Receiving Lines

weddingcourt

Are you planning on having on? Why or why not?
or
Did you have one? Are you happy with your choice?

I wasn't planning on having one because I think having over 100 guests can make them get really long and take FOREVER. When I mentioned this to FMIL and FFIL they were less than pleased. To be honest I don't really care either way, but I thought this would move things along quicker without one since we are having a 5pm wedding and a 6pm reception.

Thoughts?

LindsayTiz

I've been tossing around the idea of having one, mainly because we will probably have around 350 guests and I don't think going to every table will be feasible.  At the same time, I don't really want to get to my reception before the first guest so I'm ready when they get there! argh! decisions!

Julz629

I didn't want one because I felt it would take too long.  We are expecting 250 guests and the venue told us the receiving like would take about 45 minutes.  Our moms were appalled by this idea and we just decided to give in.

If our ceremony is outdoors, Andy and I are going to dismiss by pew because that would only take about 20 minutes and it will relieve us of the obligation to go to every table.

However, if we end up having the ceremony indoors, we will do a receiving line with our parents only.  We figured that everyone will head straight to the bar from the receiving line and this will make it so the bar staff isn't completely overhwhelmed by the crowd of people.

Knottie1435582995

I didn't do a receiving line for a number of reasons: 

1) It would take too long, thereby cutting into my picture time a LOT.
2) Not everyone goes to the ceremony, and I didn't want to try to remember later if I'd already said thank you/hello to someone or not. 
3) I didn't want to be standing for 45+ minutes in my heels.  My thought was that I'd already have time to change into flats for the table greeting.  (Turns out it didn't matter b/c we all wore galoshes).  And finally,
4) I know my relatives.  They are talkers.  If I am coming to the tables to greet, I control the time I'm at the table.  If I'm standing there at a receiving line, I have less control over how long they talk.

I will say, however, we had 22 tables and I ran out of time for the table greetings.  I had to say hello to the last 3 tables all at once because I was getting dragged to cut cake & do the dances.  I felt bad, but what can you do.

Julz629

In Response to <a href="http://detroit.weddings.com/main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_receiving-lines?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:88Discussion:c9837c47-c283-4925-aa20-c2608795b687Post:959743b2-cfe1-4447-aebd-1da04628d2c3">Re: Receiving Lines</a>:
[QUOTE]I didn't do a receiving line for a number of reasons:  1) It would take too long, thereby cutting into my picture time a LOT. 2<strong>) Not everyone goes to the ceremony, and I didn't want to try to remember later if I'd already said thank you/hello to someone or not. </strong> 3) I didn't want to be standing for 45+ minutes in my heels.  My thought was that I'd already have time to change into flats for the table greeting.  (Turns out it didn't matter b/c we all wore galoshes).  And finally, 4) <strong>I know my relatives.  They are talkers.  If I am coming to the tables to greet, I control the time I'm at the table.  If I'm standing there at a receiving line, I have less control over how long they talk.</strong> I will say, however, we had 22 tables and I ran out of time for the table greetings.  I had to say hello to the last 3 tables all at once because I was getting dragged to cut cake & do the dances.  I felt bad, but what can you do.
Posted by melhunny[/QUOTE]

A couple notes on this...

First of all, I wouldn't worry too much about hunting down those that didn't come to your ceremony.  Let them find you.  The ceremony is the most important part of the day and if they don't come to that, let them come find you at the reception.  Of course, its not that I won't try and reach out to these people, but I won't fret over it.

On the other part, I think people are less likely to engage in a conversation in a receiving line since there are so many people behind them.  I think it will be harder to walk away from a conversation at a table. 

allikl62

I am not planning on having one, and plan on visiting tables.  After reading this I am a little nervous about that, but I still think its more feasable then a receiving line.  We have to be out of our ceremony place 30 minutes after we finish the ceremony, and don't plan on getting to the reception place until after cocktail hour, so I don't really think a receiving line works for us.

abbeylynne06

We had a receiving line with just DH and I.  There's no reason to include all those other people (parents, bridal party), IMO.  We had about 180 people, and it really did not take that long to get through everybody.  People don't talk for long at all when there is a whole line of people right behind them.

I thought it was nice having a receiving line because I didn't as pressured to get around to all the tables.  We still tried to go to all of them, but if someone was missing from the table while we were there, it didn't really matter.

Gwenwhyfare

We are also doing a receiving line after the ceremony. FI's cousin did this last year and excused each pew themselves. I think their wedding was around 300 and everyone was out within twenty minutes to a half hour at most. I'm not saying that will be the case with our wedding, but this is our plan, too.

culbycheese

We didn't have one because we couldn't do it at the church since we had to be out a 1/2 hour after the ceremony, and we went right to the reception site for pictures after because the weather sucked and were outside or upstairs taking pictures when most of the guests arrived.

We didn't get around to tables after dinner because dinner and dancing were in separate rooms and by the time I got back from trying to pee after eating, it was time for the first dance!

I feel bad because I probably only talked to half of our 140 guests, but if anyone was mad about it it hasn't gotten back to me, so whatev!

If I had it to do over, the only thing I would have done differently is we would have said Thank You to our guests as a whole during the toasts or something. I didn't realize how fast time would fly and we wouldn't be able to talk to everyone.....

Melgor78

Were not doing one.  We don't have time after the ceremony and were arriving after the guest to the reception.  We plan on stopping by the table we'll go the family one first just in case we do'n t make it to everyone. 

ms nobody

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_receiving-lines?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:88Discussion:c9837c47-c283-4925-aa20-c2608795b687Post:a9c711c4-889b-4c89-b0af-cf13abdb2192">Re: Receiving Lines</a>:
[QUOTE]We are also doing a receiving line after the ceremony. FI's cousin did this last year and excused each pew themselves. I think their wedding was around 300 and everyone was out within twenty minutes to a half hour at most. I'm not saying that will be the case with our wedding, but this is our plan, too.
Posted by Gwenwhyfare[/QUOTE]
we excused guests from their rows. It took MAYBE 10-15 minutes. we went Back to Front, so that the family that needed to stick around for photos wasn't running away or getting caught up with guests, and so the guests who didnt need to stay could either mingle or get to the hotels to check in, get a snack, etc. <div>
</div><div>honestly, we excused people because we didn't want to visit tables during dinner because we wanted to eat. a full on meal WITH a big fat piece of cake (which we had. AND seconds!). if people skipped the ceremony because they couldn't bear to sit still for a whole 15 minutes, that was their problem. </div>

cristinald

we are doing the receiving line via excusing each row.  we want to make sure we have a chance to say hi and thank everyone (for the most part) and still enjoy the reception.  the last few weddings we have been too did it like that and it seemed to work just fine.  we even included a line  in the program (stolen from a friends program):

Please remain seated after the Recessional, as Cristina and Mike would like to personally greet you as a married couple. 

weddingcourt

Thank you so much everyone for your input and ideas! I didn't even think of excusing people by rows, I will try and see how that goes over with FI. I can see both sides of having one and not, my main concern is time so going by row could work. Thanks again for the advice!!

kristinandbill

We didn't have a receiving line and actually received some positive feedback on that.  We chose not to mainly because it would cut into our time to take pics and enjoy our limo.  In addition, I'd say only half of our guests came to the wedding.

We did make the rounds to the tables but like PP mentioned we TOTALLY ran out of time and I do feel bad about that.  I agree, if I had to do it over I would have made a toast and thanked everyone for coming as a group and then still tried to get through each table. 

Even though I had a great time on the dance floor, I do wish I would have walked around and visited with people a little more. 

Ahh well.  The night really does just go by SO FAST.  You can only do what you can do.  I wrote extra nice thank you cards to try to make up for it. 

Kimbus 87

We dismissed row by row after the ceremony. We got to visit every table but 95% of the people at the reception were at the ceremony.

Jacks21583

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_receiving-lines?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:88Discussion:c9837c47-c283-4925-aa20-c2608795b687Post:82bd0e0b-ca8b-4b34-a5ea-69f7f1893732">Re: Receiving Lines</a>:
[QUOTE]We didn't have a receiving line and actually received some positive feedback on that.  We chose not to mainly because it would cut into our time to take pics and enjoy our limo. 
Posted by kristinandbill[/QUOTE]

This! Basically our photographer broke it down for us and let us know that we weren't going to be able to get all the photos that we wanted to get if we did a receiving line...so DH and I just did the best we could going from table to table at the reception.