Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Wedding Lounge Podcast. Today we're talking about
day or in-day celebrations, basically extending your wedding to more than one day. Why would you do it?
Why would you not do it? What would you want to do for your day to celebrate?
What do we mean by day two? So day two celebrations is, as you said,
extending your celebrations by day. So traditionally or commonly people will get married on say it's
a Saturday and it'll be a one day event. So you might have people staying over in a hotel
if you're getting married there. You might have like sort of a low-key breakfast in the
next morning where everyone's just eating in the same dining room. Everyone's checking out by 10
going their separate ways. But like a day two is doing something a bit more substantial and having
like a plan almost like a second event really isn't it? Yep, exactly. So there are different
options of like what you could do as your day two and it kind of depends on where you are as well.
So the brunch? I think brunch is quite a nice one because it's that hangover time where everyone's
can, you know, lazy morning most people are without children so they'll stumble out of bed nine,
ten o'clock in the morning. They will have had to check out their hotel rooms but before they just
go home and disappear you can host a nice second day celebration. Have a catch up. It's a really
nice time for the bride and groom especially to hear the gossip. I find that my crouples are
precious off on the day and they can just relax and actually have deeper meaningful conversations
with people that they couldn't have necessarily had the day before. There's no formalities and
this really unstructured or a time line, obviously dependable on what you're doing but there isn't like
experiment at this time, reception at this time, photos dinner like yeah. It's a bit more like a free
yeah. Yeah, I had a really cool one. 2023 where they had a day two, they had an afternoon thing,
they had a pool. On the wedding day the pool was closed off, no one was allowed in that area so the
second day they had a totally different vibe, really relaxed, pool party open, DJ, they had a
gyros fan, ice cream truck, when they just had rosé, quanta, all afternoon and it was just so lovely
and relaxed, like just totally different to what the day before had been, a nice way to carry on
the celebration. And I think that's something that is quite cool about day two, is that
depending on what you're having for your wedding, you know, it may be formal, it may be relaxed,
but like your day two can really go out there. I think we've spoken for about aimed weddings, parties
and like maybe both of us aren't that big or like themed to be like an inch of their life like
weddings, but like a party, you could go really all out to the next day, you could do something
a lot more fun like you could have that Ibiza by pool party, sad to play a rosé on top kind of thing,
or you could do like something different, if it's a winter wedding or even if it's not you could
have like a cool at-trace ski kind of vibe the next day where you have maybe a bit more like themed
items that you know, I think decor, like you make it a bit more fun if that's what you want to go for.
The other nice thing about a day two, I had a client a few years ago who they had probably about
70 to 80 guests, not guests, so people that they should have invited to their wedding as a formality,
so people that worked on their farm, local people in the village, it was a really small village,
people they felt they should host, they didn't have the capacity to host on their wedding day,
so their day two was with a totally different crowd, nice, they hosted a lunch for all those people,
the local community essentially, to kind of celebrate their wedding, which I thought that's a really
good way of if you haven't got the capacity to have everyone you want there, yeah, want to have everyone
there, it's quite a good way to spread it out, a really good idea, like and that also kind of could
be instead of having evening guests, because I think we've spoken about evening guests before and
sometimes it's quite awkward them turning up, yeah, if you have the neighbours, maybe some of like
judgement arrangements, yeah, who you don't necessarily want their all day evening, it's kind of party
vibe and it's not necessarily gonna work, have the whole separate day too, it's different people,
and it worked really, really well, yeah, that is really cool, I mean there are there are issues
that come with it, so if you're hiring a venue, yes, you might not have the venue for the second day,
but if you want to have a second day, local venues, local pubs or restaurants with private spaces,
you can hire just to kind of like mean that those people can hang around for that bit longer,
if you're fortunate enough that you're dry hiring a venue for a whole weekend or you're having a
market at home, then the option is much easier, definitely, and I think we've spoken about this before,
possibly with like doing something the night before you're wedding, if you're having a destination
wedding or for example you're getting married in Cornwall and all your guests are coming from Yorkshire,
extending the celebrations a bit more, make it a bit more worthwhile, but you know,
a bit more worthwhile for people to travel, and people will need to be staying over for that
mandatory time anyway, so it's nice to make sure they've got things to do, they could choose not to come
and just want to go out for the dinner on the Friday night or lunch or Sunday, just to turn them
before they go home and spend some time away enjoying it as a holiday, but at the same time,
if you are able to put something on for them, it just, it makes it more of an occasion. Definitely,
and I think we're sort of doing a day two, you've also got to think about what day of the week you're
getting married, yes, because if you are getting married on, I don't know, say you've gone from midweek
on a Thursday, then you kind of want a day to a Friday, a lot of your guests will probably take the
Friday off to make it a long weekend, really good to think like if you're getting married on Sunday,
people need to take the Monday off all of the weekend, you know, just think about these things,
holidays work really nicely on day two, so Chris's whole entire side was coming down from Yorkshire,
so six hours in the car for all of them, we purposely chose about holiday, so that no one would have
to rush off on the Sunday to get back for work on the Monday, and we hosted a day two breakfast
before we headed off on our honeymoon as well, which is just a really nice thing to do, but we
chose a weekend based around the fact that we wanted to have two-day celebration, because if you're
putting on Sunday day two, and it's like boozey, yeah, boozey into the early evening or my late afternoon,
even people you've got to get back, you might have to get back for kids, but you know, you've got school
the next day, that I don't have to have work the next day, like it's things, things to just think
about what day of the week, I'm sort of who your guests are, like how far they are traveling, yeah,
so what considerations and budget requirements do people need to think about when they're considering
having day two celebration? Well, I think you mentioned the key one already is if you're getting
married at a venue, have you still got the higher for the next day, like there's no point planning
a day two when you don't have exclusive use or you don't have any use of the property the next day,
but you've also got to think about what time, you know, some weddings do like weekend higher,
and you kind of might have the property until like three o'clock on the Sunday, so therefore like a
branch is going to be more suitable not back and afternoon for all party because you'll be cutting
it fine, and I guess the nice thing about that is if you have got exclusivity or exclusive higher
of a venue for a weekend, you have already paid for it, yes, you might as well make the most
out of it, exactly, if you're getting married at home, you obviously have the marquee and it most
likely will be up on a Sunday, but you do need to check of your marquee supply, yeah,
some of them will start degrading on a Sunday, yeah, so that they can clean them and get them back up
on like a Tuesday, Wednesday for the next weekend, so you know, you do need to think about these things,
and just make sure obviously your key consideration is the venue, going to be available for a day two,
or as you said, do you have to look elsewhere? And then other considerations is your catering?
Yes. What are you getting in for that day two? Are you going low-key,
buffet style, quaggrost or food trucks, or do you want to put on a served breakfast?
Those are the kind of things you need to really consider and get quotes for, and I would
ideally allocate a proportion on your overall budget or have an exclusive day two budget that you
are willing to spend on that event that isn't going to compromise the wedding day itself.
I've had clients where they want to do a day two themselves, like the parents are doing it more,
they've kind of gone, they're key, they don't really kind of want to help planning it, which is fine,
but they weren't thinking about the obvious linen on the table. It's not the obvious though, is it?
This is the obvious, but it's not the obvious. Yes, you need to double the amount of linen,
because you don't want to have someone fill their red wine that I bought or drop a bit of grey on it,
and then you're trying to serve up a brunch the next day. You need to get that marquee clean and
tidy. If you're doing it yourselves, do you really want to be getting up first thing on the Sunday
morning? I'll know if you're in your wedding dress to be meaning out. Or do your parents
for that matter? Make sure you are considering. I've a speaker catering team or your planner,
or whoever's definitely gathered marquee the night before, so whether or not they can tidy it up and
make it look good for the day two. Yeah, I'll get your planner, I'll say, if you're hiring a planner,
we would obviously recommend, if you're getting married to home, you know, it's coordinate. But,
you know, make sure someone's there, not you, to tidy up from the night before. Close down the marquee
properly so animals aren't getting in the red wine, things like that, and then setting up ready for
the next day. But my clients last summer, they hadn't thought about extra linen. I was asking them
for details of the caterers and asking them for, is it a separate caterer of the next day? Yeah,
they weren't using the same caterer. And I said, well, what power requirements do they have so that we
can make sure we have enough fuel in the generator, because obviously we'd worked out all the power
requirements for the wedding celebration, like having the cheer on the night before, you know,
that sort of thing, but not for day two. You know, we asked whether they need more fuel, but we've
had meant the year before it worked for the sister's wedding. So, and lose, as well, lose, you probably,
you either need larger capacity, lose, or you need someone to come in, empty those lose, and to
service them and reset them up for another day's worth of use, because you've only got so many
flushes in those foldable loose, like they are brilliant, but you need to make sure that you're not
overdoing them for the following day. You don't want to have sort of smell of sewage the next day,
do you? Overflow. And also, showing back to them, like the tables, it's like crockering,
coloring. Yeah, and glassware. Yeah, you don't want to be loaded up and just rush at home,
and also your crockering glassware will go back dirty to your higher up. Yeah.
So, you need to hire, you need to hire enough, and what I had that with one of my weddings this year,
they decided to have a day to, they didn't inform me off. So, you know, I think it came out about two
weeks before, they were like, oh, we're just going to have a casual hog roast on the Sunday, and I was like,
oh, okay. So, do you want me to come back and clean the marquee for you? Do you want me to come and
sort the loose and to make sure the loose are sorted? We can make sure there's enough. I mean, for them,
they did a hog roast, which came self-sufficient. The loose were off the power on the house.
So, power wasn't such an issue, but it was, make sure we've got enough linen in for you. Yeah.
They were like, oh, we don't need to worry about cutlery or crockering, I think, because it's a hog roast,
we're just going to do buns and disposable plates. What they hadn't thought about was the glassware,
and what we're going to drink out of. And they suddenly were like, oh, my goodness,
fortunately, I have big boxes of plastic glassware that I was just like, here, just take a few of those,
you can use those. You need to treat it as its own event, really, coming to plan it. Like, obviously,
it's not going to be the same scale, but you need to think of all these practical things.
And, for us, it might come and pack down on the Sunday. Yeah. You need to make sure that, you know,
you need to make your supplies aware. Or if you're expecting flowers, sorry, expecting the flowers
to last the next day, then you might have to have your plan at the top of the water, even still running
the evening after the sun's gone down to make sure the foliage displays aren't going to wilt overnight.
Yeah, it's a hot day. You've just got to consider it. Don't just think you can go into it.
Just do a day two thing. Just plan it like you plan your wedding day. If you want to have a day two,
you want it to be done well and you want it to be done nicely. You don't want to be turning up to
tedious, stressful tables, just, as stressful tables, because you haven't thought about the linen
and a sticky dance floor. Oh, yeah. I'm just, I think about you, but I find when people do a day two,
they're often like, oh, mum and, especially if it's a marquee at parent's home. Oh, mum and dad are
just going to do that, but I know your parents, I think it's nice, and it isn't. But do they really want
to be slightly hungover, perhaps from the day before, and then even just getting pretty prepared,
stuff the drawers and, you know, without the freezers, chucking up in. Do they want to be doing that?
I think an afternoon thing is the perfect thing to do for a day two. I think that gives everyone
a chance to be hungover in the morning, have a lightened, because it's going to be a late-night
finish, and everyone's going to want to catch up on their seat. It gives people a time to shower,
check out their hotels, to have some lunch, and then come to you for the afternoon.
I'll just think, like, hotel sits is ideal. You can then relive the day before. Yeah. It's not too long,
but it's enough time to catch up with those people, even if it's only like 40 of your closest.
Yes, I just think that extra little, so once they're wedding to be over, so why does that have to be?
I was quite different. I used to work in a hotel, and I don't know why, but I found it the morning
after, when everyone came down, they all looked hungover. We had breakfast tables set up, obviously
normally at the hotel, like you'd have separate tables in the dining room for the breakfast,
but the morning after a wedding, they set it up in the library, like big tables for everyone,
and I used to be on reception, and I see people come downstairs, literally, like, Ben, over double,
I hold in this stomach, it's kind of like still really feeling the effects of the night before,
and then all kind of going in and having to make the light conversation. So I was adamant when I got
my read to Jamie, I was like, I'm not getting my read in the hotel, because I do not want to see
everyone the next day, because it looked negative. It wasn't giving off, because it wasn't a plan to
consider the what's out thing that people have in the bathroom. It's just the hungover breakfast
where everyone's being forced to go. I literally, like, I don't really, like, I didn't tell people
where we were staying. No, no, no, no one else was staying there. I think my dad kind of put off.
I think if you're going to have it in a hotel, you want to avoid that situation, because then it's
kind of like a forced day too, that you don't necessarily want, just let people come down, have
breakfast in their own time on their own tables. If they want to talk to you great, but some people
might just want to have their food to make sure they keep it down and go. We tend to stay in
like Airbnb or something like that with a couple of friends when we go to weddings, because we
don't want that situation, like, and then you can just, I'm done in your own time. We don't worry about
it once. I don't know my husband's friends and we still drink about it now, but honestly, the next day,
the poor bride was so hungover, like, her husband was walking around the garden, and she was like,
bent over double, just, you know, when you stand up straight, bless her, and they were just about
to get in the car and head off from Kent, down to Cornwall for their mini-mood, and I just remember
it was a really hot day, and I just thought, oh my, if I'm hungover and like needing to be hungover
to toilet, I don't know. Oh my guess. Well, that's one of the biggest considerations, isn't it?
Like, I had it later. Yeah, exactly. I have it later or don't have it at all, but you need to make
the decision. Yeah. And you need to plan for it, or your parents can have a day too, like, it doesn't
necessarily have to be you. It can be your parents can host all of their friends again, because they don't
get to see them very often. That's what my dad did. He had probably dozen people of like friends and
family just over for a lunch, and to be honest, Jamie didn't even pop in, because he was driving some
stuff back to Kent. I was in my car, so I kind of popped in and said hello, literally grabbed something
off the table and walked back out the garden, like, I couldn't stop and celebrate. We just wanted to
get home kind of thing in the end, but we were both sort of back at work on the Monday, so. Oh, no, that's
so hard. Yeah, we were back at work on, what do I think? No, back at work on the Monday. I think
we had 10 days back at work and then we went on honeymoon. Oh, okay. So it wasn't all doom,
I know. So we had that to look forward to, but it was kind of, we got married back in Sussex,
only an hour or so back home, but we just kind of wanted to get home to be honest. Yeah.
Dump all the cards, get all the stuff sort of out while at the way. But it, you know, it's not for
everyone, but as you say, if you're going to do it, think about it properly and do it right. You do
need to treat it like an event in itself and budget, break down your budget, like last week when
we were talking to Ben from Stylus, allocate the proportions of your budget, how you want to spend
it, even if it's, you know, a small, small event and your budget proportion is only five percent
of what you spent on your wedding day. Yeah. You still need to make sure you're allocating that
well enough to how you want the event to go exactly. And if you're doing a big thing, then treat it
like a big thing, have an entertainment budget, have your catering budget, your venue if you need it.
Decor budget, if you need it, even if your florist comes back the following day, just redo the showers.
Yeah, it's just worth having these discussions with those suppliers and just making sure that
everyone knows and is on board and it's not some giant surprise when it comes to the day.
Or if you are moving venues, yeah, that you can move all the flowers. Our friend had this before,
one of our panoprans, she had a couple and it was at a venue and no one could stay there,
so everyone was staying at another wedding venue restaurant where they had lots of accommodation.
So she ended up offering to pick up the flowers and drive them back to that venue the next day,
because they had to kind of be out the venue. So I think she didn't put them in her car that evening
and then dropped them off the next morning at the second venue because it's like
none of the wedding party or guests were staying at the actual wedding happened,
they were all staying at the other sort of hotel venue and they didn't pay the florist,
so the plan was decided that and it took the flowers away. So they're repurposed and took it.
But it just, it needs considering. Well, I think that's the whole thing with everything,
isn't it? Is it all needs consideration? Don't leave anything to chance, don't leave anything to
last minute. Fails to plan, plan to fail. There you go, is that all right? There are lots of benefits
of having circumcised celebrations, you've mentioned it before, hit catch up on the day before,
and people have had a chance to recover slightly from this. Oh, the boss it, the gossip day after
the wedding is just wrong. Did you have that yours? Oh my god, did we have that ours? And for the
week after when we were away on our honeymoon, we kept on getting more and more gossip about things
that have happened at the wedding, and I love it, as a planner, when I go back and I'm
clearing down the next day, I'm getting the day too ready, when the bride and groom come in saying
how amazing their night was, and then you get like the maid of honours usually there, there's always
some sort of gossip from the night before. Yeah, that is just brilliant, and it's so lovely to hear.
To hear how your guests experience your wedding day? Because you don't get to find that out,
you get around everyone, you can't, you can't miss all of your friends and family going in,
so it's really nice to share it in their joy the next day. Yeah, ultimately your wedding is about
YouTube, but you've invited these people because you want them to have a good time and be there to
celebrate. Yeah, so it's nice to hear about their stories. Yeah, and also to catch up with people
that you haven't necessarily spoken to. Yes, if you know you're having a day too, there's less pressure
to go around and speak to every single guest on the wedding day and have like a two minute session
you know talking to each person, you can have more natural conversation. You can actually spend
the days and the time with people that you want to spend it do not try your hardest, just that's
the hard thing with the wedding and the hosting your own event is you want to see everyone and you
want to speak to everyone and you're just giving yourself that extra amount of time without having
an event that goes until five o'clock in the morning, which I don't know about you, but I always advise
my couples about having an end time and a semi-sensual end time so that everything finishes on a high.
See, I've got that on my couple this summer. They're getting married at home, so I said we need
to have an end time and so I was speaking to her parents. I mean kind of agreed on an end time, but
it's not going to actually set them all looking forward to the after party, as in that one goes on
after it's and the parents have said that's fine, like official kind of music or suppliers or whatever
it will end up, I think it's mid-fibre kind of thrown out. Yeah, like they want to carry on after it's
and they're hoping for people glamping and things, but there is sometimes a worry that that fizzles
out by, I guess most people will probably go. Yes, if there's an end time. Exactly, if there's a
carriages time and an invitation, then people will adhere to that time. So again, if you want to have
an after party, it's not quite a day two, but tell those people you want to stay, because what you
don't want is to get to midnight and everyone's going oh well, I booked a taxi because it was the
end and then you're just kind of left there. Yeah, we've no one to celebrate your after party with.
But yeah, it just needs thinking about, doesn't it? Exactly, Evie. I'm going to ask you what your top
tip is around posting a day two. Well, we've definitely said it, I think, or it's not several times,
but it is so important and it's just make sure you let your suppliers know that you're having a day two.
If you've got a planner, imperative, you let them know, because then they can tell everyone else for you.
But I think it's worth getting them involved in your day two as well and helping you, no matter how
small you might think it is, it's a whole event in itself and just having the planner on board to
help you with that, or make things a little extra to help you with that. And they'll also be able to
work out what you do need and don't need. They can help you work out what you shouldn't shouldn't
be thinking about, but I think I've seen it for people with marquees and partway through the planning
they've gone, oh, I haven't a day two, and I'm not right, let's check the marquee company. And
luckily, they were the first people to kind of put in that request, so their deer egg was planned
for the Monday, but they were just kind of soon, it wasn't going to take them down. And I think you just
need to communicate shares, connect them on Sunday, e-in-in normally is connected by electric career,
maybe on a Monday, but you have enough linen, like you've just got to let people know. Yeah,
there's a catering company who I work with, not catering, catering higher company, sorry,
how I work with, who are notorious for coming first thing Sunday morning, six, seven o'clock,
if it's not near the house, they will come and collect their rockery and glassware and everything
like that. So if they don't know that you're having a day two and you've just ordered extra,
it's wrong. Yeah, exactly, even if you thought to order extra and let them know,
yeah, that you need it until the Monday. So yeah, I would just highly recommend that you let people
know as soon as possible if you're planning a day two. Right, we'll be talking about next week,
Tash. Wedding rehearsals. In the English sense of the word, water rehearsal is and what it
involves and why it's worth having one if your ceremony face doesn't have one for you exactly.
So we will catch you next week. See you then. Bye.