The Pros and Cons of Holding a Home-Based Wedding
There is a certain romantic quality to being married at home. You are sending the message that you want your family and friends to truly feel at home precisely because you are home! However, there might be certain considerations that you could be overlooking in your haste to put your romantic idea of a home wedding into action.
The Advantages
You have to consider many things when it comes to your home nuptials – starting with your guest list. If your bridal party and guests are an intimate company, then your home should do the fine job of holding both the ceremony and the reception. Now, all you need to worry about is the room layout or the garden layout with plenty of room for the catering, entertainment and any other contracted service providers to move around.
If you want an informal or a casual wedding, then your home and backyard garden is the perfect place to be. It will be more like an intimate gathering of friends who can truly celebrate your union as a married couple with as relaxed an atmosphere as possible.
You can also save on transportation costs of going to and from your ceremony and reception sites since you already live there. Or at least, one of your future family members live there whom you can request to cover the fort while you travel. This might even be a great opportunity to get to know your future in-laws and other future family members better.
Also, since you know your home better than others, you can make informed decisions about room layout from the front yard into the house and spilling out into the backyard. At the very least, you know every twist and turn in the house, which makes it easier to relegate spaces for your catering and entertainment service providers. And speaking of your wedding service providers, always ensure that they have adequate facilities to enable them to do their job. These will include things like sufficient space to set up shop, water for clean-ups, electrical outlets and other what-not’s.
You may also use existing decorations in the house and spare materials to spruce up what may otherwise be a barebones backyard to save on costs. Yes, even little sprigs of lavender picked from your mother's garden can go a long way towards saving on the florist while adding a touch of class to the proceedings. And if you have spare lumber in the house, you can always build it into a garden arbor, toss some vines on top, and voila! A wedding canopy with a rustic feel is what you get.
There are many advantages of holding a home marriage ceremony. Just remember to plan early, plan with family and friends and your future partner and more importantly – plan with fun in mind!
The Disadvantages
Planning is a very important aspect of a home marriage ceremony because the disadvantages of holding it can quickly manifest themselves. You might just back out if you are not mentally and physically prepared for them.
With that said, here are a few of the cons of a home nuptial ceremony and reception:
- You may have to rent the marquee, tables and chairs to ensure that your guests will be completely comfortable and taken care of. You might find yourself paying for these things beyond your budget especially when you have to toss in the decorations necessary to spruce them up. In fact, some couples are shocked at the final expense of holding a home wedding because of the little things that creep up on them. And even if you are holding an outdoor ceremony and reception, thus, doing away with limited space inside the house, you can never control the weather so a marquee or sufficient undercover area is still important.
- You have to ask your catering service provider for their requirements in terms of kitchen facilities. Your home may not be up to par with an industrial-sized kitchen a large reception hall can offer.
- Think about the size of your street and drive-way to ensure you have enough space for all your guests and for your service providers to park close to your home.
- Your entertainment option will have specific requirements from the electrical outlets to the acoustic environment. If you have a large backyard for dancing, then you are half-way there. You just need to think about laying down a raised hard-wood floor if your yard is all grass or if it is slopping to one side.
- Alternatively, you have to ask yourself hard questions like your willingness to have guests walk all over your white carpet and immaculate lawn as well as the possibility of children breaking things in the house and smearing chocolate over your walls.
- During preparations for the room layout in an indoors wedding, you might have to ask your guests to squeeze in their elbows due to limited space. And you also have to consider the availability of rest rooms, spare rooms to rest in, and other rooms to store equipment and any unused furniture etc.
- And most important, you have to inform the host of the big mess that a home nuptial can bring after the party. And did we mention that you have to consider the neighbors as well?
Just keep in mind that a home wedding is meant to be fun and intimate, not to mention allow you to save on costs. These pros and cons can be your guide to achieving the wedding of your dreams.