Welcome back to part 2 of our TikTok live weeing planning Q&A! Tune in to listen to more great questions asked by our followers. We cover a wide range of topics in this replay and if you have a question that you’d like us to answer, come join us for our live event this Wednesday!

Do coordinators usually bring the desserts out a little later? We are having an outside wedding and don’t want everything just sitting out for hours.

You can certainly ask your coordinator if that is something that’d be willing to do! It honestly just depends on the coordinator. Or you could ask your mom or friend to bring them out a little later. If you do happen to have them sitting out, we recommend covering them until it’s time to serve.

Because of daylight savings, it’s going to be dark for our ceremony. Any tips?

Evening weddings can be so beautiful! We suggest talking to your photographer since they will be the most affected. A conversation in advance will help them prepare their lighting in time.

For decorating, a really nice option is twinkle lights or string lights. Twinkle lights show up in the pictures but don’t provide enough lighting for photos. However, market lights, like the ones you see in restaurants sometimes provide a lot of light. They are a little more expensive but there are companies that will rent them for your event.

How do I get most of my family to come early for pictures?

Unfortunately, even when we do a first look before the ceremony and schedule some family photos not everyone listens to that. To help make it go as smoothly as possible, you can either: 

• Be very clear with your family that you need them there half an hour early to take photos. If you have a grandparent that needs help, organize someone to help them. 
• Schedule a block of time after the ceremony to capture any of the photos you missed beforehand. After all, unexpected things can happen, especially if your family has little kids!
• Do mostly the wedding party photos before the ceremony and save family photos until after.

What’s the best country song for a bride to walk down the aisle to?

A wonderful song we suggest is: 

Growing Old With You – Restless Road (fun fact: when we featured this one on TikTok, the band themselves did a duet with it!)

Some other good ones are:

On My Way To You – Cody Johnson

The Broken Road –  Rascal Flatts

From the Ground Up – Dan and Shay

Speechless – Dan and Shay

My bridal party is uneven and I’m unsure how to do the intros.

You can always structure it so there’s one guy with two girls, or consider having the groomsmen walk down by themselves, and then the bridesmaids. 

For intros at the reception, this option can be really fun because you can play a song like Suit and Tie by Justin Timberlake for the groomsmen to enter all at once, then maybe Glamorous by Fergie for the ladies, and finally a song for the couple’s entrance.

If you don’t have a dance floor, what would be the best table layout to give the illusion of one?

It’s hard to make a recommendation without knowing the shape of the tables or the layout of the room, but depending on where you are having the event and what types of tables are available, there are a couple options. 

We have a TikTok that goes over the differences between the sweetheart table, the king’s table, the horseshoe table, and the head table. That would be a good reference for you to check out and decide which one will work best for your space!

We do recommend laying them out in a way that leaves a space in the middle. People always feel more comfortable dancing if they feel like there is a designated spot for them to dance in, but you don’t have to have a huge space. When it comes to a dance floor, less is more, so that even if a few people are on it, it looks full and like everyone is having a great time.

What’s a good song to cut the cake to? Or type of music?

People often choose one that says “sweet”, “sugar” or “cake”, which is really cute. A few of our favorites are:

• How Sweet it is to be Loved by You – James Taylor
• Sugar – Maroon 5
• Sugar Sugar – The Archies
• Recipe for Love – Harry Connick Jr.
• Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith

If you want a more elegant feel, anything from the Vitamin String Quartet is great too!

Do you have any ideas for involving my soon-to-be stepdaughter during our wedding?

You could make her a junior bridesmaid or even the maid of honor, depending on how old she is. We also think it’s really special for the step-parent to say some vows to the child at the end of the aisle. That moment can be really powerful to help the child feel like they are part of the ceremony and it really brings the new family together. 

You can also give them a little gift to signify the occasion. A bracelet, or an engraved frame with a picture of the new family (this could work for a stepson too), just something that they can keep and remember the occasion by.

Any suggestions for mother and grandmother entrance?

You can have them walk down to the same song as the wedding party, or you can choose something special for them. 

A really nice one that we have seen recently is when the couple had the grandparents come down the aisle to them from the movie “Up”. It was really sweet. Any pretty instrumental song will work well too.

When it comes to the DJ, I’m not sure what the usual price is. What is too much or too little?

It can be really hard to give a specific gauge of pricing when it comes to vendors such as DJ’s because the pricing often depends on a number of factors. One thing we can say though is that when it comes to the wedding industry, you usually get what you pay for. If a vendor is more expensive, it’s often because they have professional equipment and the experience to know exactly how to make that part of your wedding as smooth and stress-free as possible. 

It’s always good to talk to them before hiring them, and from that, you will get a good idea of what they are like and what they offer for the price they are asking.

What is the Shoe Game?

In the shoe game, you and your partner sit back to back in chairs and hold each of one of your shoes, so you’re holding one of yours and one of your partner’s shoes. Then the DJ asks questions about you and you raise the corresponding shoe of your answer. The questions can be things like who’s the better driver? Or who said I love you first?

The questions can be as silly as you want, and the game gets a lot of laughs usually! Check out this video where we demonstrate the shoe game!

We are listening to Avery Anna’s  I Love You More. When should be a good time for me to start walking down?

This song is beautiful when you open the door or come around the corner right at 40 seconds! 

While we are on the topic, we have to touch on this as well. After all of the time it took to plan your wedding, by the time you are ready to walk down the aisle, your nervous energy is at an all-time high. It can be tempting once the doors open to walk down the aisle really fast. We want to encourage you to take a minute and really enjoy the moment.

We always jokingly tell the dad, “don’t let her go, just hold her there for a minute!”. Enjoying the all-too-short moment of standing at the end of the aisle gives people a chance to take in the beauty of you in your dress, and lets you really take it all in. Then when you are ready, let the song take you up to the altar.

What are your thoughts on a private ceremony and a public reception later on the same day?

Structuring a wedding this way became really popular during covid. People would have a private ceremony, and then once all the restrictions were lifted they planned a big reception so they could celebrate with their friends too!

If you really want a private ceremony because it’s more intimate, but you also really want to party with all of your family and friends, it can work really well to do it this way. Not only that, the intimate nature of doing it this way can be a really special memory for you and your partner.

Is it Worth Getting a Wedding Coordinator?

We know that not everyone can afford a full-on wedding planner, but we also strongly believe in the value of hiring a wedding coordinator. The coordinator comes in about a month before the wedding day. They do the timeline, coordinate vendors, help with the rehearsal and walk-through, and then do the day of coverage. 

The biggest difference between hiring one and not hiring one is your enjoyment of the day. With a coordinator, you have someone there that can not only advocate for you but also run the event. After all, it’s not easy to get 150 people to do certain things in a timely manner!

It also frees up the family members who would help in her place, such as your mom, and allows her to relax and enjoy the day more. We have talked to moms who didn’t realize how much time it would take to help coordinate, and they ended up not even getting a glass of wine or a dance during the wedding. 

Of course, hiring a coordinator is not only in the budget, and we understand that. We recently did a podcast on this, and the options you have. You can find lots of resources online, and on our website, we offer PDF templates and even virtual planning services where we can help you plan the timeline, floor plan, music, everything!

Who generally gives the bride something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue?

If you’re looking to get pictures of that, it’s usually done beforehand, like while you’re getting ready. And a lot of times they’ll be presented by the mom or the maid-of-honor.

We want to incorporate the song “More Than Words” somewhere, where would be a good spot?

Oh, that’s a great song! It would work well as:

• The cake-cutting song
• A dance song
• A private dance between you and your spouse as all the guests are leaving. Using it here can create a really special, intimate moment for just the two of you.

Do I have to have a rehearsal dinner? Can I just invite everyone to a restaurant after we rehearse?

Absolutely! The rehearsal dinner does not have to be formal. We have had couples take everyone to a pizza place, which can be great, especially if your budget is already maxed out. 

Another great idea is to have a casual bbq!

For a day of coordinator, would we give them all our decorations and things a few days before?

Talk to your coordinator to see how they prefer to do it, but you can either drop them off the morning of or the night before at the rehearsal dinner, either works.

To help organize all of the decorations, we suggest getting some plastic bins and labeling them according to what’s inside. Sweetheart table, aisle decorations, etc. This saves SO much time, especially if you add the decorations to the bins as you buy them throughout the planning process.

That wraps up all the questions from this TikTok live session. We hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful! If you have any questions you’d like to ask, you can join us live on TikTok every Wednesday at noon central time. See you there!

Happy wedding planning!

The Wedding Duo: A Wedding Planning Podcast