Over the past year, home weddings have become more fashionable than ever thanks to celebrities like Ariana Grande – who got married at her Montecito home last month – and smaller gatherings caused by the pandemic.
If you too want to follow in the footsteps of a Grammy-winning pop star – and many other celebrities like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle who had a backyard ceremony just days before their very public royal wedding – like countless other proponents of home weddings, House Beautiful is here to help, as we’ve spoken to a number of brides, wedding planners, and guests who have attended home weddings to find out exactly what they should know before practicing a wedding feast in your own residence.
For Stephen Andrew Jones – a real estate agent based in Columbus, Ohio and Hilton Head, South Carolina – planning a home wedding was a learning experience for the first time, and he has plenty of advice for others who try the same.
The greatest insight Jones learned firsthand in planning this event is this “It’s definitely worth paying for the chic rental bathing cars.” After a problem with an upstairs bathroom that resulted in water dripping from the kitchen lamps when guests arrived, the agent went on their local resources and found a plumber who resolved the situation in no time. “While the brides were reading their vows outside in the tent, a plumber was fixing toilet water that was dripping into the kitchen.” He adds: “Fortunately, no food was prepared!”
The backyard setup for a home wedding for Katherine Shell and Billy Hughes.
A. Thomas Photography
Another tip from Jones about this type of wedding is: have a lot of alcohol readyas the broker found that this type of affair made people drink more. “We burned out all the wine – except for the case, which I stowed for myself as a thank you for my hard work!” He proclaims.
Jones also mentions that everything was moved out of the house in time for the wedding, including personal decorations to make room for the nightly party. As for the back yard of the property, A tent was set up around the terrace so that the wedding day could go smoothly even when it rained.
While some couples have decided to have a wedding at home in recent months due to the pandemic, others have been planning to host a wedding for quite some time. Katherine Shell, a client of Atlanta-based wedding planners Candace Frank and Jennifer Gowing of Evermore Weddings and Events, “always wanted to get married in their parents’ home,” which is in Newnan, Georgia’s historic neighborhood, tell Frank and Gowing House Beautiful.
Although many home weddings typically only use the backyard as an event space, Shell’s wedding also included the front yard, serving champagne and appetizers. The back yard, on the other hand, took advantage of its centuries-old oak trees to act as a canopy – a very picturesque one – and proves that Sometimes nature is the best backdrop for a home wedding.
Shell and Hughes at the altar in the bride’s backyard.
A. Thomas Photography
And despite the fact that many weddings include a tent as part of the reception, Shell’s wedding had pretty much everything else instead: a dance floor, ceremonial chairs, reception tables and chairs, linens, trash cans, and generators (for both lighting and the music booth of the DJs). The installation process started the day before the wedding, and a tent was reserved in case of bad weather, but luckily it wasn’t necessary in the end. Better to be sure than sorry!
When it came to logistics around parking, S.Hell has opted for a combination of a guest shuttle and self-parking. Since their house is on a quiet street, the neighbors were informed of the wedding in advance and everyone agreed to allow parking along the street. Shuttle buses were provided to guests staying in local hotels.
As for toilet use during the festival, all 150 guests were allowed to use each of the many bathrooms in the house, and since the wedding was during the day there was not much drinking. If the occasion produced more toilets than the stated number of toilets, “we would definitely have brought rented toilet trailers,” say Frank and Gowing.
Of course, the dreaded cleanup process follows after the conclusion of any type of party. Thank God, Each seller at Shell’s wedding was “responsible for cleaning and removing their specific rental items in order to leave the house and property in the same condition as they were found”. The only component the homeowner was responsible for was garbage disposal.
A. Thomas Photography
Best of all, the wedding gave the bride’s father a “good reason to check off a list of improvements he wanted to make, including a repaint of the house, a repaved driveway, improvements to the portico (which will be used as the location of the Food buffets) and lots of beautiful landscaping. ”The customer review has been automatically translated from German.
Of course, there’s no one set way to host a home wedding – or a wedding for that matter – but a home wedding requires careful planning. Take a look at our list of key takeaways below – a great guide for anyone looking to take on this challenge.
The central theses:
• Hire a wedding planner to make the couple less stressful.
• Develop your home well in advance of the wedding day (and think about possible delays).
• Have a wide range of drinks ready.
• Make sure there are enough toilets for your guests.
• Use all available seats for the duration of the event.
• Have a tent ready in case of bad weather.
• Providing shuttles for guests who do not live in the area.
• Don’t forget bathroom logistics.
• Notify the neighbors in advance.
• Make sure guests who need to park their car have enough space nearby.
• Make cleaning arrangements with suppliers in advance.
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