Any advice for a park wedding/reception?

Have a backup plan for bad weather

Did you rent a dance floor? Do you have any sort of covering/tents?

My wedding will be done by 8pm as well. We plan on going out to a bar to continue celebrating.

Yes to the dance floor. And a good dj. I plan to have the dance floor in the middle of the dinner tables. But we are only going to have about a half an hour of darkness! Our first dance and the parent dances are all going to be in daylight :/

And my rental company does have tents in the chance of bad weather...

Is your area in the sun? Or covered by trees?

Mostly in sun, so I'll have market umbrellas scattered around for cocktail hour. Dinner and dance floor have shade cover from trees. And I'll have market lighting strung up, even though it will be in the day time lol

I'm getting married at a park and my wedding will be over by 4:30. I feel like park weddings lend themselves to being more informal and shorter than other venues.

Is there a rule saying you have to be out by 8:00? Does that mean guests leave at 8:00 and cleanup begins or cleanup has to done by 8?

Guests leave at 8, well, music stops at 8. Cleanup done by 9

Our send off will be about 8:10

If your ceremony is earlier then I don't see a problem with it ending at 8:00. Is the park saying cleanup has to be done by 9:00 or is that something you came up with?

They gave us that time, I paid an extra fee to have a longer cleanup time. Ya our ceremony is at 3... I guess my nerves are just getting to me :/

I understand. I see BAMs or hear people talk about their timelines and I realize my wedding won't be anything like other peoples. That's not a bad thing-just different. We're doing our ceremony at 11:00 and leaving between 4:00-4:30ish so we can drive to our honeymoon.

Millie V, for the most part, ours will be kind of similar in that they are day parties. I think I just need to embrace that about my wedding and stop looking at Pinterest lol. After all, there was a reason I went this route in the beginning... I think a park wedding was always my vision congrats to you! Wow you have a year to go! I would lose my mind with that much time haha!

I think it sounds lovely! Sounds like you have covered all your bases with rentals and tents as a back up plan. Your rental choices are not lame - they seem very classy and pretty. Spotlight dances in the daylight are fine and you'll get better photos than in darkness.

With respect to the open space - you'll create a defined space once the tables, dance floor and bar are set up. People will stay in that area. They won't go far from there.

Haha yea I figured out the basic details of how I want everything but now I'm taking a much needed break from planning.

Yea Pinterest can make you feel like your wedding isn't good enough for x,y,z reasons. I don't find it very helpful at all and haven't looked at it for a few months now.

Just remember why you chose that venue and enjoy it! Sounds like it will be a beautiful day.

Make sure you have clean toilet facilities with fresh water, soap, paper towels, etc there. Rent them if you have to. If the park provides the facilities, make sure they're fully stocked and park staff are monitoring them.

Nothing takes a party from rustic to tacky faster than a stanky portapotty!

Lol Mrsf2b! Yes! Thankfully the park has some nice bathrooms but I am planning to add some extra tables in there with nice bathroom necessities! And maybe even a little decor definitely something I can see people overlooking when planning a park wedding!

Also don't forget about bugs. Be careful of fruit because they will come swarming. Be careful with anything involving cheese due to outdoor heat or any salads.

My wedding was in a park and beautiful! I did have covered space to use though, which was good because it poured. And lights in the day can still add a nice look - our gazebo picture has string lights we hung and I love the look of them behind us! My park allowed us to stay until 11 though - we went back to the hotel bar and closed that down at 1:30/1:45 during last call haha. I loved my park wedding :-)