and concentrate on artful arrangement. Add colorful garnishes like slices of lemon or lime, sprigs of herbs like rosemary or parsley, or beds of lettuce leaves underneath your food. You might even consider edible flowers! Photo Courtesy of Whitney Lewis Photography
Stack items at various heights down the length of the table by using tiered trays and cake stands to display food items. Even placing a box underneath the tablecloth adds height and dimension to a flat platter.
Decorating your buffet tables doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming, but it makes a huge difference in the look and feel of your wedding. A little attention to tablecloths, simple centerpieces, and arrangement of the food goes a long way in your wedding reception buffet.
Some LDS brides and grooms hire a professional wedding photographer and rent a reception hall with professional catering and DJ services for their special day; others let family and friends handle the pictures and serve homemade food at a wedding reception in their backyard or at a local LDS chapel. Which way is best for you depends on your circumstances, preferences, and of course your budget.
First, let’s take a look at the reasons why people hire professionals – and why they sometimes choose not to. Many people like professional wedding services because they…read more
Photo Courtesy of JarvieDigital.comWith all the expenses and costs of a wedding and reception, you may be considering DIY options like you never thought you would. Are you ready for a do-it-yourself job on your reception music, otherwise known as an “iPod wedding”?
Like any DIY wedding option, handling your own reception music has a big list of pros and cons. The biggest benefit is of course the hefty savings once you cut out hiring a DJ or wedding band to provide your reception music. Others like it because you get complete control over the song selection. Being your own wedding DJ is…read more
Live Reception Music Options for Elegant LDS Wedding Receptions
When choosing music for your wedding and/or reception, don’t forget that your choice extends beyond the question of DJ versus live band. There are many talented wedding music professionals that will make your reception one to remember.
Adam Sandler jokes aside, today’s wedding singers put on a truly impressive show. They can perform all styles of music from Frank Sinatra to Shania Twain to the Beatles.
It’s true that while DJs seem to be the most popular choice for your wedding reception music these days, have you considered hiring a live band? It’s hard to find something that will instantly transform your reception as dramatically as live entertainment during your reception. Have you ever noticed that movies like My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Time Traveler’s Wife have live bands? Nothing is as amazing and classy as a live band.
When booking a wedding band, size is an important consideration. Most bands have between 5 and 7 members, but the band you choose should roughly correspond to the size crowd at your reception.
Some theme weddings come with a ready-made soundtrack. A Phantom of the Opera or Lord of the Rings themed wedding, for example, is easy to pick songs for. But most of us aren’t so lucky. What about those of us with theme weddings who don’t have a clue what music to choose?
– if you have a tropical or Hawaiian theme, you can choose songs with a bubbly reggae feel like Israel’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Must Be Love” by Madness, “Cupid” by Amy Winehouse or “I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash. If those aren’t for you, opt for songs with beachy lyrics like “Walk on the Ocean” by Toad the Wet Sprocket or “The Ocean” by U2.
For the single girls at your wedding reception, the bouquet toss is one of the most looked-forward-to events of the reception. Make it perfect with a bouquet toss song that celebrates girl power and all things feminine.
This One’s for the Girls by Martina McBride
I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain
It’s Raining Men by The Weathergirls
Just a Girl by No Doubt
Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Ani Difranco
One Way or Another by Blondie
Another One Bites the Dust by Queen
Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) by Beyonce
Independent Women by Destiny’s Child
Where My Girls At by 702
Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
Diamonds Are…read more
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For the single girls at your wedding reception, the bouquet toss is one of the most looked-forward-to events of the reception. Make it perfect with a bouquet toss song that celebrates girl power and all things feminine.