Extras at a wedding - what do you actually enjoy?

[Bridecilla]

Guests will be fed and watered. Not wanting to go mad with £££ that won't make a jot of difference.

We've booked a really good wedding DJ. Beer on tap.

Glitter bar? Photo booth??

@riotlady it is indeed!

I am obviously way out of date on weddings these days. So can someone explain the photo booth for me.

I was at one wedding where they Bridal party disappeared to have photos taken, 6 of us left after 2 hours of stood about waiting. They had travelled 15 miles away for photos and hadn't arranged for any seats for their guests, we were left stood outside the locked venue. The Bridal party returned after 3 hours to find most guests had left. You dont need "extra's" just a cup of tea and a snack about 9pm and take time to speak to your guests. Dont have a circus

Omg can I come to your wedding!
Good food, free bar are winners for me. Throw in a bloody glitter bar and I'd be in wedding heaven! So would my husband and all our mates 😂

Photo booths are good fun, and outside games to keep everyone occupied with all the waiting about.

I don't know what a glitter bar is but it sounds AMAZING

@Bridecilla so exciting! I didn’t know about all the ice cream van options etc, can’t wait to go look round. I’m sure you’ll have a gorgeous day there!

Also to answer your original question, I’ve really appreciated the weddings that have given out flip flops for when my heels got too sore

Seriously. Just put more money behind the bar so everyone can get something they want. Trust me on this one.

This ^^

I know you said you didn't like wine OP, but a lot of people do, so I think there should be some available.

@riotlady we went for Sunday dinner and accidentally booked our wedding 🤣

PM me if you want a nosey at the menu email

I was at a wedding once where they had a fireworks display.
I'm not gonna lie, it was amazing.

Fireworks would be amazing but I doubt the farm animals would be happy 🤣

@Bridecilla First time I've ever posted on here but I had to say, this was our wedding venue, and it was the most amazing day.

Keep things laid back, don't worry about too many extras, the self pour beers and relaxed atmosphere of the place will make for an incredible day (as will the staff who know exactly what they're doing, and will make sure you and DP will have the best day)
We hired a marquee, just incase it rained, in the end, we needed it for shade. It worked really well. But does depend on your budget.

Hog roast in the evening was one of the highlights btw. And it's all locally sourced meat so you can be sure of it's origin.
Have a gorgeous day, it will be all the sweeter when it eventually rolls around.

@Mysilverlining thank you so much for posting 😍

I worried that adding the marquee would just spread people.around and make it a bit 'bitty' was yours about 3 grand? Think that's the quote we got.

In the evening at my friend’s wedding there was a trunk full of flip flops (from primark I think) in various sizes. These were brilliant to change into for dancing & provided much welcome respite from the sore feet caused by wearing heels all day.
She also had pick & mix sweets, photo booth, mini fish & chip cones....but it was the flip flops I loved the most.

Edible vegetarian food. The best wedding I went to had loads of really good food, plenty of vegetarian food, really good live music and a beer keg on every table. Perfect

I have to say, that unlike an awful lot of mumsnetters, I enjoy weddings. And yours sounds lovely. You sound like you want to make your guests feel welcome, and don't sound bridezillaish at all.

ps. Just make sure you get some wine in

@bridecilla yes about that, and that was 2 years ago. If you use the very local company, they are very efficient and all up ready to go exactly as promised.

It did separate out slightly in the evening, we had the DJ in the marquee. But this did mean that if people weren't interested in dancing, they had quieter areas.

One thing I do wish we'd done was to investigate the option of setting up a bar "downstairs" outside (which I think you can do) as I think it would have helped keep people together a little bit more instead of having to go all the way upstairs to the bar.
But, that separation in no way put a downer on our day. But it does depend on how many guests you have and your personal preferences. We had about 110 in the evening.

I had guessed your venue (at least where I think it is!) before you posted the picture. If its where I think it is (north east?!) I've heard very good things about it :)

We are having a very similar sounding wedding to you, next year. We will have quite a lot of small children at ours so probably will go for a sweetie bar and we have previously loved photo booths at weddings so going for that too. Our venue is also very open with lots of outdoor space so with having a lot of little ones we will consider outdoor games eg giant jenga, hooplah. But agree with PP that food, drink are the main things though it sounds like you've got them sorted!

It does sound lovely OP though I am struggling to picture the room space (are allowed diagrams on non-parking threads ? ).

I can't imagine it is just the covered area in the photograph ? If it were tthen you would definitely need the marquee - but you said something about there being rooms inside ?
I would be a bit concerned about "splitting the crowd". I've been to a few weddings in hotels with separate rooms for the food / the bar / somewhere to sit / somewhere to dance and it is really disjointed with people split up into separate factions. It seems there are others who know the venue, so perhaps they can confirm it isn't like that? I'm just not seeing room to dance in that photo and would definitely be worried about the weather with open sides.

I suspect you don't need another person to say really the 'Glitter Bar' is a bad idea and I still don't know what you are supposed to do with it
I don't like photo booths. Saying 'looking at the photos afterwards you could see everyone enjoyed it' doesn't really ring true, as I've been guilt tripped into them before now by an usher or friend or parent rounding people up, so you put on a fixed grin for the photograph, but it doesn't mean it is a good thing to waste your money on.

I wouldn't spend on favours - waste of time, money and effort - not decorations (especially putting covers on chairs).

At a wedding I like plenty of nice food, a reasonably priced bar, and not too many hours between the ceremony and the food.
It sounds like you've covered all my main "hopes" when I go to a wedding.
A good choice /range of drinks available. You might not like wine, but I, for example don't like beer. Lovely to have an affordable bar so you can choose.
Like a few other posters, I just love to be able to get a cuppa - I'm not a fan of sweet soft drinks and do like to be able to order myself a pot of tea at the bar rather than being on solid alcohol from early in the afternoon.

Op your wedding sounds lovely! You’re never going to please everyone, because as you can see from this thread, people’s opinions vary so much.

For me, I love photo booths and sweet tables (I promise I’m an adult not a child ). So if that’s what you want, go for it. But if you feel like you’d only be having it to please others and you don’t want it, then don’t.

I’ve been to weddings where the basket of flip flops have been a huge hit. But I also went to one where it hardly got touched and was a massive waste.

I think weddings go bad when corners are cut for pointless things. E.g no canapés or welcome drink because the couple decided to spend money on giant light up letters of their initials.

One wedding I disliked had afternoon tea for the wedding breakfast. Cute concept, but there were two tiny afternoon tea stands per tables of 10. You barely got anything and I was starving (food came ages after the ceremony as well, so I was already ravenous). At the head table, they had one between two and didn’t experience the same hunger as their guests! They definitely needed more servings.

Oh yes, another tea drinker here. If I am driving I would rather have a cup of tea than a soft drink, especially if the weather isn't very good.

@BackforGood

It's hard to explain - and their website doesn't have pics. The inside is a bit split up. If anyone wants a nosey search on either Facebook or Insta for High House Farm Brewery.

I don't like waiting hours for food and drinks. Nibbles and tea/coffee and soft drinks available to self serve.

Entertainment for children. Supervision for children - some parents never supervise them although most children are lovely. The ones that are badly behaved are extremely annoying.

Plenty of seating.

Entertainment for adults too - some weddings are dull and guests are too insular.

I don't like too loud music and crap microphones.

Maybe it’s an age thing (mid twenties) but I love all of the extras! Photo booth, sweet cart, everything! Photo booths are definitely worth it IMO. If you use Instagram think of a hashtag for the day and let people know it so you can find any pictures.
One wedding the bride had been to primark and bought a whole basket of the 90p flip flops for guests - lifesaver!
Another had an autumn feel to it and the B&G had all of the guests names cut out of ‘wood’ as place settings - they were lovely and only cheap but I still have mine and DP’s. You have loads of time and there are so many little things like that on eBay etc. you could add little touches like that.
I also like the favours like the gin ones etc.

Wouldn’t recommend pie and mash for dinner - too heavy! Hog roast is fine but will there be anything else? Maybe some picky bits like sausage rolls, crisps etc.

The best weddings I’ve been to have been the simplest.
If there is seating outside or the barn is open , nice throws/ blankets for people if it gets chilly, we went to a summer wedding mainly set outside and we appreciated as the night went chilly having a soft throw for our legs.

A proper cup of tea after the ceremony. Lots of iced water, plus soft drinks without sugar and/or without sweeteners.

Lots of veggie food, much more than you think, because the meat eaters like to take it as a side dish. And tbh a roast at 4 then a hog at 8.30 is incredibly meat heavy even for a carnivore like me.