Tag Archives: reception center

How-To Tips, Receptions

Choosing the Right Venue for Your Reception

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Planning a wedding has its own unique set of stressors and considerations, one of which is deciding on the correct Utah wedding venue that fits the majority of your reception qualifications, if not all of them. While reception centers in Salt Lake City abound, there are many that are a mixed bag of questionable quality, limited services, and/or are unreasonably costly. Here is what you should take into consideration before putting down that possibly substantial holding fee on a venue:

Cost

Before starting the move towards purchasing wedding supplies and booking your wedding venue in Salt Lake City, you should have a firm grasp of what your total wedding budget is and itemize it. Once this is done you should have an itemized list that dictates how much you have allotted toward each wedding expense such as a wedding dress, floral arrangements, wedding cake, catering, and venue, to name a few. Once you know the maximum amount you are able to spend on a reception location you will be able to narrow down the right Utah reception venue for your big day.

Services

If you haven’t hired a wedding planner you can take a lot out of the guess work  and stress of arranging a wedding if you book a Salt Lake City, Utah reception center that offers you a variety of services such as catering, floral ordering, linens, invitations, hostesses, and musical setups. Venues that present these extra services often provide them at a reduced rate to you due to their ongoing relationship with certain vendors, thus saving you money and the hassle of organizing these wedding services individually.

Type of Venue

Do you want your wedding and reception to take place at the same venue? Would you prefer an indoor or outdoor reception? Are you looking for a location that expresses your uniqueness? These are some of the questions that you should be asking yourself when figuring out which Salt Lake City wedding reception location would work out best for you. Ideally you should not make a venue something that it is not and pick a location that suits your overall personality and style.

After considering all of this, Western Gardens’ the Ivy House has an existing setup that is geared specifically for events like weddings and receptions. Their Salt Lake City, Utah wedding venues present the perfect combination of affordability, extensive services, and an elegant atmosphere that is sure to please both you and your beloved guests.

The Ivy House has an in-house wedding organizer who can assist you in making your wedding and subsequent reception a memorable experience with little fuss. At this Western Gardens venue you are given the opportunity to customize their offered services or employ your own vendors to supply your wedding with the necessary accoutrements.

How-To Tips, Receptions

Hiring a Catering Service for Your Wedding

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As you make plans for your big day, the list of things-to-do will seem to go on and on.  You are looking at dress designs, selecting bridesmaids, and cannot decide between white roses or sunflowers.  You also need to find the most ideal of Utah wedding venues for that special combination of service, style and feeling.  You want everything to be perfect and understandably so.  Of all the items on your to-do-list, the food service at your reception is one that will require a lot of management and preparation.  Hiring a catering service may be a good idea.  Wedding caterers have professional experience and industry know-how, and are essentially skilled at balancing all the tasks that will make your vision become a reality.

Having a catering service for your wedding reception is a hassle-free option that will significantly ease your wedding-planning anxieties.  A catering service comes with an immediate availability of resources, supplies, equipment and labor that you would otherwise have to source and manage yourself.  The quality of the food at your Utah wedding reception is another big consideration.  You want your guests to be amply satisfied.  While your dear Aunt Kate might be an excellent chef, there is a comfort in knowing that a catering service can not only guarantee high-quality food, style and presentation but can also manage labor-intensive food preparation for large groups of people. With a catering service, you know that a very major ingredient of your reception’s success is taken care of.  On the arrival of the big day, as the jitters run up and down your spine, your mind can rest at ease with the assurance that the people in the kitchen, unlike you, have done this a hundred and more times before!

There are a few things to think about as you work with the wedding caterers you have chosen for your Utah wedding reception center. Be able to articulate your desires.  It is a good idea to write your thoughts and wishes down as you explore your options.  How will your reception complement your overall wedding theme?  Are you envisioning luxuriously decorated tables and seated meals served by waiters or a formal buffet with waiting servers?  Maybe a self-serve buffet will be more fitting to the warm, relaxed and sociable atmosphere that you desire.  Or if a short, evening reception is on your schedule, perhaps a passed-tray service will do.  Then there are the meals to think about.  What time of day will the reception be held?  At lunch time or dinner?  Do you want a five course meal?  What type of food?  Are you dreaming up an Italian theme with calzone appetizers and a pasta station, or something more suited to the All-American diet?  Maybe you want a more exotic flair with chicken skewers glazed in mango, coconut and basil or ahi tuna sushi rolls.    Be adventurous and creative in your choices but keep in mind your budget, and the people on your guest list with special needs, like your dear Grandpa Joe’s kosher diet.  It may also be a good idea to include standard meals in your menu choices for those guests who prefer the comfort and taste of familiarity.

For your convenience, Ivy House Weddings, Western Gardens’ new Salt Lake City wedding venue, has its own in-house catering service provided exclusively by Heritage Catering.  With a variety of buffet style options and menu items, you can pick and choose to your fancy.  Choose from Garden Buffets, Celebration Buffets, Bow Tie Buffets, Classic Buffets, White Tie Buffets or Dinner Buffets.  Each buffet option is a unique package, and you may select from the diversity of hot and cold hors d’oeuvrs, salads, sandwiches, desserts, pies, cakes, entrees and beverages available.

Your wedding will require a lot of thought, foresight and planning.  Your tasks may at times feel overwhelming, but as you fine-tune the details of this special day, it should also be an exciting experience.  People are here to help you make the journey as smooth and enjoyable as possible!  Selecting the right catering service will offer you a certain peace of mind while you prepare to be transformed by one of the most life-altering occasions in your life and one of the best wedding receptions in Utah!

Beautiful Celebrations, Ceremonies, How-To Tips, Receptions

Wedding Planning Shortcuts for a More Relaxed Bride

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Planning a wedding is no simple matter. The moment you said “Yes” to your man, you will have to face a long to-do list complete with timelines to ensure that everything comes out “just right”. To tell the truth, a wedding is one big production that has a lot of elements that you will have to book, decide upon and check up on. You are actually managing a lot of mini-projects within this one big “project” – your wedding.

Often, you will find in wedding planning websites tables, charts, to-do lists and timelines. Yes, you will find these helpful as you plan your wedding – so that you don’t forget a single important item and you keep track of the progress of each element.

Here are some of the important things you have to remember or do to prepare for your wedding:

–          Get out your calendar and select the date of the wedding

–          Inspect the wedding ceremony and reception center

–          Book the church and wedding venue for the desired wedding date

–          Discuss the wedding budget, who contributes for which item and for what amount

–          Choose and order the wedding rings

–          Select motif or theme of the wedding

–          Select and order gowns – for the bride, mothers of the bride and groom and the rest of the entourage. Arrange for fitting and altering of the gown.

–          Arrange for suits or the wardrobe of the male members of the entourage.

–          Announce the engagement

–          Send out wedding invitations

–          Select menu and caterer

–          Select bridal cake (or also groom’s cake) and baker

–          Discuss floral arrangements with selected florist

–          Book musicians and decide on songs and music

–          Book officiant and discuss the wedding ceremony details

–          Process legal documents required for the wedding

–          Decide on decorative elements of the wedding (centerpieces, linens, gazebo, etc.)

–          Book videographer and photographer

–          Have hair and makeup trial and book makeup artist

–          Schedule honeymoon and arrange travel and hotel details

And mind you, this is just a start of that list. And each element of this list has its own considerations and requirements. You may also need to read and sign contracts for the vendors.

As you can see, a wedding will not just make demands of your finances but also your time and effort. Even with the simplest of weddings, you still need to make arrangements to arrange for everything and ensure that the wedding is just as you wanted it to be.

The good news is, you don’t have to go at it alone. One, you can hire a wedding coordinator to take away much of the stress of the planning and implentation from you. Two, you can also consider a Utah wedding reception center that provides much of what is already in your to-do list so that planning becomes easier on your part.

Most wedding venues in Utah provides a lot of help in that it not only gives you the perfect spot for your wedding ceremony and/or reception, it also offers packages that incorporates a lot of the key elements you need for your wedding.

For instance, The Ivy House is a wedding venue in SLC, Utah which provides value-added services such as linens, catering, floral arrangments, contacts with photographers and videographers as well as an experienced baker for the wedding cake.

With the combination of The Ivy House’s unique ambiance, the presence of a host on the day of the wedding and a lot of amenities at one convenient location, you can enjoy your wedding day to the fullest. You can be a radiant and relaxed bride with the peace of mind that everything you wanted in your wedding is in place.