Reception for guests after ceremony???

wileykj777

So we have decided to save money and have a Vegas wedding. All of our close friends and family are invited and we expect around 40-50 people to attend.
We are going to have a reception at home when we get back from our Honeymoon.
I am stumped on the etiquette for after the ceremony. The ceremony is at 4, so we figured we would pick a spot for dinner, but are we expected to pay for everyone? We cant really afford to pay for everyone, so we thought that maybe we would just pay for the wedding party and parents....is this tacky? Do you think people would expect that we foot the bill for dinner because they came to Vegas for the ceremony or would it not be expected because we are having the reception back home??
All advise on this would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks:)
Any ideas on places for a fun receptions after that maybe aren't too costly?

stinkerbell6879

Sorry but you need to feed your guest that come to Vegas. Scrap the at home if it means you can do this. There are many budget friendly ideas....Hit the buffet, In-Suite, ect...

TheEncoreBride

Agree w/stinkerbell, if you can't afford to pay for their dinner then you could just invite them to the AHR. I would only have immediate family in Vegas and have an intimate dinner (or brunch) with them. You could also look at doing a brunch for your guests or an in-suite reception with heavy apps.

 

ebonyivory10

Yes, in terms of etiquette you must feed all of your guests 
But you could save money by doing an in-suite or taking them to a buffet.

kara811

Ditto all PPs. You have to feed all your guests. You are hosting the wedding, and they are coming from far away. I think they would expect for you to have a reception and feed them as well. If you can't fit everyone in your budget, then cut down your guest list(have you sent out invites yet? Have all 40-50 people they are coming for sure) If you can't cut it down, you can always do an in suite reception and have just punch and cake, or you can do just apps. Or like everyone said, there are a ton of buffets here that you can go to. Most of them you can reserve a section, or some have private rooms for parties. 

direy25

Yep, as everyone else said you need to feed your guests.  You can't expect them to use their vacation time and spend money to attend your destination wedding and not feed them.   If that ever happened to me as a guest, I'll admit that I'd be pretty upset...

KellyEileenBrown

If you're having your ceremony at a hotel, you may be able to bargain for a few buffet coupons or work it into your ceremony package. We didn't do this, but the Harrah's hotels are pushing their buffets with room reservations, so it wouldn't hurt to ask.

junebug61103

I agree with all the PP. You need to have atleast something after the ceramony. If its a late ceramony, maybe cake and champagne at a restaurant or have an insuite. We are doing an insuite at Aria ($560/night including tax) with heavy appitizers from Masterpiece (about $16/person), a "cup"cake and booze from local Vegas liquor stores. HTH!

zitiqueen

http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_las-vegas-wedding-reception

I'll answer the same way I did in the above thread -- if you can't afford to spring for one meal for people who've flown across the country to see you get married, you can't afford a Vegas wedding.

Vegas weddings aren't cheap unless you go the courthouse route. But if you truly wanted to save money, you'd do that in your hometown and stick with your at-home reception.

Berni09

Here's an option:
http://www.harrahs.com/buffets/faq.html

You could get breakfast AND dinner with that!

wileykj777

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I Appreciate it!  We will be doing a dinner after for everyone, so now just to find a restaurant!

side note....kind of surprised at how rude some people get on here

kara811

OP, glad you have changed your mind and decided to foot everyone's dinner. This is how it should be as you are the host. As for your side note, I strongly disagree with that. The local boards are one of the nicest boards on here, same with your month board. I've never seen anyone rude on this board. People do post their opinions here, but only in a constructive way and not in a rude way. But when you explore outside here, and onto the international boards, those you can call rude. It's really cut throat on a lot of these boards, you might have to get used to it. But good luck with everything and Happy Planning! 

sdb0611

In Response to <a href="http://forums.weddings.com/Sites/Weddings/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_reception-guests-after-ceremony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:d3d93b18-b563-4194-a072-5d5b874a1fe4Post:8f888406-5839-4050-b870-8dfdaa079eb5">Re: Reception for guests after ceremony???</a>:
[QUOTE] side note....kind of surprised at how rude some people get on here
Posted by wileykj777[/QUOTE]

I totally agree that some people can be very rude. I am shocked because everyone I've come across on the LV board has been very pleasant and helpful.

11Vegas7

I don't think anyone on this board was rude at all.  Other boards can be VERY RUDE so if you think any of the Vegas knotties were rude I would suggest not posting elsewhere because you will find out what rude can really be!  I suppose this is coming off as rude but honestly, you asked for an opinion and people gave it to you in a nice manner (in my opinion, of course)...

reb84

funny how defensive people get when they think you are calling them rude.  We don't even know that her side note was based on the comments here on the LV board, she might have been commenting about another board she saw. 
When planning our wedding for Las Vegas, I thought about not paying for a dinner either but then when I realized how much our families already had to pay for getting there and staying, we decided to do an all day buffet deal.  Now I'm kinda woried they'll be all buffet-ed out by dinner time LOL

ebonyivory10

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_reception-guests-after-ceremony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:d3d93b18-b563-4194-a072-5d5b874a1fe4Post:9a9cfe77-23c3-4bd1-8e27-86c741f9ea3a">Re: Reception for guests after ceremony???</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>When planning our wedding for Las Vegas, I thought about not paying for a dinner either</strong> but then when I realized how much our families already had to pay for getting there and staying, we decided to do an all day buffet deal.  Now I'm kinda woried they'll be all buffet-ed out by dinner time LOL
Posted by reb84[/QUOTE]

I'm always curious about this .... not attempting to start anything .... but for the basics, a Vegas wedding isn't really that different than a wedding at home.  If I were having my wedding in my home state I would never consider not feeding people, why would that be different for Vegas?

Again, not arguing I'm just curious on the thought process?

wileykj777

Well here is the thought process....we started planning a wedding at home.  Obviously weddings are very expensive and time consuming to plan.  When it came down to it, we didn't have the time or the money.  We figured it would be easier and cheaper to do a small Vegas Wedding (meaning close family and friends about 20 people) So we get moving on this Vegas planning and everything is great...except now people hear that we are going to Vegas for the wedding and are inviting themselves. So all of the sudden the guest list has grown massively.  We didn't want to do a big traditional wedding, because we couldn't afford to pay for a ton of people who quite frankly we see about once every year (if that). 
So, now that we have all of these extra people that we didn't plan on inviting...are we still obligated? Ya ya, I know that etiquette say yes. But I didn't want to invite these people to begin with.  So do we just scrap the invitations all together and just who ever shows up shows up? Then we just take care of the wedding party and family (the only ones who were originally going to be there?)
I'm starting to get frustrated because its like everyday the guestlist grows by a person or two.  I just wanted something simple and fun for a small close group and now its turned into a party of 50 or 60.

aerinpegadrak

I don't see how people can invite themselves to your wedding.  "Oh, that's so random that you're going to be in Vegas that same weekend!  Maybe we'll meet up for a drink or something."  Anyone who books travel plans for an event to which they have not been invited is a very great fool, and you are not obligated to host them.  You ARE obligated to host anyone that you explicitly invite.

Repeat after me: "We're keeping it very small, family and WP only.  Unfortunately, we're on a tight budget and just can't afford to accommodate everyone we would like to."  And if you know that parents or other people are adding to the guest list without your permission, you need to go to them and explain that the guest list is locked, and they need to tell anyone they invited that they were mistaken.

People can only take over your wedding if you let them.

stinkerbell6879

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_reception-guests-after-ceremony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:d3d93b18-b563-4194-a072-5d5b874a1fe4Post:ed3f63e3-2569-4258-b17d-401d7dbce5ce">Re: Reception for guests after ceremony???</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't see how people can invite themselves to your wedding.  "Oh, that's so random that you're going to be in Vegas that same weekend!  Maybe we'll meet up for a drink or something."  Anyone who books travel plans for an event to which they have not been invited is a very great fool, and you are not obligated to host them.  You ARE obligated to host anyone that you explicitly invite. Repeat after me: "We're keeping it very small, family and WP only.  Unfortunately, we're on a tight budget and just can't afford to accommodate everyone we would like to."  And if you know that parents or other people are adding to the guest list without your permission, you need to go to them and explain that the guest list is locked, and they need to tell anyone they invited that they were mistaken. People can only take over your wedding if you let them.
Posted by aerinpegadrak[/QUOTE]

Pretend I said this. This is what you NEED to do.

aerinpegadrak

I should add that I've been there.  We switched to Vegas after hitting some money troubles, and cut the guest list down to our parents, people in the wedding (WP, reader, officiant), and their spouses.  That was it.  So when I discussed wedding plans with people who weren't on the list, the first words out of my mouth were exactly what I advised you to say to people.  We had absolutely no issues with extras.  We were drawing a very clear line and were up front about it, and people understood. 

We only had one "crasher": we didn't invite any cousins because inviting one meant inviting all of them, but the daughter of the uncle who was officiating was going to be in town on business, so she had our blessing to drop in.  Oh, and one of our attendants brought two guests instead of one so they could keep each other company while she was busy with wedding stuff.  Again, she cleared this with us in advance, and had we told her there wasn't room, her friends were fully prepared to skip the reception.  We were very firm with our guest list, and people respected that.