Mellwood Brides

katbeth

I'm not sure that anyone who's already had their wedding at Mellwood Art Center is still reading this board, but I have a few questions.  Our day of event coordinator and our family and friends are helping set everything up for the ceremony and reception but I obviously don't anticipate them wanting to clean everything up at the end of the evening after they've been celebrating and drinking.  I was considering hiring some friend's of extended family that live there to come in at the end of the evening and help clean things up quickly, but was curious to see what others have done.  Did you hire someone to set up and take down or did you/family/friends handle it all yourself?  Any other suggestions for those of us who are having our wedding/reception and Mellwood.  Many thanks!

Chartreuse_Goddess

Why is your event coordinator not helping you with this?
I wouldn't ask my friends and family as there are there to enjoy your wedding with you.

katbeth

Our coordinator is just a day of event coordinator and a friend who has done stuff like this in the past.  She's coming up from Atlanta the day before the wedding and hasn't seen the venue nor does she know anyone in KY.  She's doing it as a favor for us since I was concerned about making sure everything is taken care of while I'm getting ready.  Most of the family is coming in from out of town and have volunteered to help set things up, but I agree with you, I don't want to ask them to help with anything beyond that.

jbrook12

My family will be cleaning up. All you have to do is clean up the big stuff, like take down decorations get all the trash out and into the dumpster. Clean the areas you used in the kitchen, making sure all food, drinks and trash have been removed. You don't have to sweep the floors or move tables and chairs, the staff takes care of that kind of stuff.

As for set up, they give you a floor plan of your room and draw or write on there how you want tables and chairs set up they will do that for you as well, then all you have to do is decorate when you get there. So I don't think it is as big of a headache as it sounds at first.

I am getting married there March 10th, I can always let you know how it went for us if you would like.

katbeth

I would love that!  You're less than a month away!  We're going to have quite a few things to set up, fabrics to separate the reception and ceremony areas, two backdrops, several yarn balls over the dance floor, candy buffet table, family photos table, cake table, photo booth area, etc.  I think the part that concerns me is that we'll be leaving everyone to handle it for us.  That's just not my nature but I need to get over it or hire someone to help. We're heading to L-ville this weekend to take care of more items on the to-do list so maybe we'll be able to check that item off the list as well.

jbrook12

Yeah you will have a lot more stuff to deal with than we will. We are only using room #2 so its the smallest room and we are doing the ceremony and the reception all in there.

What time is your wedding? Maybe since you get the room from 8am whoever you get to help will have plenty of time to get things ready and not fell rushed to get it all finished.

I will for sure let you know how it all goes. Have a safe trip up here to KY to get things ready for it all!

katbeth

Our ceremony is at 4pm.  We met with a couple of the people who will be helping set things up and they're not concerned at all about getting everything done in plenty of time so I feel good about it.  Thanks so much for your feedback!

amanda2183

I got married at Mellwood this past November.  We did everything outselves.  We went in at 8am and set everything up.  There was definitely a good amount of us, but we were totally done setting everything up by noon.  My family and wedding party stuck around afterwards and tore everything down - I didn't ask them, they volunteered.  At that point it was pretty much shove trash in trash bags and everything else in boxes and stash it in different cars.  They weren't worried about organization at that point; I took care of that over the next couple of days.  I do believe it took them a little under an hour to pack everything up at the end of the night.  It really doesn't take long, unless you are picky about how everything is packed up.  If your family doesn't want to help, you could totally hire people to do it and probably wouldn't have to pay them much because it won't take long.  Good luck!

katbeth

Thanks, Amanda - I think that's the route we're going to go.  So many people are planning to help set everything up and I'm sure at least a few of them will be willing to help take everything down as well.  I don't think it'll be a big deal.  I'll have containers available for everything to go in and I'm not concerned about how it's organized.