Linda Cooper Weddings : The Blog, December 2016

Seasons Greetings & Christmas Weddings

We have been getting more and more excited putting the last minute preparations in place for our fabulous Christmas Wedding next week. We know that this wedding will be spectacular, beautiful and enchanted.  But most importantly, it will be the happiest day of a certain couple's lives.

This really is an extra special time of year to get married, and any wedding will be even more magical because of it.  If you are getting married next year, why not think about Christmas time and let us work with you to create the most romantic and perfectly wonderful winter wedding.

We wish all our clients and friends a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

Gorgeous Mount Street

Shopping in fabulous Mount Street, London with my client who is marrying in early January so looking for 'glam' items for the pre-wedding party and honeymoon...

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Tips on hosting the perfect wedding

Hosting the perfect wedding (or other celebration) takes thought and preparation, and here are some of our top tips:

• Guests should feel so well looked after from the moment they receive your invitation.
• Once guests have accepted your invitation, in due course send them a ‘We’re so pleased you are able to join us at……’ card and give relevant information regarding timings, dress code, parking, transport that you might be providing, contact telephone number for further information and special dietary requirements.
• If your wedding ceremony is taking place at a different location from the wedding party, organise fun transport and print this information on the wedding information card.  In order to keep the party venue a surprise (and to avoid social media!) we often print ‘Secret Location’ instead of stating the party Venue.  This keeps guest anticipation at a high!
• Think about doing a table plan but not a seating plan – unless of course the event is an important corporate occasion where a carefully planned seating arrangement is required. Perhaps appoint a Table Host and ask them to make sure that everyone is happily seated – rather like a private dinner party. This is a much more relaxed way of seating guests and stops one of the most stressful aspects of wedding planning.
• Ensure there are plenty of well informed staff (ushers at a wedding, hostesses at an event) to welcome guests on arrival at the venue (and ceremony location) to assist with cloakroom, taking and storing gifts, handing out placement cards for dinner seating and being generally helpful throughout the wedding/event.
• Make sure there are staff throughout the wedding/event in the gents and ladies toilets to ensure that everything is kept clean and tidy and well stocked.
• If you know that several of your guests are still smoking then organise an outside space with a few chairs for them – this is always so appreciated.
• Whichever caterer is chosen make, sure they have plenty of staff to ensure that guests are offered food and drink and cocktail napkins immediately they enter the reception, that dirty glasses and other items are being constantly cleared and that during dinner there is a speedy service so that the first guests haven’t finished their meal before the last guests have been served. Wine and water glasses should be constantly topped up and bottles should never be left on the dinner table!
• Music creates an atmosphere in an empty space so choose something for the reception then as guests enter the dining space phase this out whilst they are dining – they want to talk around the table and not be drowned out by singers or loud music!! For the actual ‘dancing’ part of a wedding or party make sure you meet in advance with the DJ or lead musician of a band to discuss your preferences – a good ‘head of music’ will follow your requests but change the playlist where necessary to make sure that the dancefloor is kept full for the duration of the party.  Always make sure that you have sufficient musicians so that they can take a break but keep the music going  by ensuring that there is seamless coverage.
• End on a high – so many hosts feel that they have to keep the party going until the wee small hours! This not only increases the alchohol bill but often means that there are only a few guests left after midnight which looks rather ‘sad’! Whatever time you print on your invitation for ‘carriages’, stick to that and announce that the party is about to end, thank guests for their attendance and invite everyone on to the dancefloor for one last dance.