When planning your reception, including an interactive element is a great way to get guests mingling and get the party started! When you hear the word “bar” you might envision a mixologist pouring adult beverages behind a counter, but there are so many creative bar options beyond cocktails and glasses of wine! From burgers to Bloody Marys and beyond, get inspired by these reception bar ideas from real weddings.
Amy and James always suspected a destination wedding was in the books for them, so once they got engaged in Singapore, they knew it would be the perfect tropical hiatus for their wedding! The couple’s powerhouse design team, Inside The Knot, decked out their wedding with lots of tropical foliage, colorful birds of paradise, and exotic white orchids, not to mention all of the gorgeous hand-lettered details scattered around The White Rabbit’s renovated space. Samuel Goh Photography captured every detail of Amy and James’s day wonderfully, including Amy’s fabulous bridal style!
From the beginning we knew we wanted a low fuss and quite intimate wedding, we didn’t want anything too traditional or overdone as that’s just not our style. The challenge for us was choosing a location!… We were living in London at the time and got engaged in Singapore, December 2015, during a stopover on our way to Australia for Christmas. I am originally from Perth, Australia and James from Sussex, England so I think it was always going to be a destination wedding of some sort.
We looked at all sorts of venues; hotels, restaurants, clubs, gardens but settled on The White Rabbit as soon as we saw it. The White Rabbit restaurant is housed in a beautifully restored 1930’s former chapel in Dempsey Hill, which was once the British Army barracks, a nice link to James‘ British heritage! It is one of Singapore’s best restaurants so we knew we wouldn’t have to worry about the quality of the food, drinks and service. It’s so beautiful, surrounded by lush tropical jungle, it’s got a whimsical Alice in Wonderland vibe, you would never know urban Singapore is just down the road. It is also one of the only venues we saw that had the space and ability to hold the ceremony, reception dinner and party in one location which is what we wanted, minimal fuss!
When it came to choosing the location, we knew it had to be somewhere meaningful to us. Equally important was somewhere that our families and friends would want to go and be relatively straightforward and safe to travel to. We had all sorts of ideas.. English countryside, France, Margaret River but we finally went full circle and went back to Singapore the following April venue hunting and found the one.
The most memorable moment and important to us when planning what type of wedding to have was gathering friends and family from all over the world Dubai, Mexico City, UK, South Korea, Denmark and Australia to celebrate our day and be there for us was the best fun ever. Having loved ones scattered over the world makes these moment rare and we felt so humbled and happy to see everyone meeting one another and enjoying themselves.
When I made my entrance to the ceremony with my dad to walk down the ‘aisle’, one of my oldest family friends played guitar. The song was a surprise and I didn’t know what it was going to be until the night before. It was a very personal and meaningful touch to our wedding.
We thought we’d be able to plan the wedding on our own, we found a venue ok so how hard could it be right !? We soon found it very difficult, with the time difference from the UK/Singapore, the cultural differences and not physically being in Singapore to organise things, we decided on getting help from a wedding planner. We couldn’t have done it without them.
Our advice to anyone planning a destination wedding in a location where you don’t have any family, friends or connections is that you must get a planner! Knowing that we could enjoy the day with our friends and family who had travelled so far to be with us and to spend time with us and not having to worry about timing, logistics, this, that etc. is absolutely essential in our minds.
We didn’t really choose a colour scheme as that idea seemed weird for us, we just fitted in with the tropical chic vibe, keeping it chilled and letting the setting speak for itself. The decor included lots of green tropical foliage, white orchids and birds of paradise.
One of my favourite moments, and you can see the expression on my face captured in the photo, was when our wedding planner took us in the back entrance to the dinner reception area before any guests where in there to get a sneak peak of the setup and have a quiet moment to absorb it all. Seeing the transformation from a restaurant into our wedding venue with the decor, lights and sunset pouring through the stain glass window was truly spectacular and above and beyond what we could have imagined.
Ashton and Caleb always wanted to get married outside at sunset, so when they came across Eagle’s Park‘s large cottonwood trees and romantic river views, they knew they found their dream ceremony spot. The couple’s wedding was full of so many sweet details, such as the moment in their ceremony when they hammered a handmade box holding a bottle of wine they’ll open on their 10th anniversary! Every inch of Ashton and Caleb’s North Dakota wedding was decked out with tons of natural greenery and hand-lettered details, and their evening ended with a wonderful sparkler send-off. Photographer Quinn Oberlander captured the couple’s day beautifully, including their stunning post-ceremony couple portraits over the river.
When Caleb and I sat down to talk about what was most important to us on our wedding day, there were two things that kept coming up: Time alone with each other and time with those closest to us. We made sure to plan time for just him and I both before the ceremony and right after so we could treasure every second. We also had a large bridal party so we could be surrounded by our closest friends and family.
And of course, as a photographer myself and Caleb a filmmaker, we definitely wanted an incredible wedding photographer to capture our day, and Quinn Oberlander did just that and more!
We got married at Eagle’s Park along the river north of the Bismarck, ND. While this park had never been used for a wedding before, we knew from the start we both wanted to get married outside at sunset. The park had a large central oval space perfect for every thing to be setup, large cottonwood trees that were beautiful and green, and of course it was by the river for our romantic getaway after the ceremony.
We just celebrated our first anniversary, and so we took a moment to reflect and asked ourselves what moments we remembered most from our special day. Caleb‘s most memorable moment was at the ceremony, standing across from each other. We’re both very much so ‘behind the scenes’ type of people, and so even though he was nervous to be up front and center in front of everyone, he remembers feeling at peace, only focused on me. He said all he remembers is standing across from me, nerves gone, as I had his complete gaze and attention.
We both really wanted something we could take away from the ceremony to have as the years went on, so we decided to take have a wedding box with a bottle of wine and letters to each other for our 10-year anniversary. My neighbor built the box, and my mom custom hand-lettered our names onto it, so it was pretty special. After taking communion and praying, together we hammered the nails into the box. I can’t wait to open it in 9 years!
My most memorable moments happened after the ceremony when we snuck away, just him and I, and walked along the river. The sun had just set and the water was so peaceful. At that point in the day, we we’re just so completely relaxed, more than comfortable in each other’s arms.
As we walked back to the ceremony, Caleb and I started to practice our first dance. We wanted to surprise everyone with some fancy jazz moves, so in the small shadow underneath this large cotton tree, we danced. Alone, for pure joy, just being us.
My biggest wedding planning tip is to go on a date together right as you start the planning following your engagement, and just talk you and him, about what’s most important to you both on your wedding day. We each chose our top three, and that really guided our planning process, budget, and details from there because we had a guide.
Think outside of the box to really tell your love story to your guests! We decided to have a side table of handwritten notes and photos with a thin glass covering over it, as a way to show the years of memories we’ve been able to share together leading up to the wedding day.
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