Lugging Tables Before The Vows- Setup?

I'd say the best way to do this is to hire a service or Day of Coordinator to set up the space for you so you don't have to be worried about being ready in time. If this isn't an option, I would come up with a detailed plan beforehand and assign people tasks so everyone knows what they should be doing quickly.

Great idea, Allie! I'll create a detailed assignment list for folks so that we can get in and out of there quickly. Thanks for the advice!

I agree with Allie! Getting a Day of Coordinator or a team for setting up/breaking down would work. If you want things set up a certain way you can do one table yourself and then have them do the rest the same way.

Our venue for both is a community center that's really a blank slate too. We can't get into it until 2 p.m. and our wedding is at 4. My nephew is going to be in charge of setting up. He's good at it and loves me and i'll be taking pics of what the centerpieces look like so all he'll have to do is set them on the table. the main table i'm concerned with is the sweetheart table. It's going to be a bit more detailed. I think my nephew can handle it though. A couple of my friends and a couple of my fiancee's nieces and nephews will probably help too. I was worried i'd be setting up in my gown

My friend had a blank slate too. The groomsmen did the heavy lifting work while the girls got ready, then they got ready while we set up already dressed. Didn't let the bride do anything.
Everything turned out fine. But definitely make a list and assign people to tasks.

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I think the Day of Coordinator is out of our budget but we are fortunate in that tons of friends and family have been asking how they can help! Setting up an example table is a great idea! We have to be at the venue early anyways in order to receive the rentals- perhaps we can set up one table and leave to go get ready while others duplicate the design in the space. I hadn't thought about this and it seems like a wonderful suggestion.

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Hahaha We had the same worries, Laura...not setting up in our gowns of course, of setting up in our suits and getting all gross before the ceremony. We definitely want to avoid that. Our venue originally gave us a 2-3 hour setup window as well which we caused us to panic a bit. We called him and expressed our concerns and now he has given us a much larger window to fix up the venue, which makes this MUCH less stressful. Depending on the number of decorations you have and the work style of your nephew, you may also want to reach out to your venue and express your questions. They may be able to get you in there an hour or two earlier which could make a big difference! I've been told the most time consuming piece is having to set up tables and chairs in place. Hopefully there can be a few people charged with doing that for you.

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Kelly- great suggestion! People keep asking us how they can help and we tend to tell them "thanks for the offer but we should be fine" even though there's a bit of panic. We respond this way partly because there's so many things that I don't know what to tell people. Creating assignment lists is a great idea for a solution to this! We will be starting to create those tonight... Thanks!

I reccomend Google sheets it's free, easy, and you can get it on your device where every there internet so it's harder to lose

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Awesome! Thanks for the tip, Kelly!

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I tried talking to them, but they'll only let us in early if we have a caterer and we don't. I'm going to try and get as much of the set up done before so they just have to put it on the tables. Luckily it's pretty low-key and shouldn't be to hard to just put up.

Our ceremony starts at 2 pm and we don't get our venue until 11 am the day of so I feel ya! We are just gonna do what we can as quick as we can lol

I had a blank slate for my ceremony. It was tight. So I also had a 5p ceremony start time which rly means you should be set up by 445p for early guests. So we finished taking photos by 3p and by 330p we started set up. So we had help from family and friends to set up the chairs and tables and we were good to go. It is super hectic though.