The wedding in the last two decades has undergone a radical transformation, the bride and groom aiming to create an event within the event where the importance of food, understood as quantity, is gradually giving way to the party and other forms of entertainment.
Food certainly remains a staple, but traditional dishes served at the table during the 4 endless lunch hours are preferred over quick buffets, finger foods, or dynamic, quality, fresh service that is light for guests. In fact, statistics in hand confirm that 93 percent of wedding guests say they were tremendously bored and wanted to leave the wedding as soon as possible.
Why does this happen? What to do to prevent boredom from poisoning your wedding reception?
A Wedding requires an average of one year of preparation, a not inconsiderable stress load and significant time and financial investment.
I can assure you that it is not only the bride and groom who place so many expectations on it, but also all their guests who hope not to participate in the usual binge, the usual boring, slow wedding to watch helplessly the usual succession of courses, yet in 95% of cases this is what happens.
Now we are all aware that when organizing an event, especially one as complex as a wedding, someone will always have something to criticize or complain about however, again statistics in hand, a recent survey found that as many as 85 percent of the brides and grooms surveyed say they were not fully satisfied with the music service, would have liked more entertainment, and if they could go back would almost certainly not make the same choice again.
If you think about how much effort and time the bride and groom put into getting the wedding of their dreams you understand how important it is to carefully consider the choice of musician and entertainment because superficial choices can later turn into regrets and disappointments.
Bitter bride and groom and bored guests just waiting for the opportune moment to go home…I think that’s about as bad as you can expect from your wedding especially considering how much time you spent on the organizational aspect, how much effort and stress you accumulated so that everything could be perfect.
Yet in spite of all your efforts without the right entertainment, without the DJ’s ability to amplify the festive mood, at the handover of the wedding favors you may see a stampede, and in half an hour the bulk of relatives and friends will have left the wedding.
What grade will they give your marriage?
How will they remember it?
What aspects will be taken into consideration most when thinking about your wedding?
Is it possible to have invested so much energy and gotten such a poor result?
I believe that a wedding has many more things to tell than just the beauty of the bride’s dress or the 4 courses served at the table.
If you have attended a wedding at least once, you have probably fallen victim to the many downtimes in the middle hours of the reception right?
Thinking back, what was missing on that day?
Most likely the COINVOLATION by the entertainer/DJ on duty, his inability to succeed in entertaining the guests, or the directives of the bride and groom themselves that limited his performance; However, if the guests experience an active, dynamic and participatory day they will certainly remember your wedding pleasantly, if vice versa the day will be anonymous, dull and boring the memory of your wedding will be negative.
A separate chapter should then be devoted to what we mean by entertainment and involvement since for some couples it is essential to recreate resort-style entertainment, while others seek something more understated and elegant
Remember that whatever your thinking, we are in the age of EXPERIENCE.
So it is up to you to make choices that are different from all the other weddings you have attended, it is up to you to invest in forms of entertainment that can annihilate all that downtime that is generated during a wedding.
You cannot expect to get a different result from other weddings you have attended if you make exactly the same choices, if you plan your wedding exactly like the ones you have attended.
Do not make the mistake of delegating the timing of the day to third parties; Be careful and thorough, structure and plan every moment on paper, invest in professionals who will be able to make your guests experience real magical moments with elegance and professionalism.
Only then will you avoid seeing your guests:
- Perch on the location’s sofas or benches.
- Glued to the cell phone with the hope there is coverage or wi-fi otherwise it’s the end
- Scattered around the location wandering aimlessly;
- Exhausted from the long lunch or the many downtimes
You may be wondering what you can do to avoid this.
Before listing possible solutions, I would like to remind you that the choice depends mainly on the style of the event, the type of your guests and the mood you want to give to the reception.
Quite often I get brides and grooms, who are aiming to have a very formal wedding given the age of the guests, to think about the fact that the right entertainment pleases and entertains even and especially the more “mature” ones. One should not forgo animation but choose solutions that are not vulgar or overly intrusive.
In recent years, several artistic realities have emerged that can be included within a wedding reception, realities that know how to fascinate and enchant with their skill but above all with their art such as a professional magician/illusionist, “crazy” waiters or a comedian who without lapsing into the tacky or vulgar will know how to give a light touch to the event.
If you want to impress your guests more, you can also invest in all those circus or street arts such as acrobats, jugglers, stilt walkers or thrill with a Sand Animation show better known as drawing with sand. You will create a wedding reception full of involvement, during which your guests will be delighted by performances of different kinds.
The DJ with his musical sets will act as the glue between the different performances going to recreate the ideal background for the show but at the same time amplifying through music the sensations and emotions.
Thus you will be sure to achieve an event with no downtime, an event that will be remembered for many years to follow as the best and most enjoyable wedding your guests attended but to achieve a great result a specialized consultation, with those who will take care of the entertainment and music aspect, is essential to gather all the necessary information and to optimize the timing of the day.
You may be wondering, “But how do I manage that day the different services I have confirmed?”
The answer is simple, the bride and groom don’t have to do it, the bride and groom have to plan and structure the day at the table in the weeks or months before but then on the wedding day you just have to enjoy the party and let, to make sure everything goes as scripted, the DJ.
Now many colleagues will tell you that they are not responsible for this task, they only take care of the music, but this is a WRONG thing because the DJ often, is the person who is present from the arrival of the first guest and is the last to leave; Throughout the day he accompanies with his music the different stages of the wedding so who better than him can structure a musical program that gradually becomes more and more pressing embellishing the performance of the different artists called by the bride and groom to entertain the guests?
The secret to achieving a successful wedding is to create a collaborative team among all the professionals involved that day because only in this way will the work of one service become an added value and not a hindrance to other services.
So to recap, here are some practical tips for a wedding with no downtime:
- Really structure a wedding unlike any other if that is your greatest desire
- DARE!!! Enrich your reception with wow moments thanks to numerous artists
- Entrust the DJ/Musician not only with the musical aspect but also with the coordination of the different artistic interventions; structure with him a detailed program for the day.
- If you have additional guests planned for the evening, plan their arrival carefully according to the timing of the day; opt to have them arrive half an hour later than earlier since there tends to be some delay on the wedding day, and make sure that when they arrive there will be someone there to greet them and pilot them to the area set aside for their welcome buffet.
- Give yourself times and generally try to stick to them especially if you are getting married in the afternoon. Give clear rules to the maître d’hôtel as any delay cascades through the entire wedding lineup with, at times, serious consequences.
- Organize the delivery of the favors well: avoid the classic shuttling between the favor table and the different guests and especially avoid the ugly (supermarket-type) cart filled with favors. Arrange with the room service to provide a couple of waiters who through baskets will take turns bringing you favors to deliver to your guests together.
- Make sure that table service is fast enough to allow +everyone to eat at the same time on average half as many waiters are needed compared to the number of tables (20 tables/10 waiters). This will allow you faster serving times and consequently less time spent at the table and less downtime.
- Have the photo bot set up near the dance area and already active from the welcome drink so your guests while waiting can take nice pictures and have fun;
- Provide a polaroid camera where everyone takes a souvenir photo to put in the guest book along with a dedication, so they can enjoy looking at the photos and thinking about the dedication;
- If you are planning to have your reception in a historic villa, it would be interesting to have a guide who can arrange guided tours at different times for a small number of people where he can illustrate the history and works in the villa
- Hire a caricaturist (perhaps as a gift in lieu of a classic wedding favor) who will make a sympathetic caricature of each of the envoys during break times
- Hire a magician illusionist who with small close-up shows between tables or in breaks outside the hall will create dynamism and fun without being too heavy; Also, it could be a way to make your guests protagonists and make them smile and have fun between toasts;
- Invest in new, never-before-seen entertainment services, as long as they are done by professionals. You will be sure to leave a lasting memory of your wedding with all your guests.
That said.
As you have read in this article if you make the same choices that have been made at other weddings where you were bored you cannot expect to get different results at your wedding since the possibility of boredom becoming the unwelcome guest of your day is always high.
Neither have I really seen all the colors in these years of work and when you think you have seen them all still there is something that surprises me, in fact there would still be many things to say but if you have read this far you have already been great and I don’t want to bore you further.
I really hope you can find in these tips how to organize your wedding at its best by combining, with a careful choice of different suppliers, a meticulous planning of the times and moments of the day with the result of zeroing the much-feared downtime.
Friends and family will thank you and carry the memory of your Yes in their hearts for years to come.
Now that you have this knowledge, visit our website www.weddingsymphony.it and go to the contact page to book a consultation with Paul to figure out how to make your big dream come true.
A few simple tips combined with a dash of common sense in choosing a musician not just based on price will make your wedding a memorable event.
I am Paolo Furlan the first Wedding Music Planner in Veneto and founder of the Wedding Symphony music agency specializing in music for civil or religious ceremonies and music and entertainment for wedding receptions.
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