Receiving Line at Church

Knottie_22382494

I searched the boards but I couldn't find this question but forgive me if it has already been posed.

I am getting married at a church and am contemplating whether or not to do a receiving line.  I don't want to take time away from the reception by doing table visits but what about the people who don't actually come to the church ceremony?  I am sure I won't be able to remember exactly who was there the day of so I won't know who to specifically greet at the reception.  My other thought was to greet everyone as they walked into the venue during cocktail hour but I fear this could end up taking up the whole cocktail hour and negate the purpose of doing our pictures before to enjoy the cocktail hour.  Additionally, we may miss those who come late and end up with the same issue from the church receiving line.  Also- is it rude for people to skip the ceremony if it is at a different location than the reception?

So, I guess my question is what do you do for wedding ceremonies that are at a location seperate to the reception for greeting guests?

misshart00

You could still do a receiving line at the church. If you know of anyone you missed, try to catch them at the reception. But if you miss someone, I don't think it's a big deal since they were the ones that missed the receiving line.

MrsMack10612

I C&P'd this from another thread on the same topic:

We did a combo of table visits and greeting everyone during the cocktail hour.  We did pictures beforehand because we knew wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour.  It gave us a great opportunity to see everyone and then we caught those folks we didn't see during that with table visits.

Though I don't think we did them together - we sort of both went our separate ways and talked to everybody at different times.  Perhaps a bit unorthodox, but it's also what we always do at parties.

Knottie_22382494

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_receiving-line-at-church?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:35452f3e-c738-49d2-bca0-55e705c11914Post:d1ffd9e7-7107-41cf-badb-6861dab934f8">Re: Receiving Line at Church</a>:
[QUOTE]I C&P'd this from another thread on the same topic: We did a combo of table visits and greeting everyone during the cocktail hour.  We did pictures beforehand because we knew wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour.  It gave us a great opportunity to see everyone and then we caught those folks we didn't see during that with table visits. Though I don't think we did them together - we sort of both went our separate ways and talked to everybody at different times.  Perhaps a bit unorthodox, but it's also what we always do at parties.
Posted by kjhowd[/QUOTE]

Thank you all for your responses! 

I actually saw this post and it's what sparked this question lol.  I guess I am still concerned if I miss people at the church, but as Stage said it's their choice to skip the ceremony/receiving line so I can't feel too bad about it!

PrettyGirlLost

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_receiving-line-at-church?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:35452f3e-c738-49d2-bca0-55e705c11914Post:ac3767f1-b0bd-46da-9a74-91140c53f4a0">Re: Receiving Line at Church</a>:
[QUOTE]Check with your church first.  Some churches have Saturday evening services or other events, so they give you a specific window.  For us, we had to be out of the church within 30 minutes of the end of the wedding.
Posted by TXKristan[/QUOTE]

Yep, for us we will only have 20mins after the ceremony to take pictures or whatever.  So a receiving line is a no go for us.

We will make sure to greet and thank each guest at the reception.