How to Make the End of Your Reception Seamless

You’ve had the perfect day celebrating your wedding and doing the Cha Cha Slide until the lights turn on. In an ideal world, you’d be able to hop on your shuttle and get to the next destination. Instead comes the dreaded task of packing up your decor, gifts, and anything else you brought to your venue. 

Don’t let clean up put a damper on your big day. We’ve put together a few tips to make this transition seamless.

Bring supplies for packing

When you’re making your list of items to bring to the venue – include boxes or bins for your decor and presents. This will make loading all of your items into a car much simpler. 

For leftover food, ask your caterer if they will be boxing up leftovers. If not, you should bring containers for food and desserts, and bringing a cooler may also be a good idea.

Organize before the ceremony

We always recommend getting big totes (or $1 giant reusable bags from TJ Maxx) for bridesmaids and groomsmen to put all of their items in after getting ready onsite. That way, at the end of the night, they can simply grab their bag and go, rather than scramble to find their shoes or makeup pallet. 

During downtime before the ceremony, we highly recommend everyone pack their items in their bags and tidy the bridal suite so there is no need to hustle to do that at the end of the reception.

Designate a helper

This is key! Find a dependable person that will be in charge of boxing decor, grabbing gifts, taking the leftover food and all other goodies to their car when the DJ announces last call. Make them a list of all the things they need to bring. They should be good at giving directions – everyone wants to leave, so many will be asking what they can do to help.

Hire a coordinator

Don’t want to designate someone for the task? At Barnwood Events, there are month-of coordinators on staff that you can hire for a reasonable fee. They meet with you twice before your wedding to nail down details and are there the entire day to direct your vendors, set up, take down, manage the timeline of the day, and more. 

When you hire a coordinator, they can help to box up your decor, gifts, and whatever else may need to be taken home at the end of the night and even load it into your car. You can go right from dancing to getting on your shuttle!