@nellly
Will warn speech makers to keep it short!
Have put a lot of thought into tables to make sure people are with existing friends or at the very least are well suited.
No cringy singles table I used to hate that
Speeches can be a real issue. Think carefully about who you ask.
You might want to check on content, especially if they are inexperienced public speakers. Best men are notorious for long rambling unfunny speeches with content that is more suitable for a stag do or full of in jokes and anecdotes.
I’d also give a time limit - your idea of “short’ may not be the same as theirs. And have someone who will keep them to take if they run over by more than a few minutes . I’ve seen yellow and red cards used to do this in an amusing way.
I was at one ( very posh and no doubt expensive ) wedding that was completely ruined by 2 things
- A long gap between service and meal, with more than two hours of waiting around for photos, without food, drink or seating. Guests were told not to go away as they might be required for photos and there was no where to buy drinks ( venue was not a hotel ).
I was about 3 months pregnant and just about passing out with hunger. One friend went off in his car to find me food and came back from the petrol station with bags of crips and cans of soda which we all scoffed round them back of the building .
The long delay with the photos meant that the sit down meal started considerably later than planned.
- Too many long and bad speeches. Brides parents were divorced so she decided to have then both. Her Fathers speech had lots of unpleasant digs at his ex and his son in law.
Bride also did a speech ( yay for equality ) but she was very emotional and cried . It should have been sweet but it was just embarrassing and cringey. Half the time we couldn’t hear what she was saying so we had to watch the people at the front to work out how to react. So awkward.
Best Mans speech was very VERY long - maybe 45 mins, illustrated with endless photos of the groom throughout the years he had known him. And many anecdotes that were not suitable for the occasion. NO ONE wants to hear about the grooms exes, really they don’t. No wonder the bride was tearful.
Everyone was hoping that someone , anyone might stop him. But no one did.
Speeches went on so long that the evening guests arrived and they were ushered into the back of the room , where they stood about awkwardly ( no chairs of course ) for an hour.
If the speeches were bad when you were sitting down and at least had a drink , they were a lot worse when you were standing up.
Then the band arrived to set up and but speeches were still going on . There wasn’t another room for them to unload their equipment so they all went back to their van.
After another terrible speech from goodness knows who, we were all finally released . We had to go and stand in the corridor so the waiting staff could clear and move the tables - they were all in a bad mood of course because they should have gone home an hour ago. There was a lot of shouting and banging and general stress.
Massive queues for the tiny number of ladies loos of course. Young women in massively high heels who had been standing around for 1.5 hours. Now they were in a draughty corridor in their tiny dresses with angry waiters squeezing past carrying furniture.
Finally the room was clear, the the band came in, set up and promptly left for their break without playing anything.
So the evening guests had spent an hour standing at the back of the room, then 20 mins standing in the corridor and queueing for the loo, then another 30 mins sitting at tables waiting did the band to start. Some were so fed up they went home.
When the band returned they only played a few numbers before they were stopped so the evening buffet could be set up.
We left at that point as I was pg and exhausted . Worst wedding I’ve been to ( and I’ve been to a lot ).
So yeah the whole day was ruined because of terrible planning and no one keeping things to time. It obviously never occurred to whoever planned the day ( B and G ) that if one things runs late, other things will still happen at the appointed time. And that delays are cumulative .