The location for your reception is everything and should be though over carefully. Once you have chosen where to have it you will be able to decide what decorations you want to use - which will also be determined by what food you want to serve.

Wedding receptions have six basic elements in their planning:

Location
Physical Comforts
Reception decorations
Catering
Music
Dancing

Each of these elements are essential to the reception location especially in a place that is completely void of any decorations. There are some locations that have decorations already set up and if you find the right location you could use these decorations to your advantage.

The ambience of your reception decorations includes your:

Lighting
Place settings
Drapes
Flowers
Balloons

Be creative with your lighting. You can use votive candles, tall candles, and even twinkle lights. This helps to set the romantic atmosphere. The place setting can be simple (saving you money) - but also very elegant. You can use rented tablecloths and can add your own simple decorations. Balloons can also add a bit of a romantic setting.

There are so many options that you can explore with your reception decorations that the list could be endless. Decide on a venue, decide on a theme and then let that help you choose the overall look and feel you are going for with your reception decorations. You can add shallow bowls of water with candles floating in them. You can mix and match your wine goblets. Just make sure to choose what you and your partner will love!

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If you want your musician to act as the master of ceremonies during the reception make sure he has a complete timeline for your reception and he knows when to announce the events such as first dance, toast, cutting of cake, tossing the bouquet and garter. If you want a large variety of music consider hiring a professional DJ. He can play any type of music and even offer a light show. Give him the list of the songs you want to played and the time for playing each song.

You can choose songs that are up-beat or even soft. It is always best to make sure that the next song ends smoothly and easily slows into the next song in line. That way people will hear the music and let it become apart of the background. It will set the mood for the whole reception.

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- Ask for a Tasting – you want to try both the various types of cake and frosting. You are looking for flavor combinations and more. Some bakers will provide you with small sample cakes of your chosen cake flavors

- Ask about Customizing – Does the baker make custom designed cakes from either a photo or you own hand drawn pictures? This is only important if you want a customized cake design.

- Ask to see their Portfolio – Most professional bakers will have a portfolio featuring every cake they have ever designed or made, ask to see them to get a feel for the types of cakes they’ve made.

- Ask about their Cake Preparation times – Many bakers will bake and decorate your cake days ahead of your wedding, but you don’t want it done more than 10 days and no less than 2 days before.

- Ask about delivery and set up – Does the baker deliver and set up the cake for you on the big day. If they don’t, you need to discuss the pick up and set up with the catering service.

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Make sure that you sign a contract with the company of your choice. The contract should have pertinent information that include how much money you paid for the deposit, what the cancellation policies are, what the prices are and how much it costs when you go over, and when and where you will be picked up.

When you’re renting a limo for your wedding, be sure to physically check out the exact limo(s) you’re going to be using before the big day. Make sure that it´s in good condition and that the driver also has the professional look you want.

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- What dress will you wear

- How do you want your hair to look

If you are not looking to spend a lot of money you can always make your own veil. They have wedding veil kits that usually cost less than $30 at craft stores. They are easy to put together that require simple tools that are easy to find. You can even accessorize it yourself with little pearls or other designs.

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Preservation provides a means of maintaining the quality and appearance of a gown through customized cleaning and appropriate storage. Methods range from savvy self-storage (in a temperate, dry, dark location) to museum-quality preservation.

Professional preservationists analyze the fabrics, dyes, weaves, and ornaments of your gown, as well as the composition of stains in order to formulate a customized cleaning plan. In removing invisible soils and other stains from the gown, they remove the potential fabric damage that results when these substances embed in the fabric and undergo chemical reactions. After cleaning, the gown is carefully wrapped in stable archival materials and packaged in an archival Coroplast box (the storage box of choice for most major museums) and should be protected from extreme temperatures, moisture, and exposure to direct sunlight.

The price of cleaning and preservation will vary with the complexity of a gown’s beadwork, train length, and stain damage. A local high-end dry cleaner will charge as much as $100 for standard dry cleaning. Specialized gown preservationists will normally charge between $250 and $500.

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Why not use something that will fit the theme of your wedding. If it is a beach theme then you could find seashell place holders. Or maybe you could be more unique and use tiny teapots or mini purses. There is an endless possibilities and you can find them at many craft stores or even wedding stores. All you need to do when you have them is to create your own place cards with the writing of your choice and place them on the table.

If you want to be even more creative you could make the place card holders wedding favors also. Many people will love this idea and in the long run it will save you lots of money and time.

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One of the most popular is bridal shower Bingo, in which guests mark off gifts on their Bingo card as they are opened until they have Bingo. But there are other ways to have fun. There are bridal shower scratch off cards, trivia about the bride and groom, crossword puzzles, a book guests can fill with words of wisdom about marriage and raffle tickets in which door prizes are given out.

Discuss with your bride or the bridal party which ideas best fit your party.

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• Name of the bride-to-be.
• Date of the shower.
• Time of the shower. For example, 2 p.m - 5 p.m. (It’s best to put both the start & end time so guests can plan their day) .
• Address where the shower is being held (and it is helpful to include a map with directions).
• Name and phone number of the hostess/hostesses.
• A deadline date for the RSVP. (This is usually about two weeks prior to the shower date.)
• Bridal shower theme (if applicable).
• Home decorating colors (if applicable).
• Where the couple is registered

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When I first visited Wedding Party Help I was very pleased with its neat and orderly layout. It was very easy to navigate through out the site to find what it had to offer. It has so much information that provided exactly what I needed. It is set up very well and professionally, and leaves it easy for me to browse their links.

Wedding Party Help is a great site to find useful information for wedding arrangements. It has all the resources I needed like Wedding Event Vendor lists that provide links to places to find music, décor, photography, florists, Wedding Officiants, make-up, formal wear, catering, transportation, etc. I was amazed at what I found and very happy that it practically did all the work for me!

I especially love that they have links for Party Help like vendors and helpful articles that are interesting and packed full of information. They have articles that talk about Professional Wedding Planners, Cakes, and Wedding Themes. I had fun browsing articles and reading about things I never even had thought of, like finding out how to purchase inexpensive wedding invitations.

This site was so helpful that I will definitely use it and recommend it to my friends. Even if you are not getting married, it still is a very interesting site that provides a lot of information on weddings and party planning.

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