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Wedding Reception Forum
CaitFins
member
Receiving Line and Photos - or Table Visits?
All of our portraits will be taken directly after the ceremony. How would we manage/time the receiving line around this? My parents are not hosting, so we would like only the bride and groom to be in the receiving line to speed things along. We need the wedding party and our entire family to be in photos, however. How do we manage this, and not have them just standing around waiting for us for 20 minutes?
Our wedding will be a cocktail reception with about 110 guests. The reception is located straight down a hallway through double doors to the reception hall. I'm very open to table visits, but since our reception is only about 3, maybe 3 and a half hours not including photography time and we still have all the traditional works and dancing, it seems to me like table visits to everyone aren't very realistic. Our guests are very laidback, and I know the groom and I would love the time to just hang out with them.
Thoughts?
Our wedding will be a cocktail reception with about 110 guests. The reception is located straight down a hallway through double doors to the reception hall. I'm very open to table visits, but since our reception is only about 3, maybe 3 and a half hours not including photography time and we still have all the traditional works and dancing, it seems to me like table visits to everyone aren't very realistic. Our guests are very laidback, and I know the groom and I would love the time to just hang out with them.
Thoughts?
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Re: Receiving Line and Photos - or Table Visits?
I would try and get a few photos done before the ceremony. Your photographer could do all the shots of the girls you are wanting and even some with your parents. Then you would only have true family portraits and the whole wedding party left to do after the ceremony.
I would skip the receiving line and just go for table visits. I've seen B+Gs start with 3 tables as the salad course is being served or first few tables are going up the buffet, sit and eat that course, then do a bigger batch of tables while next course is being served, sit and eat that course, do a batch of tables while dessert is being served or after cake is cut if that is your dessert and then do the final tables before you open the dance floor. I'm thinking that you probably would have about 13-15 tables if you have 8 at a table and a few open spots. That should be easy to break down in groups.
If you're having a cocktail reception will people all be seated at tables at the same time or will people be mingling/walking around with passed apps? I would worry about missing people doing table visits this way. Table visits IMO work well with seated, plated dinners, but if not everyone sits at the same time you run the risk of missing tables.
Plus, you say it's a cocktail reception, so I image it's a buffet where people go up whenever they want and mingle at their leisure? I think that will make table visits harder because you're likely to miss people as they are going back and forth between the bar and buffet. I think table visits are easier when it's an actual meal where you get served first and then can visit tables while others are still eating or between courses. With a cocktail reception, you're going to have a harder time keeping track of who you still need to get to if they weren't at a table at the time you visited.
That said, where are the pictures taking place? Having the people you need for pictures hang out for 15-20 minutes isn't that big of a deal. Is there a bridal suite or other small room at the venue where they can hang out - you can have some pop, water, some veggie or cheese/cracker trays in there while they wait. Or they can grab a drink at the bar first. It's not like they'll be waiting for hours on end. If you can get some of the pictures done before the ceremony, that will help, too.
Have your receiving line out of the ceremony space. After your recessional, stand by the exit doors, and thank guests as they file out of their seats out of the ceremony room. Your family/WP wouldn't have to wait too long for you to be ready for pics as everyone needs to get out of the room anyway, and usually people will chat for a few minutes afterward. Then do your photos. 110 people shouldn't take more than 15 mins.
Otherwise I would say have your receiving line into the reception, but I see that won't work for you! (I initially assumed you wrote cocktail hour then reception).
You can absolutely do table visits, but as said, I would be worried with it being a cocktail reception that you might miss guests who are up and about.
Can you do it outside your ceremony venue right before you go to the reception?
I prefer table visits because you can sit and chat with people better.
Doing table visits would not have worked because the tables were spread out over multiple rooms on the 1st floor of our venue, and then there was also a 2nd bar and photobooth in the wine cellar.
Our receiving line was just us and our parents and it occurred during the end of cocktail hour as our food stations were being set up, so that people could pop in and out of line as they wanted to, with drinks and apps in hand!
"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."
I do not mind receiving lines. I also grew up going to Catholic mass. You always had a line trying to get out of the church. Sometimes had to shake the priest's hand. Receiving lines at weddings were pretty much the same. If you wanted to skip the line you just went out another door. Again, not a big deal too me.
What time of day is your wedding? What is a cocktail reception? No food?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hors d'oeuvre
I have searched the internet. A cocktail party is one hour long, and it is usually one where business is discussed, people socialize, and drinks and hors d'oeuvres are served. The traditional time for this is early evening, never in the afternoon. This is why, at wedding receptions, it is called a "cocktail hour" and is before the meal.
This may be simply a misnomer. If the reception includes a lot of foods and drinks, then it is a buffet reception, either luncheon or dinner, and it is fine.
To serve some hors d'oeuvres and drinks at a meal time is not a proper wedding reception, and the OP said she expected her reception to last three hours or more. For cocktails? No.
If the reception is held in the mid afternoon, which is not a meal time, then a tea reception would be fine with cake, punch, and finger foods, but it would not last three hours.
Why can't it last 3 hours?
It would be similar to having friends over for a party later in the evening, or heading out to a bar. Still lots of food, drinks, possibly dancing, but it is not held over a meal time, thus a full meal is not served.
Cocktail parties are not wedding receptions. Wedding receptions are not cocktail parties.
No, there are not "cocktail wedding receptions", but yes, there are lots of receptions where cocktails are served. The OP is fine with her plans! Timing is everything!
There is no such thing as a "cocktail reception". There is a cocktail hour that can be held before a reception. Cocktails are mixed drinks, and they can be served at any time, but by old school rules, after 5:00 PM. I'm not holding on to old school rules here.
Many young people do not understand what a cocktail party actually is. I posted a link on a good definition earlier. Cocktails can be served at any kind of party, but that doesn't make them "cocktail parties" unless they fit the definition. ONE HOUR.
I attended a few when I lived in the Washington, DC area. Out here in the west, they are unknown.
As I said, there is nothing wrong with the OP's plans, now that I know what time of day her reception is being held.
What, no cake?
This is an area of wedding planning and hosting where the times have indeed changed. She's not having a cake and punch reception, and were she to put that on her invitations her guests would show up expecting a much different event than what she is hosting.
"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."
Ive also been to many cocktail receptions in the evening. There has been appetizers and it was more of a stand up type reception. The amount of food available depended on the time (during dinner time, the reception had A LOT of appetizers to substitute a sit down dinner which ones later in the evening has less food) and it included drinks. This type of event definitely would not be called a cake and punch reception and I really don't know what else you would call it other than a cocktail reception. Your insistence that this type of reception "doesn't exist" is baffling considering multiple people have told you they've BEEN TO THIS TYPE OF EVENT. I also don't get why you continue to argue. How does this affect you? How does this provide good feedback to the OP?
I am happy that OP is having her reception in the afternoon. Nothing wrong with it.
It actually is acceptable and preferable for your guests to indicate "Cake and Punch reception to follow" or "Cocktail reception to follow" if you are not going to be serving a full meal. It gives guests a heads up that they may need to eat prior to the wedding, and allows them to manage their time accordingly.
We discussed ad nauseum in another thread why having that line on the invitations is important rather than just assuming your guests will know what's going on based on the time alone; In many of our circles- TK users- we actually do serve full meals during our receptions, regardless of the time of day, and so for us, showing up to a 2:00pm reception we'd be surprised to learn we were not going to be having a full meal. . . and we'd be hungry and possibly annoyed too.
Brunch, cake and punch, cocktail receptions- they just aren't a thing in my circles; I've never been to any of those types of weddings, so in my mind I'm expecting a full meal when I go to a wedding. If that's not going to happen, I'd really like to know beforehand so I can make appropriate arrangements for myself.
Notice above how I said I had a cocktail style reception- I didn't, actually. I had a cocktail hour followed by food stations- so a full meal. I thought cocktail style reception had more to do with the style of the food served and the seating arrangements, and not that it was apps only.
"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."