Clean Up

I would not have family clean up. They may get tired and leave, forget, or 'celebrate' too much and be unable to help. I would have someone designated for the card box, like mom or mil, if you are not taking that with you and then I would pay extra to have your day of coordinator clean up and just plan a date after your honeymoon to pick everything up; or if you are close to a parent, have them pick it up the day after the wedding.

Have your DOC do it. I would never ask guests to clean up after my own wedding. I’d change my clothes and do it myself before asking a guest, regardless of who the guest is.

Most weddings I've been involved with were very simple and the families cleaned up at the end of the night. My church does have a janitor but I will make sure everything is cleaned and put back in order before I leave my reception. I feel like since I'm the one who will be responsible for the mess then it is my responsibility to get it cleaned up. Plus, I am too OCD to let someone else handle some of my centerpieces which are antiques.

As far as the card box, I was responsible for it at my brother's wedding. I opened all the cards during the reception and gave him any cash so he'd have it on the honeymoon. I took the rest with me and gave it back when they came home.

Thankfully our venue handled everything for us. If you have the funds, I would pay the DOC to do it. I know my family would help, but I would feel bad asking them.

Both my daughter's have venues that include Coordinators which will handle both the set up and the clean up. I would not ask my guests to clean up. They should be exhausted from all the fun and dancing, or heading over the hotel for an after party!

I hired a decorator. .she sets everything up and takes it all down. My guests are spending money to fly to our wedding, we really don't want to ask them to clean up.

The bridesmaids, groomsmen, my parents and a couple cousins stayed to help clean up for my sister's wedding. My mom insisted that she and the bridal party take care of it instead of paying someone. We didn't mind at all, but she's changed her tune now and sees my point lol

Our venue will be taking care of the set up and clean up for us.

My DH and I and some of my family helped because we had to pour our drunk DOC in a cab. He was so combative 🙄🙄🙄

Our venue has a cleaning crew, our doc will help, and caterer does food clean up including the bar. So I think we're pretty set.

Please please please do not have your family or guests clean up after the wedding. That will be what they remember about the whole night - is that they had to clean up.

My FH and I were the last ones at a friends wedding and every guest that was still there was tasked with cleaning up. It was AWFUL. I wasn't able to help because I was in a dress & heels, so all the guys that were there were the only ones able to do it. Literally everyone that was left said that they would have rather pitched in $20 or something so that they could have hired someone to clean up. This is how we remember this friends wedding - yeah we liked their ceremony, and the dancing was fun - but we mostly remember having to clean up afterwards and how awful it was.

Our venue staff cleaned the tables and boxed our stuff up, but my bridesmaids cleaned our getting ready rooms and got all of our stuff together and into the cars. The end of the evening was a mad house everything was just thrown into bags and boxes. I am still sorting through everything.

I didn't ask, they just did it.

For my sisters wedding I was her maid of honor. Since I was put in that role to make sure her day went great, I made sure I got everything cleaned up and ready to go. I even assembled my own team on the spot. I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to ask your family/wedding party to help out since they're there to support you! I would also say it really depends on the size of your reception and how crazy you expect it to get. I would ask your wedding party (bridesmaids mostly) about what they would be willing to help with. If they decide to help you, leave them a checklist of the things you need them to get done.

My first thought is not to have family help with the clean up. Everyone will be tired, tipsy, etc. But, if your wedding is very small, the cleanup typically isn’t as intensive. I’ve been to a few family catered/held in the local church hall type weddings where everyone is willing and happy to pitch in at the end of the night. I also went to one of my aunt’s weddings after which my grandfather’s friends from Knights of Columbus came and did the cleanup as a favor to my grandfather. Also, hiring some responsible high school age guys to do the cleanup could work (if you or a friend knows some). My dad said he had a couple friends that were hired to do wedding cleanups at their church hall.
But if it’s a big job, you might just want to pay the extra to the DOC or the caterer. They are professionals and their reputation is staked in doing a good job, so you won’t have to worry about it getting done and done well.

Our DOC, her assistant and the restaurant staff took care of all of that. It never crossed my mind to have family or friends clean up a party I hosted.

It's our wedding coordinators job to clean up after the wedding, and it's clearly in the contract. They said to leave an SUV at the wedding venue over night and they will clean everything up and place all décor in the car which can be picked up in the morning. My parents are in charge of taking the card box with them at the end of the night.

Throw money at it and let the DOC handle it. I'm not asking my guests to clean up and I'm sure as hell not doing it! Ours is included with the venue price, and we only have to pay extra if it's "excessive." Which I assume means if there is vomit involved or something. Need to clarify on that...

My ex's sister made us stick around and clean up after her wedding, and it sucked. Not only that but she yelled at us the whole time about doing it wrong, making sure every mason jar was accounted for, etc. Stuff got real. Don't do that.

Our venue took care of all of the cleanup, supervised by one of the coordinators we had with the venue. We got married at a hotel so the coordinator actually took care of delivering our card box, gifts, guestbook, the knot we tied during our ceremony, slices of cake and some other goodies, one of our centerpieces, all the extra programs and favors, and any other personal items we had at our sweetheart table and in the hospitality room...they delivered it all to the honeymoon suite and had it displayed nicely for us.

Make sure you take that card box with you! Don't leave it for someone to take care of. At the very least have a parent take it home.

My wedding planner will be in charge of cleaning. That was part of her services. Thank goodness

I believe that is included in our venue pricing, set up and break down as the venue provides a day of coordinator