Set up time at reception

Hire someone to do it for you.

Do you have your venue booked yet? Some offer that you can come in the night before if it's not booked. If that's not possible I would suggest having a later ceremony, decorating first thing in the am, and then getting around after that. ETA: also will your venue set up tables or anything? Some offer that and then all you'd have to do was put center pieces on and finishing touches. Hope that helps. If you don't have your venue booked yet that may be something to think about before booking.

Yeah I'm a bit worried about this too. I have no one to help me, nor would I ask, and I can't afford to pay someone. I think I'll have to get there when I can enter the venue and set-up before my MUA arrives.

Our venue set up the reception area for us.

Depending on your venue, can you get into the space the night before?

My SIL is staying in a hotel next to the restaurant that my reception is at. She is planning to set up before coming to my ceremony location for photos. I dont have a lot of set up though. Just some centerpieces and a few decorations.

Yeah i have 2 places that we are interested in and have yet to ask. Dont feel like spending the extra $$ if i dont have to.

It depends on your venue. The wedding coordinator of my venue will do it for us. We also have access to the room the night before too I believe.

My venue said if we have centerpieces together already with a picture they will set that stuff up on the tables when they do the linens and everything the day of. The only thing they won't do is hang anything. I'd ask your venue if they'd do the same, even if it's for a small fee it's totally worth not having the stress.

I have assigned someone I trust to do the set up and decor. I don't need that kind of stress on my wedding day. Best wishes!

We hired people to do this. Our florist/decor people will do the centerpieces, linens, charger plates, napkins, etc. Our DOC will do pictures, guest book, any final touches, etc. I don't need or want this stress day-of.

I had to do it myself--I didn't want to pony up the extra $1,200 for someone to do the setup for me and the venue was a restaurant so I didn't feel right about asking them to do it all.

Honestly it wasn't that bad---I only had four long tables for 32 guests to set up, and it looked amazing. I had a lot of fun doing it all, and because I did all my decor DIY, it was really enjoyable to see it come together.

But, my way is definitely NOT for everyone. I didn't have a bridal party so I have plenty of time in the day to get ready (though fair warning, the second you put that dress on at the venue you somehow lose all your time---never enough for pictures/touchups/relaxing, etc). If I could do it all over again, honestly, I'd probably just throw a few more thousand dollars at it and let someone else handle it all for me. I really enjoyed my wedding day, but HAVING to do something is stressful. If you're really confident with your timeline and you want to do it, you absolutely can. I did it, it was fine, it all worked. But----you know, hindsight. It's really important that you give yourself huge buffers of time on absolutely everything if you decide to do decor yourself.

Pay someone to do it!

Our venue, my DOC and my vendors are handling this. There are delivery and setup fees but it's worth it to me.

How much do you have to set up? I'd pay extra for your vendors who are delivering anything to also set them up (rental companies, florist). For any additional decorations I'd hire a wedding planner for day-of coordination to handle this, or ask your venue if they have anyone you could pay to handle set-up!

I set up with some friends the morning of (from like 8-10:30). I don't relax well, so setting up kept me calm.

I have a wedding planner for this. Also the venue sets up the tables and chairs for us, but my wedding planner will be doing the decorating for us

We had a place booked for a 4 hour slot. Including set up and break down. Ultimately I decided that just wasn't something something that would work for us. We don't want to feel so rushed. We ended up switching gears completely.

We could have paid for them to do it...but I didn't really want to spend that, either. We have a small budget.

My venue will be helping me with the set up. I'm having a Friday wedding and nothing is the night before me, so I'm setting aside time that Wednesday to drop everything off and work with the staff to get the place decorated. Rehearsal will be Thursday so I can do one last look around. Setup and tear down are included in the price I'm paying.

We were lucky and our venue staff handled all of this. Granted we paid for that service within the venue rental fee! I know it seems silly to spend extra on something like that but I would hire a day of coordinator or someone to set up and take down everything. You can find one for a reasonable cost and it really gives you piece of mind!

I would honestly find a way to save up to pay someone to set up. You have over a year an a half to save and it will save you a lot of stress and a huge headache!