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Guests standing for the ceremony?

tosheckytoshecky
10 Comments
in California-Northern
For one of the primary venues we are considering, the ceremony would be outdoors (cocktail hour and reception indoors).  There are two bad weather back-up plans:A.  Have the ceremony indoors in a portion of the room where the reception will be, with an air wall dividing the space.  This area is small though (up to 100 seats could be squished), and since we'll have as many as 200 guests, we would have seating for immediate family and elderly folk, but then the majority would have to stand.B.  Have the ceremony in the same space but open the air wall and have less reception tables pre-set, so that there would be enough space for all guests could be seated for the ceremony.  The cocktail hour (with limited seating available) would then have to be over an hour long so they could turn the room around.Obviously both of these situations are less than desirable, but this place is located in Daly City, so really, we have to be realistic here (stupid cold foggy weather!).Our primary plan would be a short-ish outdoor ceremony, but which back-up plan would you be less irked by as a guest?  Or are both just totally unacceptable?
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Re: Guests standing for the ceremony?

  • MissSarah786MissSarah786
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I think guests will realize that moving it indoors is a backup plan. I personally would rather stand during a ceremony and be able to sit at the reception, rather than sit at the ceremony and have to wait for the commotion of setting up multiple reception tables. You don't want to have waiters rushing to set up tables, that would be bad. And consider this, guests could sit in the reception area until you're ready to walk out, so they'd only be standing for the ceremony, not standing around before, so they'll be fine. To clarify, I like plan A.
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  • Irchik22Irchik22 member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Our plan A is to have all the guests except for the elderly to stand.
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  • tosheckytoshecky
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thanks for the responses!  If we go with this place, I'll feel much better now about just going with the flow and not stressing about whether our bad-weather option is acceptable or not.
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  • adgenyaadgenya member
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I'm a little late but I'd go with option B. Seats are more important to me. Think about your guests that have to stand. Even if your ceremony is only 15-20 minutes, most guests will arrive early and have to stand during that time too. 15-20 minutes becomes 30-45 minutes. And if you happen to start late, that's even longer.
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  • stephmwoodstephmwood
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I don't know when your wedding is but I work at SFSU which is almost in daly city, it was foggy, rainy, and freezing all week. IMO you can't really ever plan outdoors in daly city. Our ceremony and reception will be in the same room, but during the cocktail hour it will only take them like 20 min to set the table, so maybe things can be done to speed that turn around up. Good luck!!!
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  • DGdancerDGdancer member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    My boss had a late night wedding under the stars...granted it was in August...but they had the cocktail hour before the ceremony, so people were standing through that. Then they had the ceremony outside on a grassy hill with absolutely no chairs. Saying it makes it sound bad, but it really wasn't. The only bad part was having your heels dig into the grass:-) I'd say option A, especially if you're only going to do a 20 min ceremony.
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  • sm23sm23 member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    It really all depends on how long your ceremony is. I don't know what you mean by short-ish? We just went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago that was outdoors, sort of casual at a park, and guests stood for the ceremony. The whole thing was between 10-15 minutes, so I really didn't mind, and there didn't seem to be any elderly people there.I would not mind standing for a maximum of 15 minutes. After that, I strongly recommend chairs for everyone, and doing a long cocktail hour so the staff can rearrange the room for the reception. Seems like a fine solution to me.
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  • DNichole26DNichole26
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I go for Option A.  A friend of mine got married earlier this month and they did a quick ceremony with standing room.  They got married at a winery that couldn't accommodate their guest count for both a ceremony and reception so they did a standing ceremony with just enough chairs for their elderly guests.  They opened up the reception tables early had a cocktail hour prior to the ceremony which gave guests plenty of time to relax.  Then guests were directed to the ceremony area.  It seemed to work out very well!
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  • anglynanglyn
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Comments Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    Whatever you do, tell your guests they will be standing for some time so that they wear appropriate shoes. Another option would be to just have the ceremony in the reception room with all the guests seated at their tables.  
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  • tosheckytoshecky
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thanks for all the opinions!  (Sorry for the delayed response, was out of town.)  We're still deciding on venues, but if we go with this one, we may just go with Option B.  On thinking about it more, we were realizing that taking pictures after the ceremony will take some time anyways (we aren't going to see each other before the ceremony), so allowing time for them to turn the room around likely wouldn't add too much time to the cocktail hour anyways.  Who knows, though, if we go with this place, we may still change our minds after more discussion and go with option A instead.  Thanks for the perspectives!
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