Reception Time

VitaLuna

Since this is the most populous (is that a word?) board... I need some input on reception time. What's a good amount of time for a buffet dinner evening reception with dancing and such? I'm not really the wild party type, and some of my friends are mightly lame right there with me... so I don't know what amount of time we should schedule for.

Thanks!

lpstl

Ours was 4 hours.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

3-4 hours? I'd lean towards 4, but if they really, really don't want to dance, some people might filter out after 3 hours. But you'll probably have a core group that wants to keep it going.

It also depends what time you start. If you start at 8, 3 hours might be fine. If you start at 6, you don't want to kick everyone out at 9.

lauralaur

I take it you're looking at a place where you pay by the hour? I would say that four hours should be fine, including cocktail hour then. Ours was five including cocktail hour.

anna.oskar

Ours was from 5pm-9pm

opalsky007

We have the room for five hours...but I actually don't expect many people to stick around that long. Four is probably good.

ExpatPumpkin

Ours was about 8 hours 

We like to party

TDSin2009

Ours was 6 hours including the cocktail hour... probably could have lasted another couple of hours though with amount of dancing that was still going on!  Ended at 11:00 pm.
If you and your friends aren't much into partying, four hours would probably be plenty!  Good luck!

Huskerfanz

Ours was about 5:30-10:30 and was a buffet dinner with about 215 people.  Most of the familes left between 9-10 so it was really only us, immediate family, and the wedding party left at 10:30.

VitaLuna

Sounds like 4ish is a good number. One of the places we're thinking of gives us 4.5 hrs, so I just wanted to make sure that was enough and we didn't need to get extra time or anything. And that's a very good point, msmerymac, about the timing.... I'll have to keep that in mind.