Crying Babies, Loud Uncles & Everything in Between: Let’s Plan This Properly

Decorate your own cake

Planning an Event / Wedding of any size can be challenging, and sounds great when you start talking about the exciting stuff you might have planned for your big day (doing a "decorate my cake at the reception" or "QR Photo Scavenger Hunts" for more guest participation), until you remember your guest list.

Events are now rarely just a room full of 21-40 year olds who can stand for 6 hours+ and still make it to the dance floor - I know for sure, some people would want to get out of their heels toot suite (me included)! Nanna, your second cousin's toddler, your uncle who needs to sit near the exit, and your best mate's 4 month old who was absolutely not RSVP'd for but is definitely coming anyway. Whether it’s a wedding, birthday, engagement, or long lunch, planning something that actually works for everyone isn’t about toning things down. It’s about being a little more thoughtful in the places people usually overlook.

Seating: The Make-or-Break Detail

Seating is one of those important details of your event, that seems simple, until it's not. a few small refinements that may assist:

• Have elderly guests away from speakers and close to bathrooms - no body wants to shout "WHAT?" or yell over music all night.
  

• Seat families with young children near the end of the tables, so they can make a quick escape and you or other guests won't even notice when they've ducked out.
  

• If planning to invite people who may not know many people, don't leave them stranded, even one familiar face at table changes everything.

  
  

  It's not about perfection, it's about making sure on one feels awkward or uncomfortable for hours = less stress on you.

The Flow of the day

Nothing kills the vibe faster than everyone standing around with nothing to do - from ceremony to reception, speeches to mains, if a gap drags out, you'll feel it. Kids get restless, Nanna gets tired, and everyone else is hangry.

Few easy wins:

• Formal parts short and to the point

• Have snacks or drinks available during any downtime

• If a "tradition" is only there because you feel like it should be, and it's adding twenty minutes nobody asked for, it's fine to skip it.

Something fun for guests to mingle and interact with one another, a QR Scavenger Hunt is a great way to collect candid photos, you could even ask them to upload directly to a shared gallery.

"A night to remember," - Bilbo Baggins

Honestly, the couples who get this right aren't spending more money, they're just spending ten minutes going through the guest list and thinking, "who might need a bit of extra care here?" That's it. It's not about grand gestures, it's the small stuff, the kind of thing that means your 80-year-old grandad and your best mate's toddler both have a genuinely good time, for completely different reasons.

This is one of my favourite bits of coordinating, if I'm honest. Guests never clock why a day felt so easy and comfortable; they just know it did. That's usually a sign someone thought about it ahead of time so they didn't have to.