Toronto Wedding Blog

11/19/2015 Comments

Should You Have A Receiving Line At Your Wedding ?

I had the pleasure of being the DJ/MC of a wedding that included music for the ceremony, cocktails and of course the reception. All the facets were at the same property but in different rooms. When it came time to transition from the cocktail area to the dinner/reception hall I asked the wedding party to get ready for the receiving line. I was met with a dozen blank stares. The what?

It looks like through my planning and coordinating with the wedding couple no one informed the rest of the wedding party that this was happening. Not only that but most of them were unaware what a receiving line even was. I understand that more weddings are putting tradition aside but I just assumed this was a gimmie.

There are a few pros and cons of having a receiving line as opposed to the wedding couple doing table visits during the course of the night

Pros

- It is a great opportunity to greet and thank every guest for coming to your wedding.
- Tradition dictates that if you are having more than 50 guest that it is warranted.
- You guarantee that every guest will get at least a minute of actual face time with both you and your partner.
- You can have the opportunity to have your photo taken with every couple before they enter the reception hall.

Cons

- If your guest count is a large one you could have an enormous line throughout your venue.
- You have to allocate a large amount of time which could in turn delay major aspects of the reception timeline and could hinder the plating and/or preparation of food.
- They may not be enough room to line up 200 or more guests at your reception venue.
- Parents , Step-Parents , Grandparents , Wedding Party and Wedding Couple may have issue with being included/not included.

At the end of the day whatever you and your partner decide just try to keep the above points in mind.
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11/18/2015 Comments

Unity Candle Ideas

If you are planning a wedding and plan to have a unity candle as part of the ceremony, you might want to think outside the box.

Traditionally, the unity candle involves three candles. The one partner has one, the second partner the other, and their two lighted candles light the third candle. This is done to represent the coming together of the two people to make one unit. In some alternate methods, family members are invited to participate in the unity candle lighting, often the mothers of the couple, or other close members of the family. Each family then lights a candle, and together they light the unity candle to symbolize of the coming together of the families.

Now, there are a few twists you can add to this fairly conventional aspect of a wedding ceremony. You can provide each guest with an unlit candle when they arrive at the ceremony. After the couple lights the unity candle, they can ask the guests to move to the front of the church (or wherever the ceremony is being held) and light their candles with the lighted unity candle. This can take a bit of time and might be best with a smaller guest list. But it is a meaningful way to not only get your guests involved in the ceremony itself, but also symbolize the union of family and friends with the marriage.

If there is a large guest list and it would be a prohibitive waste of time to do a candle lighting involving everyone at the ceremony, some couples like to bring the unity candle to the reception. Light the candle again and provide each guest with a small votive candle (the candle holder will be on the tables at individual table settings). As guests come into the reception area or hall, they can light their votive and take it to their table to place into the votive holder. This small votive candle can double as a wedding favor, particularly if you decorate or enhance a plain votive candleholder in some way to coordinate with your wedding.

Of course, you can forget having a unity candle at the ceremony altogether. Many couples these days are trying to reduce the length of the ceremony and spend more time planning the reception. In that light, some choose to do away with a unity candle altogether. You can certainly do this, or you can cut it out of the ceremony and make it part of the reception.

To do this, you can use the votive candle option suggested above, or you can simply incorporate the unity candle lighting into the reception activities themselves. For example, you might choose a quiet moment in the reception to have a lighting of the unity candle. It might be during a short prayer prior to the serving of the meal, or right before the cake is cut. In this case, the unity candle can then be used as decoration on the cake table. As the couple cut the cake and pieces are served to guests, the candle can also serve as a reminder of the couple's new bond and that the bond is shared with all the guests as well.

Although having a unity candle at the wedding or reception isn't necessary, it is certainly an option that many couples opt to include. But it's important to remember that as with so much surrounding wedding planning there are ways to make it unique and interesting and special to the couple getting married.

I would love to hear your thoughts.
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11/16/2015 Comments

7 Steps To Planning YOUR Dream Wedding

With over 30 years as a Toronto Wedding DJ and MC, I have seen many types of weddings. I’ve been part of simple backyard weddings as well as some of the most elaborate upscale weddings. There is one major similarity in all successful weddings. They all had the proper planning! Let’s look at some ways that you can successfully plan YOUR Dream Wedding.

1.Have A Checklist
Have a checklist and keep it current. This is by far one of the most important things in my mind but just keeping the list isn’t enough . Have ONE version and use it as your plan for your wedding. Once things are ready to go you will know it because of your checklist.

2.Manage Your Time Correctly
Pretty much 75% -80% of weddings fall behind the original timeline. Being realistic about the length of things like toasts is essential. Schedule a realistic time for each activity or event. When you do that you can have proper transitions and not have guest wondering what’s going to happen next.

3.Family Accomodations
Of course your family will be invited to the wedding but make sure to have plans for family that are travelling. Travelling arrangements and accommodations will be left in your court. Contact hotels near your reception venue.

4.Be Selective In Your Battles
Seriously ! We all want everything to be perfect for your wedding but sometimes being at peace is more important than the little things. Picking your spots will make everything much more manageable.

5.Ask Questions
I say this at every single consultation. Ask questions with every single vendor you meet with. That is the best way to know exactly who you want for your big day.

6.Hire Professionals
A professional vendor can make the difference between the wedding that you have always dreamt of and a fiasco. Their are full and part time professional vendors in every field. Do your homework. We all want to save money but that shouldn’t be at the expense of your wedding. If something were to go wrong a professional will have the tools , experience and know how to deal with the issue.

7.Enjoy Your Wedding
Too many times couples tend to oversee every aspect of their wedding. You have done the planning NOW trust your vendors to execute those plans. If you aren’t comfortable stepping back then you may not have hired the right vendors.

This list is not the be all and end all to putting together your dream wedding but adding these steps into the mix will certainly start you off on the right track .

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11/11/2015 Comments

Creating A Wedding Time Capsule

One of the wedding trends that's really revving up couples today is the addition of a time capsule to the wedding prep proceedings. Yes, the wedding time capsule is a growing trend -- to the point where you can buy a pre-made kit from many web sites.

In kit form, your wedding time capsule takes the form of an attractive tin, in which you place various mementos -- photos, videos -- as well as predictions for the future; then, you seal it all up with some festive stickers, to help discourage premature peeking. You decide ahead of time how long you'll wait until you open it again -- your 5th anniversary ? 10th anniversary? 25th anniversary? And then you write a stern directive to yourself on the tin to help you keep to the agreement.

Although most people equate "time capsule" with "something you bury in the ground," burying your wedding time capsule isn't a great idea. Not only does that subject the contents to extreme temperature variations, but with the Census bureau reporting that the average person moves every five years, chances of you leaving behind a buried capsule before the hoped-for anniversary rolls around are high indeed. Instead, keep yours out of the elements and somewhere relatively kind -- avoid damp attics, but a climate-controlled closet would be just perfect.

Some of us just like to do things our own way, and a wedding time capsule is no exception. Of course you can create your own! And a great way to do that is to get close friends and relatives in on the fun. Have them scribble up some predictions -- or perhaps marital advice. Take advantage of a pre-wedding party to snap photos of your intimates, and tuck the photos into the capsule. If you really want to motivate people to get involved, hold some kind of drawing for participants, such as a wedding raffle -- give away a box of fine cigars, a bottle of bubbly or even an afternoon at a spa.

While you're letting others in on the action, there are number of ways to go about it. One is to compose a list of predictions for everyone to guess at -- the whole experience is similar to filling out a junior high slam book, and just as fun. For example, ask participants to predict:

How many children you'll have,
what kind of household robots you'll have,
how many career changes you've gone through,
what major nation we're closest to, and which one we're mad at,
what animal is the trendiest pet,

... and so on.

Another is to ask your wedding party and close friends to compose short letters to you. Give them each envelopes, and instruct them to tell you on the outside when it's time to open the envelope. Some will simply say "fifth anniversary," "10th anniversary," or "when your first child is born." Others will get more creative -- and you'll probably find it's terrific fun to stretch out the time capsule concept in this inventive, unpredictable way.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Stop by and reach out on our contact page.

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Should You Have A Receiving Line At Your Wedding ?

Unity Candle Ideas

7 Steps To Planning YOUR Dream Wedding

Creating A Wedding Time Capsule

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YOUR CART

Should You Have A Receiving Line At Your Wedding ?

Looking for ways to make your wedding unique? Enter your email below.

Unity Candle Ideas

Looking for ways to make your wedding unique? Enter your email below.

7 Steps To Planning YOUR Dream Wedding

Looking for ways to make your wedding unique? Enter your email below.

Creating A Wedding Time Capsule

Archives

Categories