average reception length?

akirken · July 2011

What is the average length for a reception? I am asking because all the DJs I've been looking at are priced at X amount for four hours. Are receptions usually 4 hours long? I was under the impression they were alot longer....

catarntina · July 2011

Ours was from 6-11p. We got the DJ and bar/hall for 5 hours. We didn't have to pay extra -- the 5 hours was their normal rate.

EDIT: Most people left by 10P. Just the heavy partiers stuck around till 11.

abbeylynne06 · July 2011

Our hall was for 5.5 hours... Four hours seems really short to me. I have no recollection of how long our DJ was priced for... maybe it was a per event fee or something, rather than a certain number of hours? because I know we didn't pay for extra hours.

akirken · July 2011

We have our hall until midnight, but we need to clean up before then. So I'm thinking it'll have to end at least by 11. But 7 seems late for dinner and 4 hours does seem kind of short to me too. 5 hours might be more of a better length of time. hmm....

catarntina · July 2011

We had appetizers at 6, salad at 6:30 and dinner was served at 7. I think 7 is OK for dinner if you have appetizers sooner.

If you're interested, we used Professional Sounds for our DJ and I thought they did a good job.

akirken · July 2011

Thank you! Looking for a dj is getting exhausting because I think they are highly overpriced

abbeylynne06 · July 2011

First, I think TK was trying to get me to respond to another post, because this: "Re: F/S Satin wedding linens: red, turquoise/aqua and white - tablecloths, chair covers and sashes" was in the subject line when I hit reply. What??

Anyway, I don't think that 7 is too late for dinner at all, but it might cut the reception a bit short, only because starting dinner at 7 means not being done with it until 7:45ish, and then you'd still have 1st dances and all of that after before regular dancing starts.

Also, does this mean you would not have music during apps and dinner? I think you need to have something going on in the background during that time.

FWIW, I think DJs are worth the money, even if they're $$ because they can easily make or break a party. A good DJ can get people on the dance floor and keep the party going. A poor DJ or playlist can be annoying, discourage people from staying/dancing, and essentially end a party.

akirken · July 2011

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. I'm not exactly sure about how the timeline will work yet. I am kind of confused, really. haha. I guess I should work backwards? The reception will probably need to be over at 11. So if we did 6 to 11 that should be plenty of time for the reception I would think. Its going to be small anyways- about 80-85 people I think.

abbeylynne06 · July 2011

No prob! The timeline was a pain in the butt for me to figure out. And, you're right, working backwards is the best way to figure out all of that. 6 to 11 sounds great to me! And then you'd only have to pay for 1 extra hour if you end up going with a DJ who has a 4 hr rate.

akirken · July 2011

Thanks again! You are very helpful and I appreciate it :]

cschuma2 · July 2011

I know I'm a little late jumping in on this....but we had our reception hall from 5-10 (though we ended up staying until about 10:30 and nobody complained). Our guest list was mostly family and included a lot of kids, so I assumed that most people wouldn't stay late. We had the cocktail hour from 5-6. We arrived at 6 and the buffet was ready by about 6:15. We only had about 85 people, so it didn't take too long for everyone to get through the line and eat. I think dinner was over and cleaned up by about 7:00. We then did our first dance and parent dances. We had a break of just dancing and mingling and did the cake cutting at about 8:00 and immediately followed it with the bouquet and garter toss while the staff was cutting the rest of the cake. The rest of the night didn't have structure and was just partying until 10:00. We cleaned up and loaded gifts into the car and were out of there by 10:30.

I never felt rushed to get everything in during our allotted time, but I didn't feel like the night was dragging on and everyone else had already left either. I think it was a good length of time and break down of the events.

HTH!

akirken · July 2011

That does help! It seems like 5 hours is the general consensus, then. Thanks ladies!

average reception length?

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