Planning a wedding at home

In light of the present economy many people today are planning for their weddings at home.  If your space permits, this truly is the way to have your wedding day be exactly as you would like. There are plenty of benefits  – on top of the list is that you can save a lot of money, right?   Following that, there is no frustration with coordinating bookings for rental of the ceremony or reception sites. Then when it comes to food and beverages you are your own master; you don't have to worry about paying cake-cutting fees or who knows what else.  And the list goes on ...

It isn’t all about the money though – possibly your family has a lovely home where your parents were married and you just want to follow in their footsteps.  Or maybe you have gone out of the country for your wedding and everybody that you wanted to have share in your special day was not able to attend.  Or the ceremony was not honored by your state as being legal and this ceremony will make it official.

Because of all the advantages we tend to ignore what could be obstacles with having your wedding at home. 

First up is the size of the space and the number of people you would like to invite.  Make sure that you look carefully at this because your wedding can easily turn into chaos if you don't take the necessary safety measures and precautions into consideration. How many toilets are there in the house?  Statistics for weddings at home show that the most comfortable number is thirty five people per toilet.

Then, where do you anticipate having your ceremony?  Will it be indoors or out?  Most of the time weddings at home are planned for outdoors but what happens in the case of a rain shower – is there enough room indoors to be able to move inside?  Or how protected is the area from the sun?  You don't want your guests to get sun burned plus too much light can definitely ruin your photos.  One solution to this is to rent a tent.  Typically they are used as the eating area but with a little effort it can be used for both the ceremony and the eating area.

Also remember that the garden where you may want to hold the ceremony is exposed to noises such as dogs barking, lawn mowers, and so on.  Please remember to ask your neighbors to avoid cutting their lawn that particular day or at least during the time of your ceremony.  Most people won’t mind accommodating you for a wedding.  I have not heard of a way to deal with dogs barking so if you know of one please let me know.

Another issue is that of parking – where will all of your guests park?  Most neighborhoods don’t have enough parking as it is or restrictions preclude having an extra hundred vehicles lining the streets.

A couple of major precautions include making sure that all electrical cables and wires are taped down and away from any walking paths.  And a huge one concerns pool areas – please make sure there are no children unsupervised in the pool area.  Then check you home insurance to make sure you have coverage for any accidents that might take place. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to planning a wedding at home.  We’ll explore these advantages and issues with planning your wedding at home more in the future because of all of the people doing it.