My fiance and I are getting married in St. Lucia with just our immediate family members, their significant others, and children. We are having a "semi-formal" beach inspired reception when we return with @ 150 people. We wanted to announce our family members as if they were our wedding party (which they pretty much will be). We are having a cocktail reception, so guests are assigned to tables, etc., nor is there a head table or anything.
When announcing our family members:
- What order should I put everyone in? Should I put each of our parents, then our respective family members, or do one full family at a time?
- Should I specify everyone's relationship to us and each other (ie. sister of the bride, her husband and children?), or should I stick with just names (kind of seems like it defeats the point of introducing everyone)?
- My fiance's parents are divorced, his mother is single and his father has a longtime girlfriend. How would I introduce them?
- My fiance's sister has a longtime partner, how do I introduce them without specifically calling attention to the "partner" or "girlfriend" part. They are a little uneasy about that sort of stuff.
Any ideas would be helpful! We're doing this so everyone will know at least who our family members are that came to participate in our ceremony.