Which of the following would you have with £1,000?

I would choose the bus and the pianist. The best weddings I've been to have been where the atmosphere is great. So if you have that right, you can't go far wrong. If the guests don't have to worry about getting home, they are almost certainly going to have a good night! And I just love live music!

Bus, evening drinks.

If the bus is something your guests would use, I would go for that first.

The only problem with providing an evening drink is logistics - people will probably be arriving at different times so you may not be able to have a table of drinks as you would during a day reception. How would you organise it with the bar?

I do love a pianist and we had one but we had him play all our ceremony music too. I'm not sure I would have bothered just for drinks reception etc.

The walls would probably bug me too - I would think about draping.

I'm not bothered about sweets.

We had a band but I'm not all that keen on solo singers. Not sure why!

Bus for sure, then either more booze or keep it for your honeymoon (if you are having one!)

Oohh definitely the bus. I am sure I may stand to be corrected, but don't most guests expect transport from the church to the reception venue? Every wedding I have been which involves a church wedding has included transport from the church to the venue. Otherwise I think logistics would get difficult.

It is very practical but I think it has to be your number one choice. That being said, I don't think anybody expects a lift to the church ceremony - could that cut your budget? I would then say a toss up between a welcome drink for the guests and the pianist, and my money is on the pianist. I think musician music is a lovely, lovely touch, and beats an Ipod hands down. We had a string quartet which people loved.

I expect to buy drinks in the evening, and am pleasantly surprised when I don't have to. Is there scope for just having transport between the church and venue, and the pianist and then a cheaper welcome drink. What is the £600 for? champagne? If so, you can easily cut budget by having prosecco (Italian sparkling wine). I am yet to meet a person who doesn't like prosecco.

I might have missed it in your OP, but how are people getting home (after all the revelries)? Or are they staying over at the venue? The bus will only work if it is also taking people home/to the hotel they are staying at imo. I am only saying this as a 30-45min taxi-ride can get quite expensive and people might decide to drive anyway?

But to answer your question I would def go for pianist ! xx

I would say the bus and draping - the others would be nice too but if the top table is in front of the panels that annoy you, then they're going to be in a lot of your important photos so if they're annoying you now they'll always annoy you when you look back at pictures from the day so it would be good to have them covered. The bus would also be good as it means no one has to worry about the travel. The others, while they're nice additions it sounds like you have alternatives and your guests would be none the wiser. I personally wouldn't expect a drink in the evening and think just a DJ would be fine too!

I'd go with the bus/transport & then the singer/entertainment, but do look into the costs again (remembering that guests will require transport to the inital venue, from venue 1 to venue 2 and then from venue 2 to home again in the evening! - £550 seems very cheap for all of that! Also, what about the evening guests? Do they live in the same area as day guests? Will they be miffed at not being provided transport?)

I've never expected (or received) a drink when i've been an evening guest, so personally, no i wouldn't offer a drink to evening guests (we didn't at our wedding & some were close family who travelled up to 4 hours to just come to an evening reception! We only had my daughter, parents, grandparents, siblings (plus husbands & children) and best man at ceremony & wedding breakfast, due to family member numbers & the whole thing of if you invite 1, you need to then invite another 50!). If it is felt that important guests are expecting to be watered upon arrival, and upsetting them may make your life unbearable afterwards, then perhaps ask you parents to arrange & pay for those drinks? (assuming they aren't paying for the wedding or contributing already). To be completely honest, i think your mum's friends are being very cheeky! They've basically told your mum they're wanting (and expecting!) free drinks!

I wouldn't worry about the sweets, it isn't necessary really. As long as day guests are fed a meal & some sort of food is put on for the evening guests, then a sweet table is really just an extra to pay for if you really don't know what else to spend you money on (in my opinion).

I'd be tempted to ask someone to keep their eye on the music for after the ceremony. As long as the cd is of reasonable length, it probably won't need regular switching on again. You're not going to spend hours having drinks/canapes & photos if you've then got to travel to another venue for your meal.

As for the drapes, if the walls/room divides are causing concern for pics, then look into it, but i think i'd be really looking at finding something a lot cheaper or baring it in mind when table planning! There's no way i'd pay £500 for a couple of drapes - i'd move the top table position & any other photo opportunity (such as the cake table, etc) so that pictures of that area would be unlikely.

First reaction, bus and draping. The latter because it's something you will be aware of in the run up and throughout the reception, regardless of how busy you are. As has been said, those two areas will feature in pics, so it would be a lasting niggle if you didn't cover them up.

I adore piano music, but it's alot to fork out for a short space of time.... Guests will be occupied by chatting about the service, introductions, nibbles etc, so it seems an unnecessary spend. How about creating a cd or playlist of piano music and having that on instead?

Look up this guy on YouTube... Yiruma. He's so brilliant- I only discovered his music a few days ago and I'm considering scrapping my entire playlist for guests arrival in church just so they can hear him!

As for evening drinks, yeah it's a nice gesture but I would never expect it, especially as there is food provided.

I am having candy bar and live music as well as dj, but we are having a totally informal reception: I don't think the sweet machines sound like they fit in particularly with your theme, and money could be better spent elsewhere. As for a singer, again, quite costly- would it be well enough appreciated to justify the cost? The only reason I am having live music is that they are my ex jazz colleagues and dad will get chance to sing with them too. Most guests probably won't be that bothered (they do a range of styles though) but it's an indulgence I could afford by coming in under budget elsewhere. I don't think it's a necessity.

So, the bus. As other commentees have said, wouldn't it be better to simply have guests taken between ceremony and venue? Im sure guestscwould be happy making their own way, knowing they could then be transported. But yes, there is the issue of post-reception. Perhaps just doing the one bus trip with no waiting around would reduce the cost sufficiently to allow you to provide a couple of mini buses for anyone stuck for getting home?

So my vote goes to: BUS and DRAPES

Xx

I was going to have a bus - the plan being to get people to go to the reception venue first (to leave their cars there), bring them to the church and take them back again (plus anyone that joined us at the church without a car). But when I started looking at the logistics of it, I decided I couldn't be ar$ed to be honest! And I figured I would rather spend the money on our honeymoon *is a selfish cow*

I disagree that people expect transport between the church and reception venue - I certainly wouldn't and when I've been to weddings where you go from one place to another, no one I know of has complained.

But if you can get it to work, and it's not too much of a headache, go for it!

I would definitely go evening drink - could you potentially offer a welcome drink (have a cocktail or similar on trays, like reception style drinks)? OK, it might not be the first choice drink for everyone, but it's a nice gesture.

So I say bus (if it works logistcally) and evening drinks ?

Wow thank you for all your responses!!

The bus would pick up at two stops where most guests live in the morning (around 65 would use it) then to ceremony (45 mins away) then everyone to reception. The reception venue is closer to home (around 20mins) so for the evening they can either get a taxi or there is a travel lodge about a 10 min walk away from the reception venue so we wouldn't provide anything to take people home, personally I'm leaning towards this!

OH wants the evening drinks but I'm undecided. To answer some questions that £600 is for 200 glasses of sparkling wine in the evening, they would be served by the door with a welcome from a member of staff however we have around 200 total in the evening so we felt that we couldn't really stop day guests taking a drink if they wanted so that is based on both day and evening guests having another drink, if anyone has any better ideas for just providing the evening guests without shooing the day guests away please let me know!!

If we can get the drinks cost down we may be able to stretch to 3!

Really appreciate your response, it really helps to get others opinions!

Without question, wedding band for the evening. People always get up and get down more if there is live music and, if there are non-dancers then live performers are more interesting to watch than a DJ

Having seen the update about the bus situation I think that would be my first choice, the options of a 20 minute taxi ride or travelodge does mean it's pretty easy for people to get home.

I like the idea of the pianist, live music is nicer than recorded and there'd be no chance of a cd mishap! It would depend how much music is in your ceremony and how long the drinks reception is as to whether it is worth the money.

For evening drinks just for evening guests could you put something on their invitation or enclosed with it that they could take to the bar to exchange for a drink? The venue could give you a selection of drinks that cost roughly the same for people to choose from or it could specify a glass of fizz. This would probably be a lot cheaper than drinks for everyone.

Unless the top table has to be in front of the dividers (and that will really get to you when you look at the pictures) I wouldn't bother with draping. £500 is a lot of money for a bit of fabric and my preference would be for moving the top table somewhere else so the dividers are at the sides of the room and less noticeable.

Extra evening entertainment and sweets are both things that would be nice but no one would notice if you didn't have them and that cash could be used elsewhere IMO.

Bus and sweets!

A Bus for all guests - cost £550 This for definate ;-) a bit cheaky but could you not say to guests its £5/£7 each that way you could get some money back and put the extra money towards something else?

OOOh i would say sweet package (Sweets! - cost approx £500) a fun idea and a nice extra for the evening guests

I am a bride to be but also been to hundreds of weddings ;-)

Evening drinks!!!!

People don't care about any of the other details, they just want to come and have a party, so I'd go for the drinks. It's what your guests will be most grateful for and be praising how great your day was - they got pretty tipsy thanks to you, and had a wonderful time.

I'd go for the Bus and entertainment, but then I am biased! Drapes would be my next choice as that seems to bother you.

I wouldn't bother with the bus, guests usually work out their own transport. At weddings I've been to I've driven from the ceremony to the reception and then got a taxi home or sorted out a mini bus with a few of the guests or stayed the night at a nearby hotel. I been to 8 wedding and never had transport included. I'd go for entertainment and drinks or draping.