The Right Venue and Caterers for Your Dream Wedding

Marriage is one of the oldest and most universal institutions in the world, and cultures around the globe, past and present, have created many different wedding ceremonies and types. Today in the United States, brides and grooms (and sometimes same-sex couples) may choose from a wide variety of wedding venues, the best caterers, the best destination wedding places, and much more. Brides and grooms in Florida may opt for Miami wedding packages, and these Miami wedding packages may involve a beach outdoor wedding. In fact, some 35% of all weddings in the United States today are outdoors, often either on a beach (such as Hawaii or Miami wedding packages) or at a rustic farm for a friendly vibe. Meanwhile, indoor weddings are often held at a place of worship such as a Catholic or Protestant church, a synagogue, a Hindu temple, and more. And the reception is an entire topic of its own, and a lot of wedding preparation is done for the reception in particular. How might this work?

Choosing the Venue

There are many topics on planning a wedding, but one of the most fundamental is simply choosing where the ceremony will take place. There are two main routes: indoor and outdoor, and each route has a number of different options. For outdoor weddings, as described earlier, the beach is often the most popular sort of destination, and Miami wedding packages or wedding packages in Hawaii or along the California coast may be similar. Beach weddings tend to be less formal than ballroom ones, and the bride and groom may wear leather sandals or even go barefoot. The bride and bridesmaids may have relatively short dresses so the hems don’t drag on the sand, and the men may roll up their pants legs toward their knee. Outdoor wedding such as these often call for lighter fabrics with light colors, such as a light beige, light gray, or the like for the men’s suits, and any light color for the bridesmaids. Most often, though, white will be unique to the bride.

Indoor weddings typically take place in a house of worship, and when the bride and groom have different faiths, this may require some negotiating and planning. In some cases, the bride and groom may simply conduct two different wedding ceremonies, one for each person’s faith, or they may negotiate with a house of worship to create a mixed wedding, such as a hybrid Jewish-Lutheran wedding, or Sikh-Roman Catholic. Sometimes, the bride or groom will choose a house of worship that they attended throughout their life, where they personally know the officiant. A wedding at a house of worship will also involve following that institution’s rules, such as for how much skin the bride or her bridesmaids may show. These details can be figured out after consulting that house of worship’s staff and authority figures.

Preparing for the Reception

The reception is the part that almost everyone will look forward to, complete with food and drink, dancing and music, photos and videos, decorations, and mingling with the crowd. A wedding reception, even a smaller one, calls for a lot of preparation ahead of time, which includes calling upon many caterers, performers, and rental places. The music will come from either a specialized DJ or a wedding band, whose members are used to weddings and know appropriate songs to play. Meanwhile, a professional photographer and videographer can be hired to capture many different moments of the wedding ceremony and reception alike, and chairs, tables, and linens can be rented as needed, based on the number of guests. A solid, finalized guest list is useful reference for not only that, but also the catering and getting silverware and plates.

A wedding reception calls for a lunch or dinner, and that means finding a caterer that provides all the food. Often, brides and grooms may include questions on the invitations, asking guests what sort of meal they want. For example, guests may choose between fish, steak, or chicken. Once all of that data is gathered, it can be passed on to the caterer. Meanwhile, a florist is responsible for setting up all the flowers and delivering them on time, such as decorative flower bunches for all the reception tables.