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Decorating the wedding reception yourself makes the venue for your reception more personalised. This in turn allows your guests to feel included more into your special day.

Balloons
Balloons of many colours, filled with confetti can be placed around the room either on stands or hung up. This adds to the party atmosphere and creates an excellent background for photographs. Balloons can be added as centre pieces on the tables to tie in with your colour scheme or theme.  Balloons in the shape of animals could also be placed around which is fun for the young children to play with. Folding balloons held by a net above the dance floor could be released at the end of the night which builds up the excitement.

Photograph Display
Create a collage with pictures of you as a small child growing up. Include photographs of your family, you at work with your colleagues or any photos of you doing a hobby like skiing, cycling, climbing etc. It is a wonderful way to show your guests your family, close friends and colleagues.

Ice Sculptures
Ice sculptures are carved from crystal clear ice and can be arranged as a centre piece or to serve drinks from an ice fountain.

Disposable Cameras
These cameras are ideal when placed on each table for your guests to take photographs. The cameras can be collected at the end of the day so they can be processed for the Bride and Groom. These photographs let your guests contribute more to your wedding day and photo album by taking photos that might otherwise have been missed.

Named Tables
Named tables are a lot more fun than numbered tables and can go hand in hand with your wedding theme. Suggested themes include places you have visited, comedians, singers or bands you may like, movie stars, sports cars or even planets!

Bridal Favours
If you would like to give a token of appreciation to all your guests then leaving a bridal favour is ideal. Suggested favours include five almonds wrapped in lace, net or tulle, bonbonniere.

Other Suggestions
Miniature bottles of spirit with the bride and groom’s name and wedding date or boxed chocolates. An activity pack for the young children for them to draw the best picture of the bride and groom for a competition.

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If you are having a large wedding with lots of guest, check to see if there will be a microphone available at your wedding venue when the time comes for your speeches.

Traditional Speeches

Bride’s Father

The Bride’s Father will start by welcoming his new son-in-law to the family before giving his expert and humorous advise to the newly-weds.

Finally he will make a toast to the happiness and health of the Bride and Groom.

Groom

The Groom will usually responed on behalf of his wife and himself to the first speech by giving thanks to everyone for coming, for all their good wishes, cards and gifts. He’ll thank both sets of parents, Bridesmaids and the Best Man and finally anyone who helped towards organising the wedding day.

The Groom then makes a toast to the Bridesmaids, Best Man and any further attendants. The Groom will present the thank you gifts to the families and attendants.

Best Man

The Best Man speaks on behalf of the Bridesmaids and reads the cards and good luck messages. For those who cannot attend on the day, they could record a good luck message if there is a TV DVD or video player available (check with the wedding venue).   

Others

The Bride can speak at anytime if she would like to.

The Bride and Groom may want to give a speech together.

If anyone else would like to give a speech, it would be best that this is arranged first with the Bride and Groom.

General Tips

Try and make the speeches sound witty, if not, keep them brief.

Speeches should not last more than ten minutes.

Write the speeches out and practise in front of a friend to get an honest opinion.

Those giving speeches should limit their drinking until after the speeches!

Consider letting the small children play in another room so the speeches can be heard (check with the wedding venue beforehand).

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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.