The Top 5 Things Couples Forget to Hire
Planning a wedding is full on!
There are so many things to consider, especially if you are planning a wedding in a not-so- traditional location! Maybe your wedding will be held in a barn, shed, marquee, your backyard, warehouse or other interesting location.
These sorts of venues are always so unique and a great chance to design your wedding from the ground up and put your mark on the style and vibe you want.
But with that, come lots of considerations you need to think about in the lead up and on the downhill run towards your wedding day.
I am going to provide you with our Top 5 Hire Items Forgotten at a Wedding. So hopefully you don’t forget them for your own wedding!
Ice & Coolroom
Who is providing the ice for your wedding?
If you have a professional bar or caravan bar company coming along or the venue does an in-house bar then they will usually always bring the ice along or supply (but it doesn’t hurt to double check).
However if you have a catering company doing a bar or are offering more of a DIY bar set up then you need to supply your own ice.
If you have a wedding planner or coordinator I highly recommend trying to delegate this to them but if you are BYO then make sure you allocate a responsible family member. One that won’t forget or drop it off 5 mins before the ceremony leaving your bar team scrambling to cool things down.
Top Tip 1; A good estimate is 20-30 bags in Winter and 30-40 bags in Summer for most medium to large size weddings, better to get more especially in summer then have to do a run to the service station or local supermarket.
Top Tip 2; Hire a coolroom! Another important consideration is hiring a coolroom for your wedding. Most DIY style venues don’t have large industrial fridge facilities and ice and eskys just don’t cut it on a wedding-scale to keep that beer cold!
Coolrooms need to be located somewhere out of the way but also close by to the catering area and bar, the catering and bar staff will be going back and forth lots of times so it’s important for practical purposes.
Make sure your coolroom is plugged in prior to your catering arriving and try to store your heavy cartons of beer and wine on the bottom shelves to allow catering to store their lighter food or cake higher up on the shelves.
Lighting
Have you got sufficient lighting?
Often, we remember the key areas like inside the marquee, shed, reception space or barn but forget what I call the ‘in-between’ or connecting areas.
Is the pathway towards and around the toilets well lit? Does the catering area or outdoor bar have lighting on it? Sometimes a well-hidden floodlight can cast enough light over a pathway area rather than paying for expensive lights everywhere.
Top Tip; Suggestions for lighting include tiki or citronella torches, festoon or fairy lights, floodlights, candles or lanterns to light up your spaces or just shed enough light on paths and walkways.
Bins and Rubbish Removal
Yes super boring and gross, but also a super practical consideration at a DIY Wedding.
There is a lot and I mean a lot of rubbish after a wedding. We have done rubbish removal in the past from our couples wedding and we are talking about a whole ute load so it’s important to consider the practicalities of rubbish disposal.
Firstly check the policy and bin situation at your venue so you know what is required and if you need to purchase bins or arrange hire or rubbish removal services.
Does the venue have small bins?
You don’t want to have big ugly industrial size bins and they are not very practical either.
We recommend about 4-8 smaller black bins (we have them for hire in our catalogue) to dot around your pre-drink space, near the toilets, bar, reception and catering areas. They are easier to tie up and transport to the main bin area and not so invasive looking!
Be sure to check what the venue’s policy is on rubbish removal and disposal. Some are fine for you to just leave the rubbish bagged and in skip bins on site at the property, but others do require you to completely remove all rubbish when you leave.
Top Tip; Make sure you buy the extra strong and extra large quality bin liners, the last thing you want is heavy beer bottles or skewers sticks poking through the thin bags and tearing them up.
Event Kit/Emergency Bag
This is not exactly a ‘hire’ item but more of a purchase item and highly recommended!
For the weddings we coordinate we bring along our amazing event kit, filled with everything we might need to troubleshoot, fix, glue or plug in at a wedding, it weighs an absolute tonne but its pure gold when it comes to the realities of what crop up at a wedding and how often we use it on wedding day.
Having your own mini version, would be really helpful for any DIY couple wanting to make sure they are not having to dash to woollies to buy batteries or blu tak the morning of their wedding.
Things I recommend include scissors, twine, blu tak, large bin bags, candle lighters, a torch, first aid kit, pencils, cable ties, extension leads, plyers, double adaptors, spare candles, spray and wipe, cloths, fishing line, double sided tape, mints, tissues….the list could go on!
Take a look at what hire or styling items you have and pack anything you may need to work with them. Do you have slim candlesticks…..maybe some blu-tack on the base to secure? Do you have an easel for your signage outside -maybe you need a tent peg to secure into the ground in case of wind? You get the picture!
Read our blog on ‘Must Haves for your Wedding Event Kit’ here.
Heating and Cooling
Have you considered what weather your wedding day may be? It’s important to consider what sort of weather is predicted and make sure you hire/plan and budget for the appropriate shade or heating.
If your canape hour or ceremony is in the middle of a hot paddock then hiring 3-4 large umbrellas to place over your furniture or grazing table and bar is very important. If your wedding is in the middle of Winter then hiring 3-4 gas heaters is important to dot around your outdoor spaces to keep your guests warm and comfy.
Top Tip; Also consider umbrellas for rainy days (you might hire 20-30 handheld ones for guests) or some baskets of blankets to dot around to keep your guests cozy during the evening.
Bonus Advice; Consider your Next Day Pack Up/Clean Up
After the amazing day that was, then unfortunately comes the mess the next day.
To be honest, the last thing people want to do, nursing a hangover the morning of the wedding is pack up! But it’s important to consider the post wedding clean up, what there is to do, clean, sort, wipe down, pack away and who will be doing this.
It’s important to consider the venue’s terms and conditions, to what extent do they expect the property to be left in on departure after the wedding. Do tables and chairs need to be packed down and stored in their original position?
We highly recommend either teeing up in advance some helpers so it’s not you and your new spouse left to clean up by yourself, many hands make light work with this sort of stuff, OR hiring your wedding planner if they offer pack down services.
We offer this for our clients where we completely pack everything up for you, take down the greenery or lights, move furniture back into position, clear the coolroom and so on. If you decide to DIY, just allocate everyone a job to focus on, being organised in advance to make this nice and efficient is key.
Top Tip; Always read your Terms and Conditions from the venue on booking, it’s important to understand expectations of a more DIY venue so you can be prepared in allocating some budget to have staff pack up if required.
It’s super important to make sure you have covered off all the logistical and practical things, meaning on the day there are no last minute dashes to the local woollies for supplies, or family members running around stressed.
Being as organised as you can with a good checklist in advance means you can feel more at ease knowing nothing has been overlooked.
Helpful Links;
- Have you Downloaded our Free Printable Wedding Hire Checklist? Click Here to download this super helpful guide!
- Have you listened to our Podcast Yet – We have a topic on everything we covered above HERE if you prefer to listen in more details!
- Need Hire Items for your Wedding? We have over 500 hire items! You can easily browse the website under each category, save to a request quote cart and pop across to us to check availability. Too easy Our Hire Page is HERE.
- What to Pack in Your Wedding Day Event Kit blog HERE.
