3 Easy Ways to Clean Up Your Venue In Under An Hour
It’s 11 PM, you didn’t lose your glass slipper, and all guests are officially on their way home from the ball! Take a deep breath because you did it! You are married! You look around and see all of the empty wine glasses and other signs of your successful night. That’s when the panic sets in. You spent all day decorating for the wedding, but now have no idea how you will have the entire venue cleaned before the 12:00 AM checkout.
#TipTuesday is here for you!
Tip #1. Clean your bridal suite and your groom suite early. When I make the timeline for my brides, I incorporate a time slot AFTER everyone is ready, but BEFORE the ceremony for a small clean up session. This gives time for members of the bridal party to gather their clothes, throw away extra trash or earlier meals, put alcohol away, and start packing their cars. After a long day, the last thing a bride needs to do is worry about cleaning their suite before they can leave the venue that night. This helps eliminate extra time at the end of the night that can be used towards loading up cars with the wedding décor.
Tip #2. Designate items to certain cars for cleanup. Make sure to let the driver know ahead of the wedding day so that they can make sure they have enough space prepared in their car and know what they are taking home with them that night!
Example
All the gifts will go into the bride’s parents’ car,
Leftover catering will go in the groom’s parents’ car, (there will be left overs!)
The tubs of decorations from the ceremony site will go into Aunt Susie’s car, etc.
This will help avoid confusion at the end of the night, let the couple know where to collect their items later, and will get the job done in as quick of time as possible. It helps to keep a checklist of all of your items and what tub they will go in so that your party can easily follow along and nothing gets left behind!
Tip #3. Clean up gradually throughout the night! Decorations can be moved from the ceremony site before 11 PM. Once they have served their purpose (and the photographer has plenty of pictures) it is okay to move them to their storage bin. Make sure someone from the wedding party or the day of coordinator knows where to put them and when.
This also applies to tables. Cleaning 20 tables is nearly impossible at 11 PM unless you have an army. Normally if I see a table that is not occupied anymore towards the end of the night, I will go ahead and start taking off the centerpieces and loading it up in your wedding tubs. I DO leave the table cloth on until the end of the night though – just to maintain some uniformity with the other tables that still have a centerpiece on them. Have the caterer pack up your leftovers after the meal and the cake after it is served and leave it in a designated location. Once clean up begins, whoever needs to grab the leftovers can easily grab them.
Well, there you have it! These three tips are sure to save you some time on what is the best (and busiest) day of your life!
Until next #TipTuesday Magnolias!
