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Cake Cutting and Tires – The Cost of Your Reception

Sometimes purchasing a wedding reception package is similar to buying a tire. Sure, the price of the tire is $39.95, but by the time you’re finished, the cost has somehow risen to $60.00! It’s all those extra charges for valve stems, balancing, disposing of the old tire, etc. - things you can’t possibly do without!

Well, the same thing can happen to you when shopping for a wedding reception. At many sites, you’ll run into all sorts of extra fees – for set-up, linens, clean-up, and of course, the famous cake cutting charge. This is the fee charged by most venues to slice and serve your party the cake that you bought elsewhere. We’ve heard tales of fees ranging from $1.25 to a whopping $8.00 per person!

At Waterford, we’re not fans of extra fees. You won’t ever see us charging you for linens, the dance floor, a riser for your head table or band, and especially not to cut the cake for which you’ve already paid.

Music – More Important Than You Realize!

After the selection of your ceremony and reception site(s), your choice of music is the most crucial to the success of your big day.

Most wedding receptions today feature a disc jockey. Your DJ can make or break your party, and from what we’ve seen, too many DJs fall far short of expectations. Our advice – Don’t accept any sales pitch at face value. Do your research by asking everyone you know about DJs that they’ve used. Go see individual DJs in action, preferably during the late stages of a wedding reception.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Scheduling – The Ceremony and the Reception

Ideally, you’ll want to schedule your reception to begin shortly after your ceremony ends. However, this isn’t always possible. This is especially true for a Catholic ceremony followed by an evening reception. Unfortunately, it’s virtually impossible to find a Catholic church that can schedule a ceremony later than 3:00 PM on a Saturday.

Keep in mind that most reception sites (including Waterford at Fair Oaks) must schedule both afternoon and evening receptions on most Saturdays. As a result, you have a choice: book an afternoon reception that begins as early as 11:00 AM and ends no later than 5:00 PM, or an evening reception that begins no earlier than 5:30 or 6:00 PM.

Three scheduling scenarios, from best to worst:

The reception immediately follows the ceremony. For Catholics, this may mean an afternoon reception. Instead of scheduling your Saturday ceremony as late as possible in the afternoon, consider scheduling it is early as possible in the day, preferably around 11:00 AM.

An early ceremony, followed by an evening reception. Separate the ceremony and reception by several hours, giving your out of town guests the afternoon to sightsee, and the wedding party plenty of time for pictures at the church and a breather before the reception.

A mid-afternoon ceremony followed by an evening reception. While not the end of the world, try to avoid the awkward 1-3 hour gap between the two events. The last thing you want is for some of your guests to use this period to hit the hotel bar and arrive at your reception already less than sober.
More on Scheduling

When planning the reception schedule, take a realistic look at what will be happening in the time between the ceremony and the reception. Are you being realistic about when your ceremony will start and end? Have you allowed enough time for your guests to get from the ceremony site to Waterford at Fair Oaks?

Remember, if your cocktail hour begins at 5:30 PM, that’s the time at which the room will be ready and the bar will be open. Guests arriving at 5:00 PM will be twiddling their thumbs in the lobby for half an hour. By the same token, if your ceremony runs late and the entire party arrives at Waterford twenty minutes late, you’ll either be shortchanging yourselves by shortening the cocktail party or causing dinner to be served later than the ideal time.