As I sit here on this rainy Friday afternoon, getting ready to meet with a customer interested in using my service for their wedding, I am going over my notes for this Saturday’s Wedding, My meetings for the upcoming week, my Light show on Monday, and a Meeting that I might attend on Monday with the ADJA at the Premiere Bride Building. I have been thinking of all the steps involved in planning a well thought out Wedding Reception.Planning a reception is one of steps that I like to take care of when it comes to my job. It is challenging and interesting combining my experience of planning a wedding reception with the vision of the bride and groom. Everyone has a different vision of what they want their wedding reception to be like: Some like an elegant, low key and warm reception; others want elegant, low key for dinner, but once the formalities are over, they want an all out party. This Saturday’s Wedding is very Low key, Elegant with a combined crowd of over half Hispanic (Mexican Americans) and under half White American. Of course the wedding will be the day of 07/07/07, which is a huge date date for many different reasons; religion, after July 4th weekend, summer and kids being out of school. I still have few last minute details to sort for the Wedding Reception, but for the most part everything has been taken care of, including the planning of the Reception.The planning went fair, we met at Deerbrook Mall, and did the planning on an quiet Monday Afternoon. Yes the mall was quiet on that Monday afternoon.
The planning was the way I always like to do things, comprehensive, quick and easy!
So first I explained the objectives of the different events that occur during a typical Houston Wedding and my responsibilities as their Wedding DJ.
- The Arrival of the Guests
- The Arrival of the Bride and Groom
- The Grand Introductions
- Blessing of the food
- Dinner
- Toast
- First Dance
- Parents Dances
- Specialty Dances
- Cake Cutting
- Dollar / Money / Honeymoon / Good Luck Dance
- Bouquet Toss
- Garter Removal
- Garter Toss
- Last Dance
- Dancing
Once they had a clear understanding and I answered questions they had, we were off to planning the Reception by determining and me suggesting when the events should occur and approximately how much time it takes to do each special activity. Whether they wanted the Bridal party to be announced or just the Bride and Groom, what to do after they enter into the Reception Hall, etc..
There are always questions and always the bride and groom almost always run into something they never imagined. Sometimes they do not know who is supposed to give the toast, what to do during the cake cutting, what to do after walking into the reception hall, what parents are supposed to dance, what to do in the situation where the parents are divorced and not talking to each other… etc. So I include these questions during our Wedding Planning and they then have the opportunity to customize their wedding agenda. Sometimes they want the cake cutting to occur after the honeymoon dance, the toast to come before dinner, the first dance to be right after they walk into the room and so on.
It’s a lot easier to do it with somebody sitting there in front of you to answer any question you may have. Some DJ’s prefer to send them home and expect the bride and groom to know how to organize the reception, other do it the way they’ve always done it without asking the bride and groom’s opinion. I love to customize the wedding with the bride and groom present, that way if they have a doubt, or want to discuss trying something different we can take care of it right then and there.
Planning a Wedding Reception is pretty simple and straight forward, but you must first know what are the different events/activities that occur during the wedding. Next you need to set an approximate time to dedicate to that activity and set the appropriate order each activity should occur. Finally, you should put it down in writing.
Now I must be going, my appointment is in an hour and a half, and most of Houston is getting flooded as I type.
—
Francisco H. Perez
Your Friendly DJ in Houston