Centre Pieces, Table Plans and Wedding Favours

After a long and emotional day, the happy couple and all of your guests will undoubtedly want to celebrate together by means of a lovely wedding reception...with plenty of champagne all round! It does take a lot of planning to make a wedding reception perfect as they come in so many different shapes and sizes! Some couples like to go crazy and have a big fancy reception whereas others prefer to take their guests and have a simple drink in their local bar. It is not just the food and entertainment that needs organising for a reception, smaller details such as who is going to be seated where needs to be considered also. Should all tables have centre pieces? And what kind of favours should we provide for our guests?

There are many different styles, sizes, budgets and colour themes for each wedding and so the wedding industry therefore provides many possibilities to suit your style. All details of your wedding reception should ideally co-ordinate by colour and theme. For example, your reception colour scheme could match the colour of the flowers in your bouquet, or bridesmaid dresses, or it could simply be a colour you have always adored. Your invites will be a way of giving your guests a first impression of what the style of your wedding will be and so matching colours and themes is very important. Once everyone has accepted or declined, you can then begin working on your table plan, which is a much harder task than you would originally expect. However, there is no need to panic as plenty of resources are now available to help you cope with this task.

It is always a good idea to seat together friends who know each other and family members. However, if you would like to mix this up and integrate all your friends and family members, be sure to seat people at appropriate tables.

It is not essential to have a centre piece but there are many brides who like to do so as a pretty decoration. Table centre pieces should match the general theme of your wedding and often takes the form of a short or tall flower arrangement, a selection of candles or even a fishbowl filled with water with pretty candles floating inside. You could complete this look by scattering photographs of the happy couple, mini games or heart shaped chocolates over the table.

Wedding favours are traditionally offered to guests at their place setting. They are a small way of thanking all your guests for attending the wedding and giving them a little something to remember your wedding by. As well as a slice of the wedding cake, favours can also take the form of a heart shaped bottle stopper or, if you would prefer to be more traditional, a small square box of sugared almonds. There are many various wedding favours and ideas available to purchase online.

Once the catering, entertainment, photographer and speeches have all been taken care of, the rest of the wedding reception will hopefully fall into place.

Top Tips from hitched.ie

• Wedding favours are not essential but can be an inexpensive way of saying thank you and giving a small token to each of your guests
• Be sure to choose a colour theme at the beginning of your wedding planning process and stick to it!
• If you have decided to have a centre piece on the tables, don’t opt for one that is so enormous, your guests find it impossible to talk to each other across the table without it getting in their way.