Wedding banquet: instructions for holding

The beginning of the celebration

When guests take their places at the festive tables, salads and appetizers, most often cold, are already waiting for them.
Literally 20 minutes after the start of the banquet, you can serve some of the hot appetizers - many guests managed to get hungry during the ceremony and salads alone may not be enough. The mood of the first table is rarely intense: as a rule, the host simply introduces the guests to each other. This is the time when guests get used to the atmosphere, communicate and get to know each other, there is no need to rush them. The first musical break starts after an average of 40 minutes. You shouldn’t expect it to be very fun and eventful, so it’s better to plan a dance for the newlyweds at this time - after it, the guests will be very willing to start dancing themselves. But don’t force everyone to go to the dance floor - if they wish, during a break, guests can fill out a book of wishes, take a few pictures in the photo zone as a souvenir, and just personally communicate with the main characters of the holiday.

Our Weddywood Organizer includes a complete seating guide, as well as interactive drinks charts.

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Photo by: Anna Kozdurova | Wedding of Evgeniy and Alexandra

Wedding Preparation: Action Plan 6 Months Before Your Wedding

We decide on the date of the solemn wedding.
We decide whether you want a painting in the registry office or an outdoor ceremony.
We choose the registry office/wedding palace.
We go to the registry office and reserve a wedding date (or do it via the Internet/phone).
We draw up an individual plan for preparing for the wedding point by point.
Let's find out whether wedding exhibitions will be organized in your city. If there are, we will definitely visit them.
We are compiling a rough list of guests.
Based on this, we calculate how much money will be needed to hold a wedding banquet.
We decide what wedding services you will order for your wedding. Let's find out their approximate cost.
Based on the two previous points, we form an approximate wedding budget (add 15-20% to it for unforeseen expenses, etc.).
We announce your wedding to relatives and friends.
We choose witnesses (or do it later). In terms of organizing a wedding, this point should be given special attention. After all, the wedding mood largely depends on the witnesses.
Let's decide how you will spend your honeymoon. If necessary, we reserve a hotel room in advance, buy tickets, etc. (especially if your wedding falls during the warm season).
We are making a list of restaurants, banquet halls and other places where you would like to hold your wedding. We will find out the terms of their rental, including how far in advance you need to book a restaurant (cafe) and make an advance payment.

Main part of the celebration

In the second part everything is different. The guests had already toured the hall, talked with the newlyweds, raised their first toasts, met their tablemates, and some even made friends with the host. Therefore, now is the time for an active entertainment program and competitions.

In the kitchen, everything is simple: the remaining hot snacks are served, and the musical break is the longest - about an hour, and already quite intense. Here you can already call guests from the table and diversify the evening with live music. If you are planning a performance by artists or various interactive events for guests (dance master classes, illusionist shows), now is the time for them.

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Photo by: Alexander Ovcharenko | Wedding of Dima and Anya

Final part

The third part features the chef's main course. In terms of time, this part is quite short, but necessary, since in total several hours have already passed since the beginning of the holiday. By this time, as a rule, the atmosphere is already more informal, all the guests are cheerful and relaxed. At the end of the evening, the cake is brought out, the bride throws a bouquet, and the groom throws a garter. It is worth thinking about an interesting and memorable ending to the evening: for example, setting up fireworks or lighting the family fireplace.

Officially, the banquet can end at this point, and after that, if the couple wishes, the most informal part of the evening begins. Some of the guests will go home after the cake (primarily this applies to families with small children and older generations), but close friends of the newlyweds will most likely still want to have fun. It all depends on your wedding venue: check in advance until what time the restaurant will be open, and if the wedding is taking place in an outdoor area, read the rules of behavior after 23:00.

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Photo by: Marymoon | Wedding of Evgeniy and Anna

Wedding script for toastmaster

A ready-made wedding script for a toastmaster is a very convenient, simple solution in cases where you do not want to hire a professional host, but plan to do it yourself. It includes all the key points that you definitely shouldn’t miss, several interesting, modern competitions and mandatory wedding rituals that you can’t do without at a wedding. Depending on the tastes and desires of the bride and groom, you can add something to it or, conversely, remove something.

Meeting the newlyweds: options

As a rule, the host does not accompany the newlyweds at the wedding ceremony, but meets them in the restaurant. Their arrival is especially solemn: guests line up on both sides of the driveway or in the restaurant lobby, applauding the newlyweds. If desired, you can sprinkle them with confetti, wheat grains or millet. Right in front of the entrance are the mothers of the bride and groom holding a loaf of bread. At this moment the presenter takes the floor:

— Dear newlyweds! This long-awaited moment has come and you have joined your hands and hearts! In honor of this event, your closest and dearest people - your parents - present you with a symbol of your pure, true love. Taste your first wedding loaf. And we will all watch: after all, everyone knows whose piece will be larger, he will become the head of the family.

Ѵ As an interesting modern alternative to a traditional meeting, you can ask guests to line up in a “living corridor” along the red carpet and actively take photographs of the newlyweds as they walk along it. This will make them feel like real stars!

After the ceremony with a loaf of bread, the toastmaster invites the young husband to carry his wife over the threshold in his arms. Now all guests are invited to the hall where the banquet will be held.

- Guests are invited, dear guests! We ask you to come to the wedding table for good bread and salt, a word of greeting, and a fun and noisy feast!

The beginning of the festive banquet: toasts, games, congratulations

The modern wedding scenario involves coordinating guests at all stages of the celebration. In order to prevent the feast from turning into a banal drinking session at the initial stage and boring toasts being read out, it needs to be diluted with entertainment. Table games, as well as cheerful toasts from the toastmaster, will help maintain a good mood among the guests and a festive atmosphere.

— Dear guests, our beautiful newlyweds (names) made the difficult decision to walk together all their lives, hand in hand. Let's support them, have a lot of fun today and make this wedding bright and memorable!

The toastmaster invites guests to fill glasses and plates, and gives the first toast to the parents of the newlyweds. Usually, wishes from moms and dads come out very touching and romantic, so to avoid too many tears, the toastmaster needs to say something cheerful and funny immediately after their toast. Table games work well at such moments - they must be included in the wedding script for the host.

Game "Compliment to the Bride." The toastmaster asks each guest in a circle to say one epithet about the bride, but at the same time, one cannot repeat it. For example: beautiful, smart, charming, graceful, stylish, amazing, etc.

Game "In short". Guests are encouraged to make their toasts as short and succinct as possible. To do this, the toastmaster approaches selectively any of the invitees. You can complicate the game by offering guests the letter of the alphabet with which the wish should begin.

Game "By last name". The toastmaster needs to prepare in advance funny phrases about guests like: Today, everyone will drink the most...; He won’t be able to leave the wedding himself...; Tomorrow morning the first one will come to the newlyweds with a box of beer... And so on. At the wedding itself, he must approach the guests one by one, find out their last name (first name) and write it down in the blanks. Then what happened is read out.

Competitions: an obligatory part of every wedding

A wedding banquet usually lasts 5-6 hours and, of course, sitting at the table all the time is boring. The task of the toastmaster is to distribute the time so that every 40-50 minutes there is a change of activity: refreshments and toasts are replaced by competitions, followed by dancing, and then a feast again. Ready-made wedding scenarios for the host/host necessarily include several competitions that should amuse the guests and make the evening more dynamic and interesting.

To prevent the wedding from turning out banal, it is better not to use hackneyed competitions from the “clothespins” or “pregnancy” series. Try to find more original, modern games that will really entertain your guests. We offer several unconventional competitions for your wedding:

"Yellow press". Guests are invited to take unexpected photos of the newlyweds for half an hour, and then send them to their Viber number. The toastmaster displays the resulting photographs on the big screen in the following categories: “The funniest photo”, “The most romantic photo”, etc. The winners are awarded prizes.
"Guess the number." The goal of the game is to guess the phone number and be the first to call it. It is encrypted in the answers to questions regarding the newlyweds that the host asks the guests. For example, “how many years have the young people met” or “what floor do they live on”, etc. Whoever calls the guessed number first wins.
"Dance Battle" Guests are divided into two teams (for example, boys and girls). The groom dances at the head of the guys, and the bride dances for the girls. The “leaders” take turns showing dance moves, and the members of their teams must repeat them. It turns out funny and then funny photos come out.

Ѵ An interesting version of the dance competition is “Battle of Generations”. In it, a team of young people needs to dance to the melodies of past years, and older guests - to the most modern compositions.

Wedding rituals: what you can’t do without at a traditional wedding

No wedding is complete without wedding traditions and rituals. Some people decide to perform only the most popular ones, others include a dozen rituals in their wedding celebration at once - but in any case, you need to prepare for them in advance. Among the most popular wedding traditions are:

Meeting the newlyweds with a loaf of bread.
The newlyweds' first dance. It is usually held at the beginning of the celebration to set the guests in a romantic mood.
Fortune telling for the firstborn. Usually this means collecting money for a boy or a girl in children's rompers.
Kidnapping the bride (her shoes). It is carried out exclusively by prior agreement with the newlyweds.
Throwing the wedding bouquet and garter. No wedding would be complete without this tradition.
Family hearth. A very beautiful, touching custom. The newlyweds hold a large candle in their hands, and their parents light it from the flame of their candles. This is a symbol of a happy life together and family well-being.
Cutting the wedding cake. Traditionally, husband and wife do this together, which means they are united into one family. This is a kind of culmination of the wedding.

End of the celebration

At the end of the holiday, after cutting the wedding cake and fireworks (optional), the toastmaster invites the newlyweds to say words of gratitude to their parents and the assembled guests. After this, the host himself announces the end of the celebration and invites the guests to say goodbye.

“This day was bright, cheerful and touching, filled with real, bright emotions. Let your whole future life be the same! I wish you happiness, prosperity and many children!

Tips for writing a wedding script

The main rule of how to write a wedding script is to always listen to the wishes of the bride and groom. They should feel as comfortable as possible at their holiday, so nothing should be imposed on them. If customers are against it, you should absolutely not arrange surprises at the celebration. It is necessary to take into account the number of guests invited to the wedding - if there are many of them, it is worth preparing more competitions and be sure to have a couple in reserve. Consider special entertainment for children and elderly relatives, because they shouldn’t get bored either.

Ѵ Be sure to draw up an approximate timing (schedule) for the event. This will help to avoid problems during the banquet and create a clear idea of the course of the future holiday.

A good, thoughtful, cheerful script for the toastmaster is the key to a successful and memorable holiday. Therefore, its preparation must be approached with all seriousness.