Amazing Tips to Plan a Memorable Evening Wedding

Ultimately, a wedding is about celebrating the love between you and your partner. Well, there is another goal popping up in your mind; throwing an epic party for your guests to cherish forever. What will be your steps to make this big day stand out in the crowd? There are different ways available to upgrade your standard nuptials experience and make your event the master of all weddings your guests have attended so far. Here's what you need to know.

Planning for a wonderful wedding:

To start, you should think about the evening wedding experience as a whole. Surely, your closest friends and family members are elated to see you walking down the aisle. However, waiting for more than an hour is not what a celebration means or is supposed to feel like. Always remember that most of your guests have travelled a long way to spend some memorable time with you. So, they might not feel extremely happy if they're forced to wait for such a long time. Here's some things to keep in mind.

• Guests always come first: Make a list of the number of guests approximately who are going to attend your wedding, as you need to manage the food and beverages accordingly. Knowing your number means you can arrange for space too.
• Music and dancing entertainment: It’s your wedding, and it’s all about the celebration. Therefore, always remember to arrange a best DJ for your evening so your guests can enjoy. Having some groovy music to tap their feet and hit the dance floor is enough to make your guests go gaga over the evening.
• Add a touch of light: As you are planning hard to make your wedding evening a memorable one, you should arrange for some nice lighting. How about incorporating disco lights just above the dance floor to create a completely new aura of celebration? Well, sounds great, doesn't it?
• Listen to the weather forecast: Before you fix up a date, you should be aware of the surrounding weather patterns. Of course, you cannot control the weather and drastic weather change can happen anytime, but still you can try to plan for a wedding date in the summer months or when the winter season starts to approach.
• A perfect wedding venue: Whether you are planning to accommodate a small group or entertain a larger one, you need to choose the venue accordingly. Opt for either an indoor or outdoor platform, whichever suits your needs and budget.

These are some of most amazing tips I've encountered over the years that will make your wedding a wonderful memory for you and your guests. Striking a chord between entertainment and fun is all that you need to make your evening wedding ceremony and reception special for everyone who comes.

Nighttime Wedding Ceremonies

Having your wedding ceremony at night can be a beautiful way to celebrate your love, but it comes along with its own set of unique challenges. In order to pull it off without too much hassle, you’ll need to make sure that you have the proper lighting throughout the ceremony venue to avoid any tripping hazards or confusion amongst your guests. Additionally, the decorations and other accessories that you choose for your wedding will be much different than those selected for a normal indoor or daytime wedding ceremony. Here are a few fun ideas to help you make the most of your nighttime wedding.

Party Lanterns

First off, you’ll need basic lighting for your venue. You don’t want it too bright by using halogens or other bright light sources, but you also want your guests to be able to see where they are going and who they are talking to at your reception. Consider buying some LED party lanterns that create the perfect amount of light and ambiance to make your nighttime wedding a glowing success.

LED Balloons

Balloons have been a staple wedding decoration since they were invented, but most of the time they are easy to see because the wedding is either held indoors or during the day. For nighttime weddings, consider using different colored LED balloons throughout the venue to add some accents and highlight certain areas. You won’t need too many to get the desired look; just enough to make the venue look more exciting and fun.

Wedding Sparklers

Though they are very popular for indoor use because they don’t create any smoke while they burn, by far the best way to use sparklers at your wedding is to use them outdoors when it is as dark as possible. Using sparklers at a nighttime wedding will yield some of the coolest pictures in your scrapbook; especially if you use them to draw hearts or words in the air! Best of all, they are pretty much the cheapest wedding favor you can buy.

Sky Lanterns

Lastly, there is nothing more romantic than a coordinated release of sky lanterns at the end of your wedding ceremony to solidify your union and signify that the reception is about to begin. During the day, most people use the white colored lanterns because they are easy to see against a blue sky backdrop. However, at a nighttime wedding, you can choose color sky lanterns instead because the illumination from inside each one will create a colorful and dazzling display as they fade into the distance over the course of several minutes.

Embracing the darkness of night for your wedding can quickly turn an ordinary event into a timeless classic that you’ll remember for a lifetime. Just remember that shopping for decorations and accessories for your nighttime wedding is vastly different than shopping for an indoor wedding, and that lighting should always be one of your primary concerns.

Wedding Songs for Your Recessional

Music is a huge part of the wedding experience. The songs that you play on your wedding day will forever remind you of your nuptials, so choose them wisely. There are so many times throughout the ceremony and reception where the perfect song choice can really enhance the situation that it makes sense to focus on each separately. Here are a few songs that we think are perfect for walking down the aisle for the first time as a married couple.

Dave Matthews, You & Me
The DMB gets a bad rap for being bro-rock or dad-rock, but there’s no denying that ol’ Dave knows his way around a love song. This one starts off simply, then builds to a giddy chorus that should have everyone in the audience singing along by the end of it.

Sample lyric: “You and me together, we can do anything/ You and me together, yes, yes.”

Lick the Tins, Can’t Help Falling in Love
The most famous version of this incredibly romantic tune is Elvis Presley’s crooning slow-jam cover. But we much prefer the infectious energy of this track from Celtic band Lick the Tins. Complete with pennywhistle and adorable vocals from Allison Marr, it’ll have you practically skipping down the aisle.

Sample Lyric: “Take my hand, take my whole life, too / ‘cause I can’t help falling in love with you.”

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
Speaking of songs that start slow but build to a huge climax, this Frankie Valli song is practically two different tunes. The first one is a romantic murmur, and then the horns and strings kick in as Frankie practically shouts his love to the heavens.

Sample Lyric: “At long last love has arrived, and I thank God I’m alive, you’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you.”

Buddy Holly, “Every day”
For a quieter, sweeter recessional, consider Buddy Holly’s slight but beautiful song. With its gentle guitar and twee little glockenspiel accompaniment, it’s as charming as it is minimal. If you’d like the guests to hush and wipe away tears when you walk down the aisle, it’s a perfect choice.

Sample Lyric: “Every day it’s getting closer /coming faster than a roller coaster / love like yours will surely come my way.”

Beatles, “I Will”
The Beatles are masters of the romantic song, especially once they hit their peace-and-love mid-60s stride. If you have an army of musician friends you can recruit, a la Love Actually, then you can consider “All You Need is Love.” But we still prefer the more laid-back vibe and gorgeous harmonies of this tune.

Sample Lyric: “Who knows how long I’ve loved you / you know I love you still / will I wait a lonely lifetime? If you want me to, I will.”

The music you play during your wedding recessional can put a lovely capper on the whole proceeding and serve as a transition into the celebration portion of the day. Whatever song you choose, make sure it’s one that has special meaning for you and your partner.

4 Secular Wedding Readings

There are many great wedding readings to be found in the various scriptures of the world’s religions. But if you and your spouse don’t have a strong faith, there are plenty of secular readings that speak to the beauty and permanence of love, too. Here are five marriage readings that are perfect for a wedding without that spiritual component.

1. "We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does anyone life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness.'" -Shall We Dance?
2. “This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be.” -- David Levithan
3. Blessing for a Marriage: “May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another — not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete. The valley does not make the mountain less, but more. And the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all-important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you!” and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery that is the awareness of one another’s presence — no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.” --James Dillet Freeman
4. “The future belongs to hearts even more than it does to minds. Love, that is the only thing that can occupy and fill eternity. In the infinite, the inexhaustible is requisite. Love participates of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it, it is the divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a point of fire that exists within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and which nothing can extinguish. We feel it burning even to the very marrow of our bones, and we see it beaming in the very depths of heaven.” -- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Whether you have a full-on church wedding, a non-denominational spiritual affair, or a completely secular ceremony, these great readings will help you celebrate your love.

Wedding Traditions: Jewish Ceremony

There are as many variants of the wedding ceremony as there are cultures around the world. Weddings worldwide are steeped in tradition; each of those unique elements has hundreds of years of practice to back them up. In this article, we’ll explore the traditions of the Jewish wedding ceremony and highlight the history behind them.

Chuppah

The chuppa is a wedding canopy, usually four simple posts holding up a fabric roof. It’s open on all sides, which symbolizes unconditional hospitality. The bride and groom stand underneath the chuppah with the officiant during the ceremony, and it symbolizes the home the new couple will make together.

Ketubah

The ketubah is a traditional marriage contract, and it is read in full during a Jewish wedding. It mainly concerns the rights of the bride, and how the groom must attend to them: he must provide his wife with clothes, food, and shelter. He must also see to her emotional needs as well. After it’s read and signed, the ketubah belongs to the bride. It’s usually written out by hand, with plenty of artsy flourishes, and is meant to be framed and hung up in the couple’s home.

Breaking the Glass

After the ketubah and a reading of blessings, the bride and groom share a glass of wine. Then a drinking glass is wrapped in fabric and placed on the floor, and the groom stomps on it to break it. The breaking of the glass symbolizes the destruction of the Temple in Israel, and is meant to be a somber reminder of Jerusalem even during this most happiest occasion (although now it’s also the source of a joke that it’s the last time the groom gets to put his foot down).

Yichud

After the breaking of the glass, the wedding ceremony proper is over. The newlyweds then go to a small room by themselves for a few minutes, giving them some time to reflect on the day and grab a quick snack before the reception. It symbolizes their new status of living together as a married couple.

Reception

While the main point of a Western wedding reception is for the guests to get their party on, a Jewish wedding reception is focused on entertaining the bride and groom. There’s a tradition called the “gladdening of the bride,” in which the guests dance in a circle around the bride and entertain her. There’s also a traditional garlanding of the mother of the bride with flowers, and the horah, a lively circular dance.

Chair Dance

Interestingly, one of the elements regularly associated with a Jewish wedding isn’t fraught with deep symbolism. The chair dance, in which the bride and groom are hoisted up while seated in chairs and paraded around the venue, seems to have evolved for the sheer fun of doing it. Some claim that it symbolizes the community supporting the new couple, or lifting the couple closer to the Almighty, but those meanings were added after-the-fact. It seems to be a tradition just because it’s great fun.