I picked the venue my fiance was most comfortable with, and we went with an old historic building in the industrial district of Seattle that has been converted into a funky art gallery. Initially, when we booked the venue, there were tons of options for how to stage for the ceremony and perform the flip during cocktail hour.
Option 1 was rent the alley behind the gallery and then pipe and drape or tent it off to create a longue for cocktail hour. This required a permit and consent from the neighbors that share the alley. Unfortunately, for the day of my wedding the city is unable to issue a permit to me because of some construction thing they have planned, so that option is out.
Option 2 was to rent my caterers ballroom for an hour. They are across the street from my venue and their ballroom is awesome. But then someone booked it while I was sorting out the alley issue. So I lost that as well.
Option 3 is to cram all of my guests into the hallway during cocktail hour and have them walk in and out of the chaos of the flip to get to the bar and refill their drinks (it is after all cocktail hour, right? They're probably going to want to drink). I'm really not fond of this option at all. As a former caterer myself, I know how ugly set up can be and it takes away from the magic a little to see it happening first hand. Plus I feel like the caterers would be in the way of my guests and my guests would be in the way of my caterers.
I can't have them standing outside because of open container laws. My plan D is now to have the tables set up and just walk down an aisle between them and have a seated ceremony so we can go straight from getting married to partying with our guests. My question is has anyone done this or been to a wedding where this was done? Was it a success or a disaster? I don't want anyone's backs to be to us during the ceremony. I am sure I could stretch my imagination and come up with an option 5, but I am hoping that I can just figure out a way to do a ceremony with the guests at tables without it being a total disaster. I am open to any and all suggestions. The venue is long and narrow so I was thinking maybe two rows of banquet tables and just walking between them? I really have no idea. I just need some help!