Reception advice Heinz/TCC

elizajane519 · May 2011

I am getting married next year. I am having the reception at the 20th Century club and I managed to get a 12:30 slot at Heinz Chapel. I really wanted the 2:30 or 4:30 but luck wasn't with me. In my mind-it is a beautiful spring day, the wedding would finish and our guests would stroll over to the TCC with a musician leading the way (probably bagpipes-fiance is Irish) and then the reception would start. Originally, starting cocktail hour at 4:00 or 6:00 seemed fine but now we are looking at 2:00. Having a lag time of a few hours doesn't make sense since we are basically crossing the street and people will probably not have eaten lunch so they will be hungry... but I really don't want my dinner at 3:00.
I am first the wait list for a later time and I am crossing my fingers that someone cancels. Although Heinz is beautiful and convenient I may just look for another church. Am I overthinking this? Any advice on any issue presented would be appreciated.

jlbaxter33 · May 2011

To be honest, I'd book another church.

Without a lag time, people would be heading over to TCC around 1:30 (at the latest) so, your cocktail hour would be 1:45-2:45, dinner starting at 3 and you are right, that is early. Heinz is beautiful, but I would look for something else. There are tons of beautiful churches!

My ceremony and reception are both at TCC.

cgyvhu · May 2011

I'd start looking into another church as well. Dinner starting at 3 is very early, and then what time would your reception end, 8pm or so? It's just a strange sort of timing. Unless you did a lunch reception sort of thing, I dont know if that makes sense.

And having a long gap between ceremony and reception sucks for guests and should be avoided if possible.

Something cool that others have done - Rent Molly's Trolleys or a shuttle that will tour your guests around Pittsburgh and will kill time. If you have the ceremony end at 1:30, the cocktail hour with apps from 1:30-2:30, and then do the shuttle tour, you could start your dinner around 4:30 or 5, which is maybe a little more reasonable.

elizajane519 · May 2011

I thought about doing something in between to entertain my guests but- I think everyone will be hungry and I don't want to shuffle everyone around by having them go to the reception and then leave the reception.
I thought maybe someone who had the 12:30 time slot had solved the problem and would come up with something brilliant that I hadn't thought about.

The only time I liked a lag between ceremony and reception was in Virginia where we went to a winery in between. I am guessing there are no wineries in Oakland.
Thanks for the suggestions. Let me know if you think of anything else.

carlyanne05 · May 2011

I'm a TCC girl and we're getting married at The First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh - very beautiful! And it's only about 2 blocks away, if that! They have 3 time slots - 11:30, 2:30, and 5:30. We're doing the 2:30 bc the 5:30 was a little too late. Cocktail hour starts at 3:30 and lasts until 5, then reception for 5 hours. I was even having some of your same concerns with the 2:30 time slot initially so if you're looking to have a dinner at an actual dinner time, you may want to consider this church or another, or like JL said at TCC. HTH - Good luck!

CLW102409 · May 2011

I would absolutely NOT cancel.

I had the 12:30 time slot at HC with my reception at Soliders & Sailiors and a ton of OTT'ers. It was a huge concern for us. We timed everything so perfectly. Our ceremonly was over about 1:15 and a lot of guest stood around outside after we had pictures taken inside to greet us (even though there is NO receiving line allowed).

Since most of our guests didn't either want to drive home (locals) or go back to the hotel, we gave them the option of going over to S&S to tour the museum for free while we had refreshments, cheese and veggies in the lobby of the ballroom. We started our cocktail hour at about 4ish and dinner was served around 5:30 (after everyone was seated, introductions, cake cutting, speeches, etc.). The party rolled on til about 11ish too.

So don't panic...there are a ton of things to do while you're guests are waiting in the meantime.

PS: a lot of our guests headed to Hemingways for cocktails in between ceremony and reception. some went back to the hotel to change into party attire, my boss (who lives in Squirrl Hill) invited my co-workers over to hang out. I've been to plenty of weddings where there were lag times and it always worked out. After we had pictures at the Columns on Fifth Ave and the West End (it didn't take long) we were able to enjoy our cocktail hour and mingle with our guests. No one ever complained (at least not to me or to any one else that I heard of).

HoneySpider · May 2011

I also had the 12:30 time slot at HC and it was fine. Guests went back to the hotel or grabbed a drink or whatever, no one complained and some people were actually happy to have a little downtime (some OOT guests didn't get in until that morning). Our reception was from 4:30-10.

elizajane519 · May 2011

Thanks for all your advice. It was not what I wanted and there is no way of fixing it other than hoping the 2:30/4:30 people cancel (does that make me a bad bride?)so I was a bit disappointed yesterday, but I know I will have an awesome wedding at 12:30 at Heinz or at 4:00 somewhere else I just needed some perspective.

I may keep it-other than St. Paul's it is probably the most stunning venue in Pittsburgh and I was lucky to get the date. My fiance hasn't actually seen it other than pictures on the internet so maybe we need to visit and make our decision.

For the Oakland brides- can you tell me what hotels you used for your out of town guests? And if you recommend them? I probably need to think about blocking rooms soon.

And thanks for the information Carlyann but my family is Catholic so it is either Heinz or a Catholic church.

CLW102409 · May 2011

I initially wanted the later time. I was very disappointed at first but once we put our timeline together, the 12:30 time fit perfectly. I was able to spend more time in my dress, get married earlier, have more amazing pictures taken, spend more time with my guests, etc. You really need to relax, be happy that you got HC (cause many try and don't succeed)!! Deal with the time slot of 12:30...OMG it could be worse...the dreadful 10:30 time. geez.

I used the Wyndham Hotel.

jlbaxter33 · May 2011

It'll be beautiful no matter what you decide!

We are using the Wyndham and the Holiday Inn. I recommend booking those blocks as soon as possible. They fill quickly.

MRads · May 2011

My sister used the Holiday Inn. It was super convenient for her Heinz Chapel wedding, since it was just across the street. We didn't need any transportation there (although, somebody drove her)

HoneySpider · May 2011

We used the Wyndham, they gave us a much better deal than the Holiday Inn.

And ditto CLW, we wanted the 2:30 time slot originally but everything worked out great with the earlier time - it's amazing how fast the time in between the ceremony and reception goes!

cgyvhu · May 2011

I'm blocking at the Wyndham too...got a better price than the Holiday Inn, and for whatever reason, the Wyndham is giving us free nights stay if enough people book rooms, but the Holiday Inn didn't offer that to us.

carlyanne05 · May 2011

We blocked the Holiday Inn because it's directly across from TCC and they gave us a better deal than the Wyndham. I did look into both though. It sounds like everything will work out!

PS - for what it's worth, we're not using the First Baptist's minister...we're actually having my childhood pastor and FI's family priest co-officiate the ceremony. We weren't sure about the priest being allowed to do this in a non-Catholic church but apparently it's okay:)

gmc22 · May 2011

I'm having my ceremony at St. Paul's and reception at the Carnegie Museum and we blocked rooms at the Holiday Inn Select in Oakland, Sheraton Station Square (main block), and Wyndam Grand at the point in town

GL!!

AP910 · May 2011

Joining in late: We had our reception at TCC and had our guests stay in the Wyndham. We booked the shuttle after-hours for one hour for about $65. We had several people use it to get home from the reception, and it seemed to be pretty smooth. Because it was after hours, it was all ours at 11. Our one issue- The Wyndham told a few of our guests (and me) that our block was full when it wasn't. They ended up comping me a LOT because of it, so it worked out okay, but they also comped some of those guests too, so had we used their free suite on our actual wedding night, we would have been on the executive floor with all of my cousins who also got free upgrades. If you don't mind having your wedding night close to your guests, thats no problem, but if you do mind, I suggest pointing that out to the Wyndham ahead of time or staying somewhere else for that one night, like we luckily did! HTH!

Reception advice Heinz/TCC

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