A Guide to Preparing for a Home Wedding Reception

Many young Australian couples are tying the knot with a shoestring budget as an attempt to save up enough to put down as a deposit on their first home. Getting your foot on the property ladder is becoming increasingly more difficult, as the cost of living rises and if you and your partner are going to hold your wedding reception at the family home, here are a few tips.

Making Space
Regardless of how many guests you plan to invite, you will need more space than you have and by searching online, you can enquire about self-storage costs in Melbourne. Leaving a lot of furniture in a lock-up for a weekend isn’t going to cost the Earth and that will allow everyone some much needed space.

Parking Space
This can be a nightmare if your invite list is long and the best thing to do is invite all of the neighbours, which means people can park in their driveways and also in front of the neighbouring homes. Send all guests a map of your home to make sure they don’t get lost.

Buffet Menu
The best all-round choice is a buffet, with the food on tables set to one side and whether you outsource to a local caterer or are going to save more money and prepare the menu yourself, you can prepare everything in advance and when the time is right, bring out the many dishes and announce where the food is and the party can begin.

The Entertainment
Whether you prefer hiring a local DJ or using your parent’s sound system, it is important to have suitable music at a wedding party. You could compile a few MP3 playlists and ask one of the funnier guests if they would be the DJ, which would save you some money.

Overnight Accommodation
It is likely that some of your guests will not want to drive home and most people are easy going regarding overnight accommodation, so collect as many sleeping bags as you can find and let people sleep in the lounge. This is a much better solution than letting people drive home if they have been drinking and having the option is a good idea.

Store Valuables
There’s nothing like a party to break things, so you should go around the house and put away delicate and valuable items that might otherwise get damaged.

The actual venue is not that important if you have all your family and friends, plus a good stock of alcohol and the money you save can be put towards the deposit of your first home.