Your wedding day may be the most magical of your entire life, but it can also be one of the most stressful. With so much focus on the main components of the day – like the food, music, and photos – you might very well miss about the smaller details. To help ensure your wedding day goes off without a hitch (pun intended!), here are some oft-overlooked elements you can’t afford to forget about.
Weather Plans
You’ve probably put a lot of thought into the wedding decorations for your venue, as well as all the wedding rental supplies you’ll need to transform an ordinary tent or hall into something truly special. Although we all hope you can walk down the aisle on a day with ample sunshine and clear blue skies, that may not always be in the forecast. You definitely need to have a contingency plan for bad weather. If rain starts pouring down right before your ceremony or reception, you’ll need some kind of shelter available. And if the temperatures are scorching or freezing, you might need to have reinforcements in place to ensure your guests won’t be miserable. In the best case scenario, you’ll never even have to resort to using space heaters or umbrellas. But you’ll need to roll with the punches so that your big day doesn’t get ruined due to weather.
Extra Seating
Many people wrongly assume that the number of chair rentals for weddings doesn’t need to exceed the number of guests. But that isn’t really true. Whether you’re planning for ceremony or reception seating, you’ll likely need to overestimate with your wedding rental supplies. People don’t really like to be crammed into a small space and forced to sit next to people they don’t know. While it might be unavoidable at the party tables, you need to maintain a bit of flexibility with your other seating arrangements. Realistically, you’ll need at least 20 extra chairs to make certain you always have enough on-hand. Remember to include chairs and tables for any vendors who will be eating during the event, too.
Signage
In the age of Pinterest, a lot of DIY weddings have embraced the idea of quirky, rustic signage to point guests in the right direction for the ceremony or reception. But regardless of the style you’ve chosen for your own wedding, you should provide some helpful signage that tells guests where they need to go. If you rely on the venue to do this for you, you might end up fielding calls from a lot of lost guests. That’s the last thing you need to deal with on your wedding day. Make sure these signs are clear and clever; if they photograph well, that’s an added bonus. Signs that welcome your guests, show off the gift table, or tell guests what to do next (e.g., turn off their phones, use a specific hashtag, where to sit, etc.) will be extremely appreciated and can add a unique twist to your wedding.
Gratuity
In 2012, the average cost of a wedding reception was $13,106. Yours could end up costing more than you think. Even if you’ve finalized every detail for your wedding rental supplies and have gone over the budget with a sharp eye, you might still be missing something. You need to plan for gratuity on top of many of the costs you’ll pay for catering and other vendors. Your wedding planner may have already informed you of this, but you’ll want to factor in an 18 to 22% tip on top of the final bill (particularly if your vendors truly exceeded your expectations). These tips should be organized in labeled envelopes and should be ready to be distributed before the end of the evening. Realizing too late that you have no cash on-hand will represent a stressful moment you simply don’t need to have.
When figuring out the food, music, photography, wedding rental supplies, and other elements you want to include in your big day, you’ll also need to focus on the minute details. If you take care of those sooner rather than later, your wedding will be much more enjoyable for everyone involved.