The Top 5 Things Forgotten at A DIY Wedding
The week before your wedding can be a stressful and busy time, suppliers are needing last minute queries answered, the venue may be ringing to confirm your guest numbers, the family is arriving, things need to be picked up and dropped off and it’s all a little crazy!
Being as organised as you can with a good checklist in advance means you can feel more at ease knowing nothing has been overlooked.
We work a lot at off-site properties, places like barns, marquees and venues that are very DIY so it’s really helpful knowing you have arranged all the logistical things, meaning on the day there are no last-minute dashes to the local Woolies.
Here are some of our top practical things to remember;
-ICE-
Who is providing the ice for your wedding? Some catering companies or wedding coordinators will but others expectations are that you will BYO. I highly recommend trying to delegate this to the professionals, if you have a wedding planner or catering company as if they can offer this service by bringing along when they arrive.
You may want to delegate this to a family member, but in our experience, they are often running late, busy getting ready or simply forget. And no one wants a warm beer.
A good estimate is 25-30 bags for most medium to large size weddings, better to get more especially in summer than have to do a run to the service station or local supermarket.
Another important consideration is hiring a cool room 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.
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 and 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-
Often, we remember the key areas like inside the marquee or barn but forget what I call the in between or the Segway 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 too.
Other suggestions include tiki or citronella torches, festoon or fairy lights, floodlights, candles or lanterns to light up your spaces.
–BINS AND RUBBISH–
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 the 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 or you can pick up from Bunnings) 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!
Make sure you buy the extra strong and extra large quality bin liners, the last thing you want us heavy beer bottles or skewers sticks poking through the thin bags and tearing them up.
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.
–Be sure to pack and event or emergency kit–
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.
Having your own mini version would be really helpful for any DIY bride wanting to make sure they are not having to dash to woollies to buy batteries or blutak the morning of their wedding.
Things I recommend include scissors, twine, blutak, large bin bags, candle lighters, a torch, first aid kit, pencil, 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
Visit our other blog post ‘Wedding Event Kit Must-Have’s’
-POST WEDDING PACK DOWN AND NEXT DAY 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 on the morning of the wedding is pack up! But it’s important to consider the post-wedding cleanup, what there is to do, clean, sort, wipe down, pack away and who will be doing this.
It’s important to consider the venues terms and conditions, what extent they expect the property to be left in and your hire terms and conditions. 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 husband left to clean up 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 to 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.
There are so many fantastic advantages to a DIY Wedding Venue but ensuring you consider our tips above is super important to make sure you have covered off all the logistical and practical things. This means that on the day there are no last-minute dashes to the local woollies for supplies, or family members running around stressed.
