I need your creativity!!

Re: I need your creativity!!

• Tracy2010 member

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  i've seen some weddings where people just sat at their tables for the ceremony so there is no change over for the reception. or since the pictures you have show that the grounds are really pretty, why not have the ceremony outside? the pic of the room on your bio shows a little alcove at the front of the room. you could have the aisle coming away from that and then set the reception tables up on the other side of the room. almost like the room is divided in half for ceremony and reception. perhaps the aisle could start from the side of the room to divide the room in half and then you would turn towards the front to go down between the chairs up to that alcove to your officiant. sorry if this is way to confusing to visualize but it makes sense in my head:)

  For Sale Website

  Report0 Reply
• rmfriedman

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  The only reason we probably won't do it outside is it will be an evening wedding in December. The weather isn't very predictable. If the weather is perfect then we most likely will do it outside at this point. Although then we have to think about lighting. I have never been to a wedding where there is no change over between the ceremony and the reception! What are your opinions about that? We could divide the room. Do you think it would be more distracting to have tables set up at the back half of the room, or do you think it would be better to keep them to the side? Linzlars - I know you are planning on having an outdoor wedding. What is your bad weather plan?

  Report0 Reply
• jgilberg member

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  Rachel-I have a pretty similar issue, if there is rain on my day.We are planning on an outdoor ceremony and cocktail. If it rains, we will do the ceremony in the chapel, where we will later have dinner. They would do the change over during the gap and we would extend the cocktail time a bit (on the porches outside and with a tent). Are you doing cocktail in the courtyard and galleries?Having the tables set up would also work well. It would be a little more casual, but there would be really nice flowers, etc out.~Julie

  Report0 Reply
• leighzlou

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  Hmm...From what I can see of the room in the pictures I can't see a way to discreetly camouflage that many tables. Is it possible to hire an extra person for that hour so that all the tables can get set?We turned the room at my wedding in 45 mins, and that included moving ceremony chairs, rolling out 11 tables, resetting chairs, then putting place settings and decor out. Between my coordinator and her assistant, Erin, and the catering team (maybe 4-5 people) it all got done perfectly. The key is someone taking control and having a plan on how to execute. I would talk to the caterer again and your coordinator and see if there is a way to make it work.

  
  

  Report0 Reply
• hkh318

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  Could you extend your cocktail hour to give the caterer more time to flip the room? It doesn't seem like it would take too terribly long to flip the room if they have several people doing it. Especially with only 17 tables and the chairs would already be in the room - they would just need to be moved around.

  Report0 Reply
• irishdancer member

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  This is why you have a coordinator.  She should be able to come up with some creative options for you.  Finding someone who has software such as PartyCAD could help you out tremendously as well in laying out the design and making sure it works.

  Report0 Reply
• linzlars

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  I agree that it might be difficult to hide the tables. I do think your idea of having rectangle tables could work though. They could easily be pushed against the wall and seem to take up a lot less room than circlular tables. It might even look kind of nice with the walls lined with flowers, and you could add extra candles to make it seem like more decoration than just pushed aside dinner tables. If that doesn't sound good to you, you could also just have the tables in the back of the room like someone suggested, pretty much dividing the room in half. You could make use of some ropes or ribbons to separate the room rather than draping cloths. The only other thing I could think about if it would be possible is to have all of your centerpieces already put together and ready to go in a back storage room (if one is available). Then all that would have to be done is tables get set up, tablecloths put on, and centerpieces moved to the appropriate tables. I don't know how that could possibly take more than hour, especially if you can find some one to help out. I would think the catering staff would have at least 4-5 people who could help, and like someone else suggested you could hire someone just for that hour. If I wasn't getting married the day after you I'd volunteer to come help out. ;o) Since our ceremony is planned for outdoors, our bad weather plan is to either re-locate the ceremony to another indoor room on the property (I'm not completely sure if everyone could fit though) or just have it in our reception room and have everyone just sitting at the dinner tables. It's definitely not ideal, but there aren't many other options and I think it will still be really pretty. If we have to do it that way we'll probably try to at least line the aisle somehow, maybe with flower petals or ribbons, just so it seems a little more "normal."

  Report0 Reply
• MBLove member

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  I kind of like the idea of just having the guests sit at the tables for the ceremony. It's not traditional and I LOVE non-traditional...but I would think it was possible if you have a great team of people to set the tables up after the ceremony really quickly (like 45 min). Sorry, I'm not much help, I just wanted to let you know it is very fun to be a little non-traditional at your wedding!

  

  Report0 Reply
• tallon617

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  They can flip that room if coordinated like the others have said. Your planner should be the one executing the move as well and the caterer should be cooperative.

  Report0 Reply