Should I get Married at Home?
Hosting your wedding at home is definitely not for the faint hearted. If you’re someone who is interested in a carefree, relaxed affair, then you may need to re-think this plan or hire a wedding planner. There are so many challenges and complications when it comes to planning your wedding at home. From the smallest gatherings of family and friends to enormous marquee events, planning your wedding at home often requires more time, energy and sometimes even money, than compared to a function centre or restaurant wedding reception. Still need convincing? We’ll walk you through all the details.
Insurance
Probably one of the most overlooked essentials if you’re hosting your wedding at home. You absolutely need to mitigate your risk to the possibility of being sued should one of your guests or vendors have an accident on your premises. This means a public liability policy. You should also investigate other insurance policies which will cover you for theft, or damage should something go terribly wrong. It is an absolute MUST to check that any vendors working with you on the day, have their own public liability insurance policy and can show you a certificate of currency.
I've Got the Power!
For many smaller at home events, usually power supplied from the home is adequate. If you are organising an onsite marquee affair however, this ultimately changes the game. You may need to think about arranging generators to provide you enough power. Consider power for a temporary kitchen, power for music, power for sound and lighting for your guests. If you require a generator, it is essential that you hire a generator that is quiet enough not to take away from the ambience within the space itself.
Ice Ice Baby
It is very optimistic if you have thought you might just throw some ice into the laundry sink, over half a dozen bottles of beer and wine and it will be sufficient. Hiring tubs and buying some ice to cool your drinks is one solution for a very small party; however, it still won’t solve the huge issues of keeping your food cold enough in our excessively hot Queensland summers. And let’s face it nobody wants to remember your wedding because all of the guests contracted food poisoning! Mobile chillers are great and can be delivered directly to your door and work very well for larger events. Speak to your caterer to determine how much refrigeration you’ll need on the day.
Is it Hot in here?
You may need to consider heating and cooling depending on the season and temperature. Marquee weddings in winter can become complicated due to heat as its difficult to distribute heat throughout a large marquee. Mushroom heaters can be useful in outdoor spaces but inside a marquee is not practical at all. Let’s face it, nobody want to pay thousands of dollars to replace a marquee that has scorch holes in the ceiling or sides!
If you are outdoors under the stars, make sure you have enough heat so that you don’t have groups of people huddled up not wanting to mingle fearing they’ll lose their space close to the warmth.
Summertime poses other difficult problems. Make sure there is enough shade. Market umbrellas are an excellent idea, especially if you are hosting a cocktail hour, or canapé service. Marquees with sides are a good idea, but not for our Queensland summers. Air-conditioning units can be used but this is very hit and miss in marquees and are only useful when the sides are lowered.
Somebody Bring Me Some Water
It seems like the most ludicrous point to consider, but as many of our events tend to be hosted in the heat of our Queensland summers, water is crucial. Especially if you run out of it! If you are in one of or regional area’s you may want to order water to replenish your tank supplies well before your event, to avoid any stress. If you are on tank water, ensure you brief your staff – waiters and caterers need to know that you’re on tank water, to prevent them leaving taps running.
Please excuse me, I must powder my nose..
I’m sure there are plenty of other things that you’d rather spend your money on than toilets! But unfortunately, another one of those essential items you’ll absolutely need on the day. If you intend on using the existing bathroom in your home, then make sure you have enough toilet paper, soap and handtowels. You will need to appoint someone to ensure the bathroom is well stocked and remains clean throughout the night. Alternatively, we suggest portable bathroom hire. If you have the budget, consider booking a trailer, rather than the single ‘blue-loo’ units. Not only will the trailer style bathrooms have better lighting than the independent units, they cater for guests with disabilities and will be more comfortable for your guests who may find the tiny independent units unpleasant and awkward in glamorous evening dresses.
Staff
Hire enough staff, hire enough staff, hire enough staff. Did we all take note of that?! Don’t skimp on your staffing budget. For a seated affair, consider a staff to guest ratio of 1:15 plus bar staff as a minimum. But hiring staff without having someone to manage them will be chaos. A restaurant or function centre always has a floor manager that represents the venue, and runs the event or evening for them, managing food and beverage service, managing staff and trouble shooting. A wedding planner will take this role on for you, as well as full event management in the lead up to your special day. Not having a wedding planner is as good as an orchestra without a conductor – it’s unlikely to come together.
Security
In today’s day and age, we strongly suggest you inform the local Police Station of your wedding and the expected time frames. A printed well worded note placed it in the letterboxes of your neighbours as a matter of courtesy goes a long way to appease a prickly neighbour who may be inclined to make a noise complaint at 6pm (Yes, we have experienced this!) Also, consider having licenced security on hand to keep an eye on the property and its belongings. With so many unknown variables on the wedding day itself, delivery persons, vendors, caterers, waitstaff etc, it may well be a comfort to you to know that security are keeping an eye on things. It will also deter any opportunists who know that there’s a party in the area from either crashing the wedding or stealing (gifts and wishing wells in particular!).
Relax!
Finally, every event is different – so without the help from your team of professionals, it’s impossible to cover every single aspect of your event and enjoy your day at the same time. Spend your time doing the things that you’re great at (and love doing) and leave the event management to the experts at French Affair Hire. We would love to make your day as relaxed and stress free as possible!
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