RECEPTION
During the reception my staff and I are pretty hands off, the most we will do is ask you to kiss or to dance more towards a certain half of the floor.
Here are a few things to help make your reception photos absolutely stunning:
Have a timeline and make sure your MC knows the timeline and doesn’t start to improvise! It's tough for us to move all of our lighting to a new place when it’s the middle of speeches and the MC has lost their timeline so they announce its time for the father daughter dance or cake cutting. Ask your MC to introduce themselves to us and just to give us a heads up or a two minute warning before any major events! I will do my part to reach out to them on the day of the wedding as well so that they know who I am.
Just as you consider what’s behind the head table, consider where people are giving speeches and what that will look like! A common issue during toast images is water bottles, champagne bottles, or other distractions that are sitting in front of people at the table.
Think about lighting when you are decorating your venue. If it is an outdoor venue, what do you have for lighting when it gets dark out? String some globe lights to provide lighting and keep it looking romantic. If you are having an indoor reception think about up-lighting or lighting on the walls with custom monograms, it makes a huge difference in the atmosphere.
If you want a romantic look and feel to your reception, candles, twinkle lights and globe lights are the easiest option that make the biggest difference! Floating candles in cylinder vases are almost always allowed at venues & look amazing!
When assigning speeches to people if you are worried about them sticking to an allotted amount of time, suggest they give a toast rather than a speech.
For your first dance, dance for the whole song. Avoid cutting it short to have others join in. Have a separate song where everyone can dance.
When you cut the cake, the best way to do it is to stand in the prom pose, for lack of a better term, and then cut the cake with both of your hands on the knife. As far as feeding goes, feel free and do whatever suits you best!
Are you doing a sparkler exit? If so, I have some great tips for you! For one, get the extra long sparklers. Have buckets of water prepared for all the guests to dispose of their sparklers after the exit. When walking through the line of sparklers, walk slowly! Again, walk really slowly. Don't be afraid to laugh, smile, kiss, or whatever else feels natural! When you get almost to the end, please take a minute to kiss and please kiss for longer than a few seconds!