Planning a wedding is overwhelming enough with picking a venue, vendors, guest list then formulating how the weekend will flow. So, it’s no surprise that the number one overlooked item of your wedding is how to end the evening.
As we end our fourth year here at Weymouth Hill, we explore ways we can help our couples eliminate pain points. We do this by offering added rentals or services to help make your event flow even easier. When we saw a deficiency in classic car getaway rentals, we bought a fun Moke to add to our venue rentals as well as a candle package so tired family members didn’t have to pack glass into their car at the end of the evening.
As we look toward 2025 and beyond, we felt this would be a good time to address pain point #3, how to end the evening effectively.
We see two types: the first type loves to dance the night away and doesn’t want the night to end so they plan an afterparty at a favorite late-night locale. The second type has loved every moment of the day, but is ready to break from the festivity and ruminate on their glorious event.
What these two types have in common is neither is excited to jump in and collect décor, leftover food, or decide what to do with a three-tier cake that has been cut and only 20 percent eaten. This typically falls on your family and friends, who don’t want to deal with it either.
So you ask yourself, is this how I want my evening to end for the people who showed up and matter the most to me?
Let me break this down two ways that can cover this base and make the night be nearly effortless, as evidenced this 2024 season. The first key is not to ignore there will be some responsibility in ending your night. The best advice is have a game plan.
Hire only fully service providers: There’s many ways to address this. You can always go with a totally full service venue. However, many couples like to bring their own flair and they’d rather choose their own vendors and style, rather than a one-stop shop. When hiring you’re A-List vendors, talk to them about full service. Let your caterer know you want them start to finish, boxing up leftovers at the end of the evening and doing x, y or z with them. Hire the florist that offers décor rentals and will come back for a teardown or plan an end-of-the-night giveaway for fresh florals. Ask your cake professional for cake boxes or purchase them yourself. Most people don’t realize large cakes arrive in an oversized vehicle unboxed.
Ask your venue if they will offer an end-of-the-evening box-up service for later retrieval. In many cases, if a vendor can procure additional manpower, all you have to do is ask, and of course, know that the service will cost you additionally. This is a service Weymouth Hill, unofficially offers, but plans to promote in the next wedding season because it is desperately needed.
Many hands make light work: This saying is paramount when planning any large event. Our Weymouth Hill staff knows this and we always have plenty of hands on deck during a reception. However, your venue staff has its roles as do each of your vendors. If you have opted for more of a DIY wedding where you have brought in more of your own décor, you will need to consider the time needed for placement and retrieval at the end of the evening. This is where many hands come into play.
We recently had a wedding where an ever-talented bride did all her own décor because she wanted her vision to be executed exactly what she had in mind. She also considered this would be an expense saver. She pulled the endeavor off most successfully only because she wisely considered execution of placement and retrieval most meticulously. She arranged careful diagrams of where items would go and organized her décor most efficiently with clearly labeled bins.
She arranged an execution timeline that pooled from all her family and close friends to help her get everything in place and retrieve at the end of the evening in record time. Admittedly, this took some keen organizational skills and many hands, but it was accomplished.
So whether you want to walk away or create and army of helpers, know that you do need a game plan. The worst is seeing the tired parents of the bride left with a lone family member to load up their cars and the end of the evening. Even if you didn’t go overboard with personal décor items, it’s easy to overlook the messy leftover catering foil pans, the quarter eaten cake and/or three dozen cupcakes that need packed home.
