Your wedding day ought to be the happiest day of your life; the beginning of a new journey but the planning and challenges of this big day can be enormous.

Hi! I’m Justice, am an Events planner/Manager, aspiring Entrepreneur, writer, model, creative designer, humanitarian and this is my first article for Nairaland.

Today, I will be showing us how to orderly organize a great wedding reception without having to breakdown in stress. Are you planning a wedding soon or sometime later? Are you uncertain as to how to go about it? May this article inspire and guide you to having a blissful celebration.

Let’s assume you have an official date- your IVs are out there and you have a venue picked out. Then follow in these steps.

1) Set a Budget
Except you are a potential candidate for “New Money” TV show or your daddy is Davido’s baba Olowo, then you should know that your budget will determine the size and/or “weight” of your wedding. (At this point, the groom is stuck in a lot of wondering. It will be good for parents or relatives who wish to sponsor the wedding make their generous intentions known by now as this will take a lot of heat off the groom and boost his confidence as the planning proceeds) So how much do you have? How much are you expecting? Pen this down and make sure you stay in the limit of this budget. A groom should not shy away from the planning of his wedding especially the financial aspect, the bride tends to be extravagant sometimes, wanting to go all-the-way for her big day, someone has to keep her grounded.

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2) Create a theme:
You have a venue, you have a budget, now you may create your wedding theme. Just in case you’re wondering why this has to come up now, well, it is important to note that your wedding theme will affect your other wedding plans and your wedding purchases. Let’s take for instance, you wish to have a royal/fantasy-themed wedding, the decorator will have to infuse lots of flowers,sparkling lights and chandeliers, have several red-carpets rolled out, the cake may have some stencils pattern and you know, all that royal elements…
Perhaps, you may just want a colour-themed wedding, whichever the case, decide on this before purchasing wedding clothings and accessories.

3) Draw a Reception Program:
You have to make a list of the order of events at your reception, determine which comes after the other. Think of previous weddings you’ve attended and follow their pattern if you liked it. It will be a good idea to do this with the MC (later on) he’ll definitely have some ideas for you.

5) Design a Seating Arrangement
This part of the planning should be fun (or not) and relaxing (or frustrating) You must have been to your events hall to do this. Get a large sheet of paper and make an outline sketch of the space at the hall showing all entrances, exit and facilities. You can decide to divide it at the middle with a red-carpet which runs to the couple at the centre in front. You should know how many tables a row can take and how many persons/chairs each table can accommodate. Now you will assign your guests to their table, e.g., bride’s family at Table 1, groom’s relatives at Table 4 and so on.

While wedding are known for bringing about family re-union, you don’t want to place two feuding relatives who promised to kill each other the next time they meet at the same table (except you want to experiment on the earlier said or it says “Fight Performance” somewhere in your program outline)

6) Hire a decorator, cateter and cake specialist:
Ask around for the best decorators, caterers and cake specialists and see who’s available on your big day. Be sure that your set date has not been double-booked. You can have someone else go meet them or phone call them and pretend to be a different client and confirm your name/booking for that day

7) Hire a D.J, M.C, Photographer and Videocamera-man
You would want to hire someone you’re familiar with and not far off in location just to avoid having a disappointment on that day. Have a meeting with the D.J and make a playlist of the songs you want at different times in your program e.g. entrance, exit, cutting of the cake.
Some MCs (especially those not familiar with the couple or family) tend to go overboard and make jokes that comes out as offensive or steer speculation/trouble. Have a meeting with him and have him know what and what not to say-draw the lines.

You can take a visit to the photographer's studio and check out previous events he has covered, hire him only if you like his work.

8 ) Employ Wedding Ushers:
A well organized wedding will end up looking classy and expensive hence the need for wedding ushers. You can employ several relatives (from both families) and have them act as ushers for the day. Their job is to guide guests, making sure everyone is seated accordingly, see that the food goes round and ensure that general orderliness is maintained.

9) Re-Run:
Go through your plans again and ensure everything's in place, Re-confirm you bookings and be convinced it's intact. See if there's any need for changes in your plans and endeavour to do that in good time.

To conclude, here's a hint for you. Your wedding is a great success after all your guests return back to their destinations safely (in one piece) Be wary of the amount of alcohol in circulation at your event. After- reception brawls are a common scenario caused by this factor. Look into this to also avoid cases of D.U.I with your guests.

All the best.

Still to come in other articles;
How to plan a Low-budget wedding
How to plan a Traditional wedding

Also visit my page on;
www.facebook.com/JusticeOkwudikeOfficial
for more on inspiration, fashion & lifestyle, jobs & careers and my humanitarian journey (click on 'Justice Okwudike Official' and click on the LIKE button)

Thank you.

Nice write up. Will follow

thumbs up plenty Gbosaa for u

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We are engaged in the provision of professional private security (BOUNCERS) services to help secure your events. We at High Class Security provide you with integrated security solutions and give you the comfort desired at your event. We offer the Professional Private Security (Bouncers) to help you create and sustain a serine environment and comfort.
We deploy best of our men, by way of our strict adherence to both national and internationally recognized regulatory codes….
High Class Security is dedicated to creating high productive teams focused on top quality performance during our services when rendering them, and this is the key to our plan for repeat jobs with our clients.
Our continuous strive for this excellence keeps us in tune, where we only go for the very best within our clients’ budgets.

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