The information below is from an excellent article giving Bride & Groom’s an insight into situations
that occur on EVERY wedding day that can lead to problems and ruin the day.
that occur on EVERY wedding day that can lead to problems and ruin the day.
Please see my comments in RED.
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Your wedding day should be the best day of your life and not end in tears.
It is important you can relax and enjoy your day, for this to happen you must ask yourselves a few questions of the person who is going to control and be the host/face of your wedding day.
Venue will supply master of ceremonies (MC) - Toastmaster:
Some venues say they supply you a Master of Ceremonies/Toastmaster. You will normally find that it will be the banqueting manager or supervisor. All they will do is make a few announcements on the day, they will not have met with you to get an understanding of your wishes and requirements.
Venues want the Wedding Breakfast to finishes on time or it will costs them money in overtime and will hold up the turnaround for the evening reception. This is where the venue MC comes into play (he works for the venue) because he will make sure tables are cleared even if your guests are not finished. You WILL get complaints from your guests that they had not finished.
I work for you as your Toastmaster and will make sure this does not happen.
Meeting & Greeting your guests:
Venue’s do not have responsibility for official ‘Meeting & Greeting’ of your family and guests. Making sure everyone is welcomed in the right way is so important and most importantly informed of the plans for the day.
A Toastmaster is your communicator, when he ‘Meets & Greets’ your guests it is at that time he will let everyone know.
It is at the ‘Meet & Greet’ Toastmasters make sure all the difference with some bringing fun and laughter to the occasion.
Sheila & I meet and greet your guests and it is at this stage that I have fun with magic and also at the drinks reception.
Guest book & Seating plan:
To avoid a loss in time it is important to make sure guests know where they are sitting. Not knowing in advance causes bottlenecks at the entrance stopping your guests from entering, these holdups can cause as much as a 30 minute delay dependant on the number of guests you have. In addition many guests do not sign your guest book because they do not know where it is.
After I have greeted your guests, Sheila makes sure everyone knows where the guest book is so no one gets missed out on signing your guest book. So there is no time loss when guests are asked to make their way to the wedding breakfast Sheila makes sure they have looked at the seating plan before hand, so no loss in timing.
Photographs:
On many occasions this is the greatest loss of time because:
Sheila & I are there on hand to support the Photographer making sure none of theses problems occur.
Receiving Line:
Receiving lines are part of wedding protocol and are also a time when there can be major loss in time. Many people use this to catch up if they have not seen each other for some time (you can lose over 30/45 minutes).
We control the Receiving Line and make sure it keeps moving.
Bride & Groom entrance:
The wedding breakfast is the beginning of your celebration day. Your entrance sets the scene and atmosphere for the rest of the day. Have someone introduce your entrance who has a clear and loud speaking voice to make it a sense of occasion.
This is where the fun begins:-
Speeches:
The speeches are a stressful time and can also be an extremely emotional for everyone. Mics from the video team need to be moved around between speeches or attached to the speakers clothing, which does not help with the build up of stress. Having a prepared written speech will help greatly in reducing the stress levels.
This is the time when I really come into my own.
Cutting of the cake:
The official photographer is there to get the beautiful photo of you cutting the cake, unfortunately everyone else wants to get the same photo or wants to see you cutting the cake. This is a major headache for all photographers with guests (not intentionally) ruining what should a lovely photo by jostling the photographers or standing behind you in the picture.
This is when you really need a Toastmaster to take complete control.
First Dance:
The first dance is another difficult time for photographers and videographers with guests being all around the dance floor it becomes difficult for them to get the shots they want.
I will take control of your first dance
The Bestman or other member of the family:
On many occasions Bride & Grooms ask the Bestman or other family member to take over the responsibility as ‘Master of Ceremony’.
Things to take into account are:-
These are situations which happen on EVERY wedding day and can cause problems for the Bride and Groom. The solution is simple, have someone experienced to look after you and control your wedding day.
………………………………………………………………………………………...
We can 'SAVE YOU MONEY'!
Coming from a Banqueting & Hospitality background we are experienced as to how venues make their money so we can advise you on how to save money. On many occasions the advice and savings has covered the our fees.
For example, venues will offer jugs of orange on the tables for those people who are driving. The cost is (dependent on the number of stars the venue holds and quality of the venue) between £5 aJug, but can go over £10. By asking for jugs of iced water, if you had 15 tables (150 guests) you could save between £75 and £150.
In conclusion
As you can see a Toastmaster does much more then just make announcements. Losing 20 or 25 minutes here and there on the day soon adds up and before you know it you are running well over an hour behind time.
The venue will certainly not be happy and the wedding breakfast could be spoilt with the venue rushing it to catch up on time. I have seen a situation where the food was dried up (lots of complaints) but as the venue pointed out this was not their fault the food was ready on time, it was the guests who were late.
What do you get from Me?
If you have any questions please feel free to call me on 07730 111111 or email: [email protected].
It is important you can relax and enjoy your day, for this to happen you must ask yourselves a few questions of the person who is going to control and be the host/face of your wedding day.
- Can the person you choose to look after your wedding keep control of:
- The complete day (from when guests arrive to the end).
- Look after the Event Plan and Running Order.
- Most importantly make sure Timing Schedule’s are kept to.
- Looking after and able to respond to Guests request and needs.
- Are they:
- Capable (trained in hospitality & banqueting) of doing the job.
- Good communicators and diplomatic.
- Have experience in control of people.
Venue will supply master of ceremonies (MC) - Toastmaster:
Some venues say they supply you a Master of Ceremonies/Toastmaster. You will normally find that it will be the banqueting manager or supervisor. All they will do is make a few announcements on the day, they will not have met with you to get an understanding of your wishes and requirements.
Venues want the Wedding Breakfast to finishes on time or it will costs them money in overtime and will hold up the turnaround for the evening reception. This is where the venue MC comes into play (he works for the venue) because he will make sure tables are cleared even if your guests are not finished. You WILL get complaints from your guests that they had not finished.
I work for you as your Toastmaster and will make sure this does not happen.
Meeting & Greeting your guests:
Venue’s do not have responsibility for official ‘Meeting & Greeting’ of your family and guests. Making sure everyone is welcomed in the right way is so important and most importantly informed of the plans for the day.
A Toastmaster is your communicator, when he ‘Meets & Greets’ your guests it is at that time he will let everyone know.
- What is happening.
- Where they have to go.
- What the timings are going to be for things to happen and answer any questions they may have.
It is at the ‘Meet & Greet’ Toastmasters make sure all the difference with some bringing fun and laughter to the occasion.
Sheila & I meet and greet your guests and it is at this stage that I have fun with magic and also at the drinks reception.
Guest book & Seating plan:
To avoid a loss in time it is important to make sure guests know where they are sitting. Not knowing in advance causes bottlenecks at the entrance stopping your guests from entering, these holdups can cause as much as a 30 minute delay dependant on the number of guests you have. In addition many guests do not sign your guest book because they do not know where it is.
After I have greeted your guests, Sheila makes sure everyone knows where the guest book is so no one gets missed out on signing your guest book. So there is no time loss when guests are asked to make their way to the wedding breakfast Sheila makes sure they have looked at the seating plan before hand, so no loss in timing.
Photographs:
On many occasions this is the greatest loss of time because:
- Guests and family have not been informed where the photos are being taken or when they are being taken. So they are not on hand and someone has to find them.
- The photographer having got the shot set up, other members of the family will want to take nice memories of the day. This wastes so much time because when they call out you will be looking at them and not the photographer (on many occasions he will have to set the shot up again.
- The photographer also spends quite a lot of time trying to get people out of the shot (guests will want to say thanks for inviting them) once the photo has been taken.
Sheila & I are there on hand to support the Photographer making sure none of theses problems occur.
Receiving Line:
Receiving lines are part of wedding protocol and are also a time when there can be major loss in time. Many people use this to catch up if they have not seen each other for some time (you can lose over 30/45 minutes).
We control the Receiving Line and make sure it keeps moving.
Bride & Groom entrance:
The wedding breakfast is the beginning of your celebration day. Your entrance sets the scene and atmosphere for the rest of the day. Have someone introduce your entrance who has a clear and loud speaking voice to make it a sense of occasion.
This is where the fun begins:-
- I will welcome the guests on your behalf.
- (If you want), have fun with a clapping challenge.
- Make the official entrance announcement.
- Say Grace if you want.
Speeches:
The speeches are a stressful time and can also be an extremely emotional for everyone. Mics from the video team need to be moved around between speeches or attached to the speakers clothing, which does not help with the build up of stress. Having a prepared written speech will help greatly in reducing the stress levels.
This is the time when I really come into my own.
- I have produced a template speech to make life easier.
- On a few occasions I have had to take over from the father who became too emotional to complete their speech. I have finished the speech with Dad doing the Toast at the end.
- The official photographer is taking the speeches shots, very often your Guests also want their photos and ruin the official photos by getting in the way. I make sure this does not happen but still allow them to get their photos after the official shot have been taken
- Warm-up, on some occasions I have put on a small (5 minutes) magic show to get everyone laughing before the speeches.
Cutting of the cake:
The official photographer is there to get the beautiful photo of you cutting the cake, unfortunately everyone else wants to get the same photo or wants to see you cutting the cake. This is a major headache for all photographers with guests (not intentionally) ruining what should a lovely photo by jostling the photographers or standing behind you in the picture.
This is when you really need a Toastmaster to take complete control.
- I start by inviting you to join me at the cake and at the same time request that only the official photographer joins us on the dance floor.
- I then ask everyone to stand around the dance floor but not behind you.
- When the official photographer has taken the photos he wants I invite everyone onto the dance floor to take their photos. If you have a large number of guests Sheila will let them come forward in waves. This way everyone gets the photos they want and you get the ones you want.
First Dance:
The first dance is another difficult time for photographers and videographers with guests being all around the dance floor it becomes difficult for them to get the shots they want.
I will take control of your first dance
- I find out what shots the photographer wants, then get this setup making sure guests know what is required.
- Make sure guests do not join you on the floor until photographers/videographers have finished.
The Bestman or other member of the family:
On many occasions Bride & Grooms ask the Bestman or other family member to take over the responsibility as ‘Master of Ceremony’.
Things to take into account are:-
- They are not trained, do not have the skillset and will be out of their depth. On most occasions this leads to a lack of confidence and in the end complaints……….which inevitably will come back to you.
- They do not have the same authority as the Toastmaster when making announcements to guests, which leads to guests not acting immediately (....if at all).
- They will certainly find communication with the venue over problems will not have the same effect as a Toastmaster who will make the venue sort problems out.
These are situations which happen on EVERY wedding day and can cause problems for the Bride and Groom. The solution is simple, have someone experienced to look after you and control your wedding day.
………………………………………………………………………………………...
We can 'SAVE YOU MONEY'!
Coming from a Banqueting & Hospitality background we are experienced as to how venues make their money so we can advise you on how to save money. On many occasions the advice and savings has covered the our fees.
For example, venues will offer jugs of orange on the tables for those people who are driving. The cost is (dependent on the number of stars the venue holds and quality of the venue) between £5 aJug, but can go over £10. By asking for jugs of iced water, if you had 15 tables (150 guests) you could save between £75 and £150.
In conclusion
As you can see a Toastmaster does much more then just make announcements. Losing 20 or 25 minutes here and there on the day soon adds up and before you know it you are running well over an hour behind time.
The venue will certainly not be happy and the wedding breakfast could be spoilt with the venue rushing it to catch up on time. I have seen a situation where the food was dried up (lots of complaints) but as the venue pointed out this was not their fault the food was ready on time, it was the guests who were late.
What do you get from Me?
- Two professional Toastmasters.
- The UK’s only Magical Toastmaster.
- Consultation meeting giving guidance and advice on the wedding day including protocol & tradition.
- Production of Event Plan & Running order for suppliers.
- Cost of travel.
- The smooth running of your wedding day.
- Most of all ‘Peace of Mind’ to you both.
If you have any questions please feel free to call me on 07730 111111 or email: [email protected].
