I am planning a small wedding and brunch reception, expecting a little under 100 guests. I am going to "walk you through" my reception timeline and events and I would love feedback as to what I am missing, what I am forgetting, etc. My ideas are a little less traditional (daytime brunch, no dancing, etc.)
FI and I will get married at a church at 10am. The ceremony should be over by 11am, so our brunch reception will be at 11:30am, at a restaurant 2 blocks from the church we are marrying at. We are assuming most of our guests will just walk down, as it is a short and flat walk! Is 11:30 too early to "start" the reception or will that be about right? (We will be doing pictures before the ceremony, and don't expect anything else to bog us down trying to get to the restaurant by then...)
We are completely renting out a small restaurant. We will host a made to order brunch at a small restaurant.
We will play a slideshow of photographs on a wall from my FI and I growing up, of us, our friends, fam, etc. I also have made a playlist of soft music (Frank Sinatra type stuff) to be played throughout the restaurants' speakers throughout the reception. Otherwise, there will be little by way of "entertainment" and expect out guests to pretty much eat and leave. We are OK with this!
Guests will have assigned tables and will get their seating cards as they arrive in the restaurant. As they sit down, guests will be served juice, coffee, tea and can order Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Peach Juleps.and a Tequila/Cinnamon drink. They will also be served cheddar biscuits and jams.
During this time, we will have a few short toasts made and FI and I plan to take the microphone for a few minutes to thank our guests for coming, etc.
Next, guests will have special menus at their seats and will order what they want for their first and second courses- we have worked with the restaurant to simplify their regular menu, while still offering a wide variety of things like grits/shrimp, traditional egg dishes, some sweet things, etc. There will be vegetarian options and a separate children's menu.
We will also have cupcakes- some yummy flavors like French Toast, Peach Cobbler, Pomegranate Margarita, and 1 more that we haven't agreed upon yet.
We are planning to just have the cupcakes sitting on the bar area in a display, since the bar area will not be used by guests during the reception at all. We figure guests will get to get up and eat cupcakes and mingle a bit, then leave.
Does this all sound OK? What is glaringly missing?