After the wedding -- what happens to all that stuff?

Question

This may sound like a dumb question, but i've never been to a wedding before, so I don't know. I was watching 'Platinum Weddings' and there is never any mention of what happens to all the stuff from the reception after the wedding's over, or for that matter after anyone's wedding? For example - MASS amounts of flowers $50,000 worth, a lot of excess food & drinks, ice bars, huge candy buffet extras, big cakes, custom linens that were paid for, etc. Also (not that I ever would:) but what if the guests "steal" items they're not supposed to take -- like one couple had like 18K gold utensils! What happens to all of that stuff, LOL!?

Answer 1

Well, my mother, took a few things home herself, we also put leftover food in the freezer, the top of the cake was saved for us, the linens and everything were already provided by the hall, so nothing else was left. The flowers on the table, we had one winner per table take it home. And that was that.  

Answer 2

Hi.  Good question.  The bride and groom (or the family members) bring everything home!

Now, with the linens, etc., that would be the property of the reception venue.

But, all the flowers, the leftover cake, the candy for the candy buffet....ALL OF IT...is the responsibility of the couple to take care of.  I suppose if you just leave everythng, then the venue will do with it what they want...which, obviously, would be to toss it in the garbage.

So....most people bring all of it home!  The candles, cake, mirrors, flowers, candy, any other decorations....everything!

Answer 3

Anything that can be returned to Wal-Mart gets taken back and the Bride & Groom get a gift card since, they don't have the receipts.

Answer 4

I don't know what those people do. We had little excess, which was great. We told our guests if any of them were interested, they could have the centerpieces--gone. We only had 12 cupcakes left out of a wedding cake and 250 cupcakes! We had about 4 cases of beer left, which we drank.

Answer 5

you either hire someone or have friends and family pick up the stuff for you

its up to the couple what to do with it

Answer 6

my mom and MIL cleaned everything up at the end (cuz we left).  and my mom took everything home with her and the next day took the table covers back to the place we got them.  so thats what happened to my stuff =)

Answer 7

it depends on if it was rented or bought. if it was rented then it gets returned to the place.. if it was bought then sometimes it gets given away to guests or it can be stored

our linens, utensils, plates....were from the hall so they took care of all that. I let guests keep the centre peices (rose bowls). Most of the other stuff went into a huge box in my basement (like the cake cutter, cake topper, bows....)

we did have some stuff get stolen from our wedding- someone stole ALL the little wine bottle covers we had (they were bride and groom covers) ..we wanted to save them for my sisters wedding-but they disappeared!

Answer 8

Most things like linens and cutlery are rented just for the wedding day, so it just goes back to the rental company the next morning.  Things like ice bars and excess candy are probably tossed out.

Usually floral centerpieces are up for the taking by guests that want them.  SOmetimes they can take the whole vase, but that could be rented, so sometimes they just get to take the flowers (some couples put markers on one seat per table to indicate who gets to take the centerpiece home).

Most of the other stuff is just thrown away.  Aren't weddings wasteful?  I'm planning one right now and a lot of it seems like such a waste of money.