Anyone having a BRUNCH RECEPTION?

Aston Martin

I'm planning a morning (10:30 or 11:15) wedding ceremony with a (12-2ish) brunch reception.
If so, could you share your plans and ideas?

TIA

CaptiolBride

this was my plan at first...I was going to have the entire event on a local cruise ship.  Decided against it because many people don't like the water.  It's difinately easier on the pockets. Lunch Food!!!!

glam70s

We're doing that.. We're not too far along in the planning yet, as it's not until next February, but lots of ideas..

We decided to go that way because my FH's family is rather conservative, doesn't drink, etc. This way we'll get the best of both worlds - a beautiful wedding that won't make anyone uncomfortable (nor will it seem too conspicuous that there's minimal alcohol), and a great party that evening with all of our friends and family that don't object to the presence of wine and loud music...

As far as ideas, we've decided to keep everything very simple. The wedding is being held in a ballroom, so we won't be doing any decorating aside from centerpieces. The centerpieces will be tall, narrow vases with silver branches, on a mirror and surrounded by votive candles. Colours are blues (ice blue and navy), white, and silver..

Because we're keeping everything very simple and minimal, we've decided to splurge on having a flamenco guitar player play the pre-ceremony, ceremony, and cocktail hour music, then we'll just use a laptop to have background music for the reception. I think having the live musician will add a lot of atmosphere and elegance that might otherwise be lacking. We're not planning on having any dancing, but we will have a dance floor and upbeat music in the background, so we'll see..

I'm thinking my hair and everything will be very simple, and the venue's coordinator will be taking care of setting everything up, so we won't need to get up absurdly early. If my hair, makeup, and the reception decorations were going to be complicated, we'd likely have to be up at 4am or something ridiculous. We're doing photos of me and my FH before the ceremony though, so we will still be up quite early. I'm a crier, so I'm hoping seeing him before the ceremony will calm me a bit, and any crying I do won't be in front of all of the guests (I get all red and splotchy!). Also since a brunch reception likely won't last long, I don't want to have to leave my guests during cocktail hour.

Our photos will probably be at 9:30am, ceremony at 10:30, cocktail hour at 11, brunch served at noon, and everything will be over by 3pm.. Then we'll go check into our hotel, relax and sleep for a couple of hours, and meet friends for dinner and a night out around 7 or 8..

Aside from saving TONS of money (dinner at our venue is $130pp, we're doing brunch for $50pp), I think this is the perfect way to do things for us. Partying with aunts, grandparents, and cousins is just not our idea of a good time (awkward!!), so I'm very excited about this..