A best time to prepare a good seating plan is when you have received most of the wedding acceptance cards.

Write each name individually on some paper so you can cut round each one. This allows you to move the names around with ease trying different thought plans for each table. Doing it this way saves you a lot of time rewriting each name and using lots of paper until you eventually have found the best seating plan.

Group wedding guests into friends or family groups.

Have couples sitting on the shared table but not necessarily next to each other.

Try to think of a person on each table who would be good at keeping the conversation flowing when seating family groups and friends together. This also works well if your inviting a family who may not know many people. They could be seated next to others who might have children of a similar age group.

For those guests who are attending on their own, try to place them with those who share a similar interest or profession, this will help them to feel more comfortable and included on their table during your Wedding Breakfast.

How To Prepare the Top Table

If you are looking towards the top table traditionally the seating would be from left to right:

• Chief Bridesmaid
• Groom’s Father
• Bride’s Mother
• Groom
• Bride
• Bride’s Father
• Groom’s Mother
• Best Man

If your parents are separated or divorced then the seating plan can be a bit tricky. Try changing the traditional top table seating plan to suit your circumstances:

Think about having the top table just for yourselves, the Bridesmaids and Best Man. The parents could each be seated close by with their respective partners on some nearby tables.

The Wedding Reception Timetable.

The Bridal Party arrives
The main Bridal Party stands in line to welcome the guests. This can be as the guests arrive before collecting their ‘Welcoming Drink’ or to have the Receiving Line after the ‘Welcoming Drink’ and photographs but before entering the Wedding Breakfast.
The Wedding Breakfast
Speeches and Toasts
Cutting the Wedding Cake
The Bride and Groom – First Dance
Live band or DJ music and entertainment
Throwing the Bouquet
Going Away

Remember the above is just a guideline of how a timetable would run traditionally. It is quite popular now for the speeches and the cutting of the cake to be done before the meal. Doing it this way allows the Bride, Groom and especially those making a speech, to get their pressure done earlier on, so enabling them to enjoy the meal and have a few drinks!

Providing Your Own Drinks
If you are providing your own wine then most off-licences and wine merchants will give you advice as well as sale-or-return, bulk discounts, glass hire and free delivery too.

A Toast To The Bride And Groom
Traditionally Champagne is the drink that would be served throughout the day but this will be rather expensive. Nowadays it’s quite popular to serve a well chosen sparkling wine, usually you can’t tell the difference. The sparkling white wine is then used as a ‘toast’ to the Bride and Groom and it’s also drunk in salute of ‘cutting the cake’.

The Welcoming Drink
Bucks Fizz, Pimms or Sangria are excellent choices to serve as a welcome to all the guests as they arrive at the wedding venue. Not forgetting plenty of non alcoholic drinks such as mineral water and orange juice. A good suggestion for a hot summer wedding welcoming drink is a delicious fruit punch, likewise a mulled wine can be very welcoming for a winter wedding as is especially suited around the Christmas period.

Wines In General
It is not so important nowadays to drink white wine while eating fish or chicken dishes and red wine for beef, lamb or pork dishes. It’s really better to have a mixture of red and white wines to suit each person’s palette. Your Wedding Planner or Wedding Organizer can advise you. If you are supplying your own alcohol, then your off-licence or wine merchants will give you good advice too. It’s best to try and stick to your budget allowance so you don’t overspend and don’t buy too many choices of wines…keep the choice simple and straightforward, it will save you money too.

A General Wine Guide
Doux is a sweet wine
Demi-sec is a medium-dry wine
Sec is a dry wine
Brut is a very dry wine

Generally allow 6 glasses per 70cl bottle. You would need two glasses per head of Champagne or sparkling white wine for the ‘toasts’.

For the table wine allow about half a bottle per head.

All non-alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, mineral water including tea and coffee should be on tap throughout the day.

A Pay Bar
Think about when you would like to have a pay bar. You could either set a ‘drinks limit’ in advance so the bar staff are aware when your guests have to purchase their own drinks. Alternately your invitations could state ‘Pay bar after 7pm’ this can save a lot of confusion later.

Hints And Tips About Wedding Drinks
Buy wines you can afford and keep the choice simple.
Think about how much your budget will allow or the free ‘drinks limit’.
Wedding guests can be annoyed if the drinks are overpriced so check the prices well in advance of your wedding reception bar drinks.
Find out if there are any corkage charges.
If you are using non-licenced premises, why not have a mobile bar?
Check what the last orders and bar closure times are, it’s not worth booking a live band or DJ to play until 1am if the bar loses at 11pm!

A excellent recommended book to help you plan your wedding day is:

Wise Wedding Planning:
Making The Perfect Theme Wedding Possible At  Any Price
By Brenda Westwood.

Inclusive into the wedding package will be the catering. This is charged per head from a selection of set menus. Most venues or outside caterers will appreciate any suggestions from you especially if it makes things easier for them!

Ironically most people prefer more simple food than something very fancy. The most popular courses are melon as a starter, chicken for the main meal and a chocolate desert. Though the real decision varies from each wedding, especially if you aim to have a themed wedding.

If you are having the venue cater for your wedding, then try to book a meal at their restaurant to check the quality and service from the staff. If your employing outside caterers, try to sample some tasters as this will help you make your final decision before booking and choosing the menu that would suit you, your guests and your theme.

Canapés

Think about when you would like the outside caterers to serve the food or what timetable you would like the venue to serve the courses. It’s quite popular now to start the speeches before the Wedding Breakfast starts.

To help the nerves of those in the bridal party making speeches, you could have your canapés served first which could replace the first course. Make sure there is a good selection to suit a wide variety of tastes such as:

Tiger prawns with lemon and ginger
Spiced sweet potato
Olives set in a cheese pastry
Sausages in Worcester and honey sauce

In cold months think of including a selection of tasty warm soups.

Canapés are an excellent idea to curb any hunger pangs especially if your guest have to wait a while before the Wedding Breakfast. They can also help to absorb the alcohol before the speeches are heard!

They can be served before the receiving line during the Drinks Reception. Guests can mingle and chat if they are not directly involved in a lot of the photographs while the staff walk round with the canapé trays making sure that everyone has access to the various selection on offer.

Themed Deserts

An idea for an Italian theme would be to have a large chocolate fountain and self service ice cream stall instead of the traditional desert.

A Middle Eastern idea would be to have Middle Eastern food in a Moroccan tent with a Moroccan interior design, followed by Henna body painting and belly dancing for you and your guests after the desert.

For a Victorian theme you could have funfair rides for the children or giant lawn games of Chess and Jenga. The adults could have a Victorian Carousel, a Ferris Wheel and Dodgems. (Check the company has a full liability insurance and safety certificate).

Victorian food suggestions could be hot dogs or how about crepes served with fruit or chocolate or even roast beef! Desert choices could include ice cream, popcorn and candyfloss. Staff in attendance could dress in Victorian clothing to add to the atmosphere.

Cutting The Cake

Another idea is to cut the wedding cake before the meal so it can be served as a desert. Some could be boxed up for those not wanting to eat it there and then while others who couldn’t attend your wedding would be sent their boxes of cake by post.

Buffets

There are generally three types of buffets – fork buffets, finger buffets and seated buffets. The later being designated seating for the bridal party and guests. One or two courses may be served by staff whilst the remaining courses are self service.

The staff would clear the tables between courses and replace the main self serving tables with the next courses. The self service tables would be refilled during the evening depending how much buffet food you have planned for your wedding party.

It is best to allow at least two large tables for the self service food to ease up any congestion queues and to keep the drinks on a separate table. This allows more room on the food tables away from accidental spillage with designated queuing areas.

Outside Catering

A cheaper alternative is to consider having the food from your favourite restaurant being brought to your wedding venue. You could arrange to pay for a higher hire charge of the wedding venue room in return that you can bring in your own outside caterers.

This could save you money as the venue will still make their profit, but by employing your own caterers, will make it more cost effective for you.

Catering For Your Own Wedding

If you choose to prepare all your own catering then careful planning needs to be in place regarding the types of foods for the menu. Cook and try various dishes before the day.

Think about what food needs to be stored frozen and non-frozen, allowing time to de-frost well in advance of cooking. Consider hiring crockery, glasses and cutlery.

Catering Questions To Consider

1. If your using the venue’s wedding package try to have a meal in their restaurant to check the quality of food and the staff service.
2. Meet with the wedding co-ordinator to discuss the wedding menu options.
3. Will you be charged extra if choosing vegetarian meals as part of your wedding menu?
4. Check what the children’s menus are like (if there will be children eating at your Wedding Breakfast).
5. Does the price include corkage charge and VAT?
6. How many staff will be allocated to how many guests?
7. Will you be charge overtime rates for the staff?
8. If having outside catering, try and meet with them to discuss and taste some food samples.
9. Will outside caterers bring their own equipment?
10. Is the delivery charge included?
11. Are the staff tips included?
12. Have you got the final number of guests and their food requirements to give to the caterers?