A home wedding is easy to customize and private, reducing logistics expenses. If you plan to wed at home, you should consider the decor, catering, and landscape design, among other factors, to make the wedding memorable. Here are six essential steps for setting up a DIY wedding venue at home.
1. Hire a Landscaper
A landscaper’s primary role is to maintain the beauty of an outdoor space or garden. Therefore, you may hire a professional landscaper ahead of your wedding to clean up debris in your DIY wedding venue and prepare the place ahead of the wedding.
The ideal landscape contractor should be experienced, reputable, available, affordable, and prompt in delivering their landscaping services. Here are the main benefits of hiring lawn maintenance landscaping contractors for your DIY home wedding.
Saves Time and Effort
Landscaping requires considerable effort and time to accomplish the task. At times, you may not have the time needed to accomplish the landscaping job, considering that you still have other equally essential preparations. An experienced landscaper can save you the time and effort of doing the work.
Creative Designs
Creativity is the key to landscaping, especially if you will host a major event like a wedding. Experienced landscapers know many great designs to improve your space’s curb appeal before the wedding.
Access to Tools
Landscaping requires a wide array of tools like bulldozers, lawnmowers, and many more, which are costly to acquire. Professional landscapers are well equipped with the tools and equipment needed to improve the appearance of your yard within a short time as you prepare for the home wedding.
Expertise
Landscaping requires expertise for the best results. For instance, a landscaper should understand the type of soil in your yard and the best plants which would thrive well in it.
Activities like creating pathways and driveways also need the experience to provide the best results. Therefore, you can hire a professional landscaper instead of doing trial and error. You might also get expert advice on what to add or remove to increase the curb appeal of your property while sticking to your budget.
2. Make Arrangements for Food and Drinks
Food and drinks are vital for a wedding because they are part of the celebration. They also increase unity as people sit together to enjoy tasty meals and interact with each other after being away for so long.
However, making arrangements for food and drinks is never easy work, and you may need to seek help if many people will be attending. Here are practical tips for arranging food and drinks in your DIY wedding venue.
Create a Budget
How much do you wish to spend on food and drinks? Create a flexible and realistic budget you will follow as you buy/arrange for meals at the wedding.
Choose a Caterer
You may need a caterer if you are overwhelmed by the food and drink preparations for your wedding. An experienced caterer should access your budget and help you get what you want according to your budget and goals.
Create the Dinner Area
Find a quiet space in your home that will be used as the restaurant in your home. If your property is small, guests can still take their meals in the same area where the wedding was held. However, you can create a different location for the receptions and dinners if your property is spacious.
Watch for Diet Restrictions
You may like chicken, but your grandparents may like pork. Dietary restrictions will always exist, and you must ensure everyone gets what they want. One great way to watch for diet restrictions is to understand the diet needs of the guest attending or create a variety of meals such that everyone will be sorted.
Keep It Local but Fun
Keep your dishes local but tasty for your DIY wedding venue. When you know the types of guests you will be expecting, choosing the foods and drinks that will impress your guests will be easy. You can even set up a bar and grill so your guests have many options for deciding what to drink.
Plan on Presentation
Presentation matters greatly, even when the food is well-cooked. You cannot just place food in any corner of your yard or at the edge of your tables. Get good caterers for the presentation, and plan how the food will be presented or served in the event.
Create a Cleanup Plan
Chances are you will have some food leftovers and some mess after the wedding. As such, you should have a solid plan to remove the remaining food and clear the serving dishes, supplies, and display ware. Delegate the tasks to people you trust, especially if you take your honeymoon immediately after the wedding.
3. Ensure You Have Enough Restrooms
There are many important scenes in a wedding, like cake cutting, dancing, and the reception entrance. However, your guests can miss some of those important moments simply because they are lined up in the washrooms, and this is something you wouldn’t like.
When planning a home wedding, ensure the restrooms are enough to avoid congestion, improve sanitation, and ensure guests are comfortable at the event. Check out these practical tips to ensure everything goes well with your toilets.
Get Enough Portable Restrooms
You may need more than one restroom if you are expecting many guests in your home. If your home toilet cannot accommodate everyone, get porta potty rentals affordably to avoid congestion. You can hire two, three, or even more according to the number of guests you expect.
Choose a Venue for the Restrooms
Decide on the perfect corner to place the restrooms. If you have a huge yard, consider placing the portable toilets in different places for easy access by everyone.
Post Direction Signs
Will you have guests who have never visited your home? If yes, then you can post signs offering directions to the restrooms. You can also hire wait staff to direct your guests into the toilets to avoid inconveniences.
Improve Plumbing
Plumbing is a vital factor to consider when planning your restrooms. If possible, hire a plumbing service for the day to ensure everything goes well. The expert should inspect the condition of the toilets before the actual day and also monitor them during the wedding day to ensure there are no clogging or drainage issues.
Include the Restroom Accessories
Restroom accessories include tissue holders, tissues, trash cans, soap dispensers, toilet cleaner, water, and everything guests need for an easy, clean restroom moment. Most restroom rentals offer those accessories, but you can still get them to ensure enough supply.
4. Ensure Good Air Quality
Air quality is another essential factor when setting up your DIY wedding venue. In an event where many people will be gathering, like a wedding, you must ensure everyone is comfortable, and improving air quality is an important step.
Here are amazing tips to help improve air quality at your wedding and make everyone safe and comfortable.
Consider an Indoor Reception
The decision to hold an indoor or outdoor reception entirely depends on the weather conditions. For instance, there could be risks of large winds and excess dust in spring. In that case, you can consider an indoor DIY wedding venue to avoid the outdoor weather effects.
Increase Ventilation
Ensure your wedding venue has enough ventilation if you will host the event indoors. Get rid of any obstruction at windows or doors, which could prevent the free flow of air into the wedding venue.
Use an Air Conditioning Unit
An air conditioner unit comes in handy in cases where the venue does not have enough ventilation to allow quality air. ACs come in many types, and some are portable, so you can easily place them on any part of the house/yard that needs air quality the most.
Clean Air Ducts and Filters
Dirty/old ducts and air filters in HVAC units may not efficiently improve air quality in a DIY wedding venue. As such, you should thoroughly clean or replace the old ones to enhance air quality. You can hire a contractor from a local HVAC company to help you with the inspection and cleanup.
Add Plants
Plants can reduce air pollution and significantly enhance air quality in your event. You can use natural and potted plants to eliminate the polluted air and increase air circulation at the event.
5. Repave Your Driveway
Driveways are prone to wear and tear, which can significantly affect your home’s curb appeal before the wedding.
As the wedding approaches, you must ensure the driveways are clean and well-polished so your guests can have a smooth driving experience. That is why repaving your driveway is necessary when planning a DIY wedding venue at home. Here are great practices to help you in the repaving process.
Clean the Driveway
Cleaning is the most straightforward step in repaving your driveway. Remove any dust, leaf twigs, algae, or even mold which could make the driveway look old and damaged. After cleaning, you will quickly see the potholes, cracks, or any other areas which might need repair. Use a power washer for the most stubborn stains in the pathway.
Fill Potholes and Seal Cracks
Small cracks and potholes may not need an entire repaving process. Instead, you can fill them to cut the repair costs. An experienced local driveway contractor can help you with the minor repairs process.
Remove Tree Roots
Tree roots are a threat to your driveway because they can push or shift the driveway, causing cracks. As you repave your driveway ahead of the wedding, check the presence of roots which could affect the functionality of your driveway.
Repave if Excessively Damaged
Is your driveway old or damaged beyond repair? If so, consider redoing it all again to create a newer one. This process is quite involved, and you should do it days before the wedding day so it can dry up well.
Your paver can help you choose the ideal driveway materials for your needs and undertake the process. After that, the material should dry for at least 24 hours before stepping or driving on it to avoid damage.
6. Make Arrangements for Pets
Pets are friendly companions to consider when planning a DIY wedding venue. Do you have pets, or are your guests welcomed to come with pets? If so, you must keep the animals’ welfare in mind when planning the wedding event.
Here are practical tips to help you make suitable pet arrangements when planning the ideal DIY wedding venue at home.
Leave Enough Space
Pets love space, especially when they are in a new environment. If the wedding is indoors, ensure enough space for the pets to run or play.
Provide Essential Dog Meals
Like humans, pets will be there to celebrate, so you should keep their diet in mind. If possible, prepare vital pet tidbits like biscuits, fresh pet foods, and other products they might like.
Be sure to prepare a variety of food types if you are expecting many kinds of pets. This is because pets of different sizes/ages feed on various foods, so you must accommodate every pet’s diet needs.
Arrange for More Accessories
Besides food and water, you can provide additional accessories like poop bags and eating bowls. The pet parents will be relieved to avoid carrying such accessories to a home wedding. Provide what you can, and notify the pet parents early enough so they don’t take accessories from home.
Set a Pet-Friendly Venue
You may need to create a separate environment that resembles a dog daycare at the wedding venue. The pet-friendly venue should include all activities pets like and provide a perfect meeting point for all the pets attending the home wedding.
Generally, there are some things that pets don’t like, like fireworks or loud music. A pet-friendly venue will protect the pets from such nuisances and help them enjoy the event.
Hire a Vet
Hiring a vet is vital for the pets’ well-being. The vet can help in an accident or sickness emergency. Ensure the vet is pet friendly and highly experienced.
Planning for a home wedding can be overwhelming, but it is doable when you have realistic goals, a reasonable budget, and enough preparation time. Identify the ideal place for your venue, and seek help whenever you experience challenges.
