How to plan a Twilight Wedding
If you’re thinking of booking a Twilight Wedding, or already have yours booked, you may be wondering where to start. All the guides and timelines out there will focus on the traditional, full day style wedding, and I bet you’ve probably not been to a Twilight Wedding, with the first you go to likely to be your own! So here’s our guide, from the Sparth House wedding team, to help you along your wedding planning journey.
What are the timings of a Twilight wedding?
Here’s our Sparth House timings.
3:30pm - Guest arrival at Sparth House
4:00pm - Ceremony - time to walk down the aisle!
4:30pm - Drinks reception - time to enjoy drinks, canapes and of course photos!
6:30pm - Cake Cutting & First Dance
6:45pm - Party time - time to get on the dance floor!
8:00pm - Evening food from our Market Food menu - pizzas anyone?!
12:00am - Carraiges - and with 16 bedrooms, some guests haven’t got far to go!
What do I need to consider differently?
Daylight: Depending on your date, Twilight Weddings can have a lot of darkness. The only negative to this is a lack of bright, daytime photos. If the weather isn’t great during your drinks reception, there’s no other time to get those photos. Our tip - embrace the darkness! Look at photographers that are great at those evening shots - under the festoon lights, sparkler photos, dark and moody. Get a photographer that fits this vibe. On the plus side, darkness is the best to get the party started, so it really helps with the atmosphere.
Table Decorations: Spending all your budget on beautiful floral centrepieces isn’t necessary. The room will be dimly lit - nobody can see much of what’s on the tables. Go for candle and lantern arrangements instead. Just make sure all flames are completely enclosed.
Food: Guests need food. A twilight wedding isn’t much shorter hours wise, but it does reduce the amount of food by quite a bit. Our package includes the minimum that is needed, but consider upgrading to a few more canapes, or having something a little extra like a s’mores station or brownie bar to keep them going.
Guests: Most of your guests have probably also never been to a twilight wedding. Consider an order of the day sign to let them know what’s next or items that make it obvious what they’re supposed to be doing - like a ‘let’s party’ sign or neon.
Our top tips!
Entertainment: Other than actually getting married of course, this is the most crucial element of a twilight wedding. Make as much of your budget as possible available for the best entertainment you can afford. You need a DJ who can get the party started straight away and we’d suggest another musician of some kind to ramp things up again after evening food. If you can stretch to a musician during drinks reception too then definitely do.
Lighting: Ask your DJ what other lighting options they have. Uplighters are a great add-on and really transform the room. A twilight wedding is all about the party - so you need to make it feel like one.
Speeches: Whilst you can still do speeches on a twilight wedding, we say if you’re not overly bothered about them, leave them out! If you really want them, keep them super short - 3 minutes max per person. Speeches can be very formal, which is the opposite of a twilight wedding, so they don’t work well to get a good atmosphere going. If you’re worried a family member would be upset by not doing one for you, explain the situation and ask them to write you a personal letter instead. It’s a super sentimental way to say all the things they want to.
Props/Activities: Think glow sticks, cute love heart sunglasses, photobooth (Reflections).
Toolkit: We’ve redesigned our Wedding Toolkit and created your very own Twilight Wedding Toolkit. Make sure you’re using it so you know what you’ve still got to do.
Our Favourite Extras & Upgrades
Canapes: Upgrade to 4 or 5 canapes, or the sip ‘n’ slide package to give your guests the wow factor.
Cocktail Hour: This is a lovely treat and can be done either as you and your guests make your way to the evening reception room or with your evening buffet.
DFC: An award-winning DJ that you can add to your package (with a bonus reduced rate when you book through us!) These guys know how to get the party started!
We hope this helps guide you a little bit through planning your twilight wedding - as always, we’re here if you have any questions at all!
Love Olivia, Katie & Emma xxx
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