Okay, so you have your venue picked out, you know exactly where you will be exchanging your vows, you’ve maybe even picked out your dress and worked with your florist to finalize the style of your bouquet. You’re ready to tackle your next big item on your wedding checklist: The Reception!

Your reception is a bid deal. Apart from your getting ready area, you’ll be spending the majority of your time at your wedding in your reception space, hanging out with the people who you love and who have traveled from near and far to congratulate you both on your union. It could be the only time this entire year that your extended family get to see you, and it could be the first time EVER that your high school friends get to meet your college buddies! It could even be the first time you meet a majority of your fiancee’s family like it was for Dom at our wedding, since he grew up abroad and had to be in the UK during the months leading up to our wedding as part of his visa cycle.

So, how do you plan for a kick-ass reception that is not only a blast for your guests to attend, but also reflects your personalities as a couple? How do you make sure that your reception photography is just as epic as your bridal portraits?

Well, I’ve put together a few tips to help you out with those questions and more, so take a look below!

Reception Tip #1

Have a Bridesmaid or someone close to you learn to bustle your dress beforehand and fill out your Ceremonial License prior to your wedding day.

This might be an odd place to start with reception tips but let me share a little timeline secret. There are two places where a wedding timeline tends to break down, taking more time than you believe it will and therefore creating a more stressful day.

One is during the getting ready phase of the day (see my getting ready tips and tricks blog here for more details on this) and the other is right before the grand entrance to the reception.

The delay getting to your reception is usually caused by one of two things- one, signing the marriage license taking much longer than expected and two, bustling the dress taking much longer than planned!

Often times, both of these things take longer than planned and that’s where things start to get stressful. Because your caterers are planning to serve dinner based on your grand entrance time, if your grand entrance is 15 or 20 minutes behind schedule because of difficulty bustling the dress or filing out the license, that can mean cold or overcooked meals served to your guests!

To avoid this you can do a few things. With your license, you have to pick up your packet of license paperwork prior to your wedding. In this packet will be a legal document that your officiant will usually send into the state that looks like a boring legal form. This form is quick to fill out as it is mainly just the signatures of your officiant and witnesses.

There is also a ceremonial license that many couples wish to get photos of. Filling out this one is what usually takes longer than anticipated. Included on this ceremonial document is usually not just the name and signature of your witnesses but also their addresses, the county in which you got married and a myriad of other information.

If you take the time to fill all of the information out beforehand and only have the spots for signatures left, then your license signing will take only seconds. Plus, filling out everything beforehand lets you choose what type of handwriting is on your certificate!

I’ve seen couples take their certificates to a calligraphist and have them fill out all the details so it looks gorgeous when they later hang it on the wall, so feel free to get really creative with filling out your certificate too!

As far as the dress goes, one thing to know is that each dress is bustled differently. Sometimes if you get your dress adjusted to fit your body perfectly, the seamstress will end up putting the bustle in, so when you go to do your final fitting, bring along a bridesmaid with you and have the seamstress show her just how exactly the bustle is done.

Then, the evening of your rehearsal dinner, hang the dress up and have your bridesmaid practice the bustle once more so she really understands how it is done. This will save you so much time and headache later on, let me tell you what!

It can be quite stressful to your family or friends who jump in to try to help bustle your dress while the time ticks away and your grand entrance gets later and later!

Follow these two tips and your reception will start off smoothly and right on time, which leads to being relaxed and having tons of fun at the awesome party you’ve planned!

Reception Tip #2

Spice up your appetizer/cocktail hour with a signature drink and a “build your own” snack bar!

Even if you plan on a First Look and the majority of portraits are done prior to your ceremony, most weddings will have extended family formal portraits set for post-ceremony and pre-reception.

To fill the time while these portraits are done, most couples plan on having a cocktail hour with appetizers.

To make this time uniquely your own, have the bar offer a signature cocktail for you and your groom! Choose your favorite drink and offer it on a cute sandwich board with a little story of why it’s your favorite, or a fun memory of you two when you were out enjoying it together. This not only is a great conversation starter for your guests but allows people to get to know you a bit more than they might otherwise already!

In addition to a signature drink, you can also have a “build your own” snack bar as part of the appetizers you offer your guests. I’ve seen awesome appetizer-sized taco bars, mini-burger bars, hot coco bars for fall and winter weddings, a popcorn bar with a multitude of various types of popcorn and customizable toppings, or even panini bars where guests can create their own tiny sandwiches!

The options for such a bar are endless and again, give your guests fun things to do and a little food in their tummies while you finish up with photos.

Reception Tip #3

Design a cool lounge area which is perfect for guests to relax, drink, play games and chat with new people!

As many of your guests will be from separate parts of you and your partner’s lives, many people at your wedding may not know each other well. Creating a lounge area for guests with comfy sofas, maybe even a card or board game or two and tables for appetizer and drinks makes for a wonderful place to rest and chat with other guests they may not know.

Creating this lovely place to relax will have many of your female guests thankful for a comfy place to take the weight off their heels for a bit too! It also creates a great place for some unique photo opportunities for your own bridal portraits pre-ceremony (picture you lying on the couch, head in your partner’s lap while the train of your dress flows out- so gorgeous!)

Especially if you have an indoor reception area, creating an outdoor lounge area can also offer smoking guests a place to relax, or if your wedding is smoke-free, setting this space apart from where your DJ will be can offer a less noisy location for extended family to chat and catch up.

Reception Tip #4

Plan into your reception timeline 15 minutes to sneak away for “Sunset Portraits”

Especially in the Northwest, the most popular time of the year for weddings is during the long summer days. Throughout late May to mid September, the sun doesn’t set until around 8pm. Most people set their ceremonies, even if planning a later one, around 4pm, so the best light of the day (that gorgeous “Golden Hour” which occurs about an hour to an hour and a half prior to sunset) will happen in the middle of your reception. If you don’t plan a few minutes in your reception timeline to sneak out and take advantage of the beautiful light, you won’t get those beautiful, romantic, glowy-light portraits that most of us swoon over.

Sunset portraits are some of my personal favorites as a photographer, as they occur after all the anticipation or stress of the day has melted away. The ceremony is done, you’ve eaten and had a chance to chat with friends and family, and you are all relaxed and ready to just enjoy the night.

Portraits at sunset usually end up being the most “candid” in style, as this will be your third time in front of the camera after your engagement session and earlier in the day bridal portraits, making you feel much more comfortable and willing to open up and just be yourselves!

When planning sunset photos into your reception timeline you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. Some venues are located in a valley with tall hills surrounding them. If this is the case your “Golden Hour” will be much earlier than an hour prior to sunset. When you look up the time of sunset on your wedding day, the time listed is the time when the sun sinks below the horizon at the ocean so any hills at your venue will hide the sun much earlier.

If sunset photos are very important to you, schedule a walk-through with your photographer on a day similar to that of your wedding so you can see if your sunset portraits need to be bumped up to an earlier time of day.

If you are planning a fall or winter wedding in the Pacific Northwest, be advised that the sun can go down quite early, sometimes as early as 5pm! So in this case you would definitely want to plan your portraiture earlier in the day!

Reception Tip #5

Allow guests to give requests to your DJ (but have a “do not play list” just in case!)

This might seem like a silly one, but a great way to get people more involved on the dance floor is giving them an opportunity to request the type of music they love!

I’ve seen this play out in some really incredible ways, too. For example, at one wedding the bride’s grandfather requested the song that he and the bride’s grandmother danced to as their first dance! It was so sweet to see his wife’s eyes tear up as they swayed together to this song that meant so much to them. I’ve also seen a ring bearer request a song that he knew an EPIC dance routine to which made for amazing photos of guests whooping and hollering as the little man tore it up on the dance floor! At one wedding I photographed, the groom’s mom and sisters had a special 80’s song that they all danced to together, and the groom’s mom even brought props with her to bust out to add to the hilarity!

Of course, you and your new spouse might also want to give your DJ a “Do Not Play” list if there are any songs or any genres of music which you wouldn’t want to hear. Doing this may help in pruning the less-than-special requests of any guests who have made one too many trips to the open bar as well! ;-)

I hope these simple tips help you in your reception planning!

If you have further interest in wedding tips and tricks, check out my entire Wedding Education Blog Series! Being a wedding photographer has involved me in the planning of hundreds of weddings, so I have a lot of uncommon tips to help make your wedding day phenomenal!

As always, if you have further questions or just want someone to help you in your wedding planning, don’t hesitate to reach out! I love hearing from Brides and I am always willing to answer any questions you may thrown my way to the best of my ability! E-mail me any time!