Wedding helpers

Maybe one of your cousins could liase with the point of contact!

We do have a point of contact provided by the venue on the day of the wedding. But my cousins were saying, "just in case"... get a representative from your side to co-ordinate with that person.

there will be some downtime between the ceremony and when the cocktail hour/reception begins. (So my fiance and I can take photos and the room will be set up). I don't anticipate a lot of people showing up to the ceremony as it is a Friday wedding, so most people would probably opt to come for the reception in the evening afterwards (after work if they can't take it off). During the hour - hour 1/2 downtime, my guests would probably find something to do (the venue is close to Vaughan Mills). This is not uncommon for all the weddings I've been to where there is a huge gap between the ceremony and reception

Sounds like you'll need to have the venue "flip" the room for you. Do they have a point of contact for the day of your wedding that you could show how you want the decorations set up? If you hire a day-of coordinator, they could do this for you while you're taking pictures otherwise you'll probably need someone from the venue to make sure everything's set up properly. Maybe you could set up a sample table at the rehearsal so they know what you want? (Have them take pics to reference the day of the wedding) I would hate for you to walk in after taking pics and see that it was all done wrong and it's too late to fix! If the venue can't help you, I would recommend maybe asking a family member like an aunt or cousin to set up the decorations for you once the room flipped. (If you trust them! I'm too OCD so I needed to do everything myself.)

What are your guests going to be doing while the room is being flipped?

My husband and I were supposed to set up the night before the wedding but our rehearsal dinner ran long and we got locked out! So my sisters helped me set up the morning of the wedding and then it was a surprise for my groom that night to see how everything was set up! I had thought about asking a few non-wedding party friends or family to help with the guestbook but the wedding party was able to attend the cocktail hour so my bridesmaids helped with that.

I am hiring a friend of mine from high school to look after things day of... We have grown apart and I would not have invited her and her husband to the wedding (they didn't invite me to theirs)... If she had not said yes I would have moved on to woman's groups like the kinettes or the ladies auxiliary at one of the churches.

I would ask the venue if they charge any sort of fee to do it! We are getting married in a different location then our venue. However incase something didn't work out we had asked our venue and they said they would take care of everything if we had to do the ceremony/reception at the same place for a small fee!

AHHHHHHHH I totally understand now! Sorry, I thought you meant before the wedding not between the ceremony and reception. Your wedding party and parents will likely be in a bunch of photos with you, so I don't know if having them set up would work (without stressing some people out at least). I would personally check with my venue to see if they can do it (even for a fee), and if not, check into how much it would be to have a DOC (day of coordinator). I know people who use them always say how AMAZING it was to have one and that it was "worth every penny"

My wedding is on a Friday so I can always set some stuff up on the Thursday before. But the thing is, my wedding ceremony and reception are in the same room.

The ceremony chairs will be set up by the venue.. and I was thinking of using parts of the table centrepieces (i'm thinking wine bottles with greenery, beer bottles with baby's breath, glass vase with floating candle) along the aisle. Then when the reception is being set up, these centre pieces will be assembled on each table! (also the distrubtion of wedding gifts and guest names on table)

I'm not sure if setting those things are something the venue will do, and the wedding party, my fiance and I will be busy taking photos at a different location at that time.. so I feel like I need some helpers during that time or else no one can do it on behalf of us!

I don't know if I've opened up a can of worms for you girls. Hopefully I didn't make you girls stressed!

No no no... she ALSO gets to hang out with Gem!! And that is a good thing

She also gets to spend the night in my apartment....I dunno if that is a good thing or not though...

Dinner booze and candy is the best payment!!!

I haven't asked anyone yet- FH and I will be setting up ou decor the night before the wedding, and will probably recruit our siblings to help. I too would avoid asking anyone not in the wedding party/ immediate family to help set up and tear down...but by all means as your party and parents!

The only person not in our wedding party I am "hiring" to help is a freind of my sister's, who will be dog sitting for us. I am paying her in dinner, booze and candy though.

I have not asked anyone for help (my venue lets me in a day early to set up, so I'd rather just do it myself and I'm confident my mom will INSIST), but I would try to avoid asking people that aren't in the wedding party/parents. I don't know if they'd be INSULTED per se... but they might just be less inclined... plus you don't want too many cooks in the kitchen.

Also I would most definitely plan to feed them! It's just a nice gesture when they're helping you out to at least order up a pizza or make some sandwiches (and maybe get some beer if they're drinkers... I've definitely paid friends in pizza and beer to help me move lol). They will feel really appreciated that way