5 Tips to Having A Wedding At Home

With the cost of weddings going higher these days, many people are looking for alternative places to have their weddings. For years, the wealthy have often had weddings in their homes, and there's no reason everyone couldn't consider it as a viable option for their wedding also. If you'd like to consider going this route, here are 5 tips to doing it right.

1. Plan the number of people you're inviting to the space you have. Unless you're going to have it in your backyard and it's spacious, most people don't have the space in their house for more than 30 people at a time to keep it comfortable. Even 30 might be pushing it, but you know your comfort level.

2. Call people to personally invite them rather than sending out cards. This is more for your benefit than theirs. Strange as it might seem, it's easier to plan for 100 people and have 120 shows up than it is to plan for 30 and have 40 people show up. Make your list, try to prioritize it, and then start making your calls. When you get to your limit, end it there and send out wedding notices to everyone else instead of invites.

3. Spend more money on food than on decorations. It's probable that most of the people you're inviting have already seen what your house looks like, so cleaning it up a bit is probably all you really need to do. Where parties fail is in not having enough food and drinks for everybody, so make sure you're not going to run out.

4. Don't forget to tell people how to dress. If you don't care, then it's all good. However, if you're looking for any kind of decorum at your wedding, you need to let people know. Most people think anything held at someone's house is totally casual, and that might not be the setting you were hoping for at your wedding.

5. Since it's at your house, you don't have to start off with the wedding ceremony. This isn't like going to a church, going through the ceremony, and then heading to the reception hall. Often these types of events will be a party for a couple of hours, then the justice of the peace will show up, the couple will have the official ceremony, and it's back to the party. Of course, there are no rules regarding this, so feel free to modify it however you wish.