Planning a wedding and desire a really good reception party? You need a checklist of to-dos to help you nail the planning and we’re giving you one in this post. This post will show you how to plan it yourself in 15 steps. Follow our Nigerian wedding reception planning checklist below to plan an unforgettable wedding reception party in Nigeria.
The first part of your wedding (vow ceremony at the worship house/ church or court registry) is going to be easy. On the other hand, your wedding reception will make up the biggest part of your wedding day, as well as the bulk of your wedding budget and logistics decision. Your guests are counting on you to make the party worth their time, why not have a solid wedding reception plan that will deliver the party your guests will thank you fo? Let’s show you how – I’ll give you the roadmap, and all you need to do is execute the plans. Read on for our simple steps to planning a great wedding reception in Nigeria – it’s a checklist you can print out and tick off any task you complete. Swipe/ scroll down for the steps.
How to Plan an Unforgettable Wedding Reception Party in Nigeria
Planning a flawlessly successful wedding reception involves a lot of planning, time, efforts and logistics. You need to think about the outfits, the food, drinks, the entertainment, the decoration, the souvenirs, the wedding vendors and more details. So, no matter whether you want to host a big or small wedding reception, you require careful planning to bring your wedding dream to life. Our 15-step wedding reception planning checklist below will guide you from start to finish:
Step 1: Dream and Fantasize about the D-Day
Brainstorm about the reception setting, the look and feel of the venue; the atmosphere & ambiance, what you are wearing (bride & groom’s attire, the guests’). Pinterest wedding inspiration boards are the perfect place to start. You can also get wedding style ideas from magazines like Ovation or sites like BellaNaija that showcase pictures from real Nigerian weddings that have taken place.
Take a minute to dream about the type of reception you want to have, about all the things that would make a dream wedding reception for you. Write them down. Don’t worry even if your initial ideas seem stupid, later you can go over the list and take out the not-so-realistic things so that you would be left with only the things you really you and your fiance are happy to have at your wedding reception.
- Wedding Pre-Planning Quiz for Engaged Couples (a cool way to flesh-out your wedding day look and feel/ vision)
- How to Find and Choose Your Reception Venue
Step 2: Set the Wedding Date
What day would you like to have your wedding? Be sure to consider the season and weather, as well as the month (do you want to have the wedding in a popular wedding month or other?). Set the date before looking for venue and vendors – because you want to be sure that the vendors and venue would not be booked at the time. And, it’s a good idea to set a date at least 6 months in advance, so as to be sure that the venue, vendors and the most important guests you want to see would be free to attend the wedding. Find out how to choose the best wedding date.
- If you’re one of those people that want a quick wedding without a long planning time-frame, use our 3-month wedding planning checklist to keep you organized.
Step 3. Set the Wedding Reception Budget
Set aside a ballpark figure for the wedding, and use our wedding budget calculator to split the budget to know how much to estimate for your wedding reception (which includes food, drinks – basically, most vendor payments are related to the wedding reception).
- How to Estimate Your Overall Wedding Cost from Number of Guests
- How to Use Number of Guests to Calculate Wedding Cost
Break down your wedding budget into the different parts of a wedding reception – you want to get an idea of how much to spend on every single thing. So, put a price beside each of the following (any amount, you need somewhere to start from – you can change it later when you confirm prices). You can make a list of what to spend on or start with our ready-made Nigerian wedding budget list.
Click NEXT PAGE to continue reading
Hey sis Stella!
Ever since I started planning my wedding your blog has been really helpful.
Thank you so much😘
But this stage where I am , I’m getting do stressed out🥲
I really love to have a simple yet classy wedding ,not so crowded. We were considering about 150 guest but as it is eh it seems unrealistic cus we both know a whole lot of persons. so 200 is hopefully the deal..
I thought about using table number or seat number to reduce the crowd if at all others persons we didn’t invite get to hear about the wedding. But how the hell to assign those numbers is what I don’t know.
I’ll be glad if I could get some help. My wedding is in a 2months. Thank you for your anticipated reply
Hi Dramaqueen, thanks for that sweet feedback. It made me smile. I am happy to know that our posts are helping you through your wedding planning journey. Now, here’s my reply to your question:
-You asked: how to assign seat numbers; AND you also said you plan to use seat numbers to reduce the crowd and keep away uninvited guests.
First, I have to tell you that the real purpose of numbering seats is different, and is not to keep off uninvited guests.
**Let’s dream a second: Imagine it’s your wedding day and the venue is full, some are seated, some standing either because they did not get a seat with their name or because someone was already seated on the seat that has their name. You, the bride and your groom are there looking at the chaos. How would you feel? That scenario tells guests that the wedding was either not properly planned or had zero planning.
I want you to know that the purpose of ‘planning’ in wedding planning is to stream down the guest number to how much your budget can afford, to plan how to keep away uninvited guests, to plan how to make the wedding party fun, and more.
HERE ARE MY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT TO DO:
>Accept the fact that you cannot invite everyone you know, and don’t feel bad about it. Like you, every other couple knows a million and one people but weddings are not meant for inviting everyone, unless you don’t mind a crowdy, stuffy venue, and if you can feed everyone.
>Use tried and tested methods to keep away uninvited guests = Make your wedding “strictly by invitation’ and Hire venue security/ bouncers to not allow anyone without an invitation card. And state in your invitation card that it’s strictly by invitation.
>If you choose to use seat numbers for your guests, it would only be effective if you hire ushers and a wedding coordinator to help guests find their seats, else it could be cumbersome for guests to betrying to walk around looking for where to sit. Also, be sure that you have a way to communicate every guest’s seat number to them in advance, and also maybe have it at the venue entrance.
>Tips for assigning seat numbers include: group guests together and assign a table per group of persons with or without either names and seat numbers or names alone (e.g. a table per group, for example: bride’s/ groom’s immediate family, bride/ groom’s classmates, your/ groom’s coworkers, church members, your neighbours, your cousins, married couples and other married couples, single female guests with other single male guests, older guests with other older guests.
**The idea is to group people who are already familiar with each other or have similar interests, so that every guest has someone to talk to, and not feel awkward.
>You have to have ushers to help you make it easy to help people find their seats. *Note that seat numbers can also be confusing for guests if you don’t have a team of people to coordinate it.
>There are some apps for making seating charts and assigning seat numbers. Just google for seating chart apps, and use it to easily assign seating numbers to your guests.
>Also, put a banner outside your wedding venue that has table numbers and names of people assigned per table, to make it easier for guest to find their seats upon entering your wedding venue. And have ushers to help with that.
FINALLY:
>Plan your guest list, trim it down to the number your budget can feed.
>Actually make a guest list on paper. ==> How to make a Guest List, using our simple rules to decide who to invite and who not to invite.
>Work with your caterer to determine how much you need to feed the number of guests you plan for, and cut that number down if the cost is more than you can afford. Cut down your guest list to a manageable number. **Find out how to trim down your guest list
>If you really care about the rest of the crowds you know but can’t invite, then have a casual party later for everyone giving them food and drinks, after your wedding.
**READ: How to Reduce Wedding Planning Stress
I hope that helps.
Thanks so much for all the explainations, my wedding is in two months time, i want to have both in one day, still confuse on how the arrangement will be.
Hi Ebele, thanks for your feedback, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.
I wrote a guide and sample flow of events for a 2-in-one Traditional and White wedding events on same day. I think you should check out that post and read to the end, to get ideas on how to arrange things.
Don’t worry, that post was written to get the confusion out of the way for brides like you.
Let me know how it goes. Happy planning!
You are doing a great, job well done.
I am planning to have my wedding in 6 month time. I am a yoruba lady and the type of person that do not have so many friends and am not so close to my extended family even my uncle family where i will do the introduction how do I make up for this in my preparation.
Thanks.
Hello Adewunmi, and thanks for the compliments. Here’s my thoughts:
-For your customary marriage introduction preparations, you should ask your parents or the few relatives you are close to (even cousins, your cousins’parents/ aunts/ uncles), to lead you to your Paternal Uncles who are key players on the D-day. Use other relatives to get to them.
-You do not need so many people to be at your wedding – these days, some of the classiest weddings do not have many guests – think of the Nigerian celebrity weddings – their are not many guests. The focus is on keeping it CLASSY. It’s okay, especially these days, to have a wedding where there are few guests.
-I have a question for you – what kind of wedding size do you dream of? Lots of people or moderate number or few people made up of tightly close family members and friends?
My advice for you is this: plan your wedding guest list around the few, close friends and family members you have, BUT focus on making it high quality, top class – so that your guests would be wowed, and keep talking of how yours was refreshingly different. >That you have fewer guests would mean that you can have extra money to provide great food for your guests and a memorable party experience.
We have a series of posts on Ultimate Guide to Planning a Small, Intimate, Classy Nigerian Wedding (click).
And, How to Wow Your Guests with a Small but Mighty Wedding (Celebrity Style).
Hope the above tips help you.
I really appreciate your detailed, insightful and helpful tips. We are planning a garden wedding (wedding blessing and reception same venue different location) for May. Just a little tip on how to go about the event, even though we have been able to make a budget and others via the tips from this platform. thank you in anticipation
Dear Alheri, I am so happy to learn that you have been planning your wedding details and budget with what you read here. Thanks for the feedback.
On your garden wedding, here are some tips:
1) Think about CONVENIENCE or RESTROOMS (especially toilet) for your guests. What is available at the venue you are thinking of? Would the number of toilets be enough? As the venue what is available, how many? And check to see that it is true and that they flush. >If nothing is available, ask around for where to hire mobile toilets. >>On the wedding day, have someone visit early and ensure the toilet(s) are washed clean. Also ensure there would be a few people on ground to wash the toilets in-between uses, because some guests may start urinating in surrounding open spaces if the toilets are dirty, and you don’t want that.
2) What if it rains? The rains have been sporadic this year, coming at unexpected times. Would you use a tarpaulin or does the garden you’re renting have a covered tent-venue (marquee) that you could book for backup for you and guests to move to, if it rains.
3) Your shoes: Do not wear pointy heels. They would sink into the sandy and grassy garden floor, and that would make you uncomfortable.
4) Make your wedding dress to not be too long, because if it sweeps the garden floors/ sand, you are definitely going to have it dirty before the reception ends.
5) Where will Your DJ setup? Ask the garden managers the location that is close to electrical sockets, where your DJ can plug his gadgets for sound. And be sure to check that the sockets work. >Ask if there are extra extension boxes. It would be good to let your DJ know to have extra extension boxes on hand.
6) Speakers position: Your DJ should know to do this, but still hammer it in his head, and be sure that someone follows up that day. Have them position speakers on all 4 corners of the guest-seating area, but far apart, so that the music can be heard by all.
7) Make sure there’s a nearby Parking Space for your guests. Many gardens do not have this, and if your prospective venue doesn’t, then schedule a visit again to that garden venue and walk around the environment to determine where and where to mark out for use as parking areas on your wedding day. >>To make this work, assign a few of your trusty people (wedding day coordinators) to direct guests to where they should park.
8) Tone down on Glittery Makeup because in an outdoor venue, the sun would be lighting up your face and make any highlights look too much in pictures. >>Also, have a professional makeup do your makeup, so that every spot would be covered – if not, outside, natural lighting would show them in photos.
9) Insects and Crawling Things: It’s common to have lizards and insects showing up around the wedding reception area, and guests would not be comfortable. So, ask the garden managers if they could fumigate insect repellents around the proposed wedding area, a few days to your wedding date.
10) Minimal Decor Required: Nature is beautiful on it’s own, and so garden wedding venues do not require too much decoration to make it look uniquely different and classy.
Pheww! Alheri, I guess those tips would help you take your garden wedding venue from the usual look and feel to uniquely beautiful. Finally, you might want to grab more ideas from one of the garden wedding venues we’ve featured on this blog.
Hello Stella!
Thank you very much for your posts. They give me a clear idea of how to plan my wedding and what to expect.
I would like to know what the usual wedding reception agenda is? From the moment the guests arrive at the reception hall until the newly weds leave the building. I don’t know how I should set up the order of events that will occur at the wedding reception. I’ll really appreciate your help.
Thank you!!
Thank you too for reading, Olufunlola. Okay, below is a wedding reception programme (order) from a Nigerian wedding I recently attended:
-Arrival/ seating of guests
-Recognition of Special Guests
-Introduction/ Invitation to the High Table
-Entry of Couple
-Opening Prayer
Opening Remarks
-Couple’s Dance
-Cutting of Cake/ Toast
More Dancing
-Presentation of Gifts
-Vote of Thanks
-Dance! Dance! Dance!
Thank you so much for your response Stella. That gives me a clearer picture of how I should organize the agenda. I appreciate it!
I’m happy to know that the suggested wedding reception agenda was of help to you. You’re welcome, Olufunlola. Have a lovely, glam wedding!
Hi Stella,
my Wedding is in a month and i must confess i have learnt alot form your blog. i hope to share my ideas after my wedding.
please wish me luck.
Thanks, Chineye. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding – I wish you all the luck you need:) I’m happy to know that our tips on how to plan a fabulous wedding reception, and I look forward to seeing you back to share your after-wedding-ideas.
thanks. counting down- 3weeks to go.
You’re welcome, Chinenye. And, we here at NaijaGlamWedding wish you a fabulous wedding experience.
Hi Stella,
Your posts are very insightful,
Hello Christabel. Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed reading my Wedding Reception Planning guide. I and my are team always gingered to write more posts, after reading a feedback like yours. We have more helpful posts, be sure to look around:)