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Reception seating after dinner

bethanys86bethanys86 member
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in Wedding Reception Forum
Our reception is in a two floor building. The bottom floor has the kitchen and dinner tables, and the top floor is a large open dance floor. We plan to use the top floor as the rain location for the ceremony, area for cocktail hour, and then for dancing after dinner.

To avoid an empty looking top floor, the cake table, bar, cookie table local thing, and guest book table will be located throughout the room. However, I would also like to provide seating for those who want to stay and mingle/watch the after dinner stuff but don't want to dance or stand all night.

I have a couple questions. First, does the idea of dinner in a separate place from dancing seem okay to you? Second, how should I arrange chairs so that everyone who wants a seat has one? There isn't enough room to have full tables and chairs, and there is a possibility that chairs will already be arranged for the ceremony hopefully not, though.

What do you think? Is it horrible to move from dinner tables to cocktail style set up? I would have everything in one place under ideal circumstances, but budget and venue constraints are limiting this. Please give me ideas on how to make this work!
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Re: Reception seating after dinner

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    jessicabessicajessicabessica member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I went to a wedding that was all at one venue and had the ceremony outside, cocktail hour inside, dinner outside under a tent, and then dancing/dessert in the same room as cocktail hour.  It wasn't great.  I think it makes people that are not that into dancing leave earlier.  The reception I went to clearly did not have enough seating for everyone in the dancing room.  There were some cocktail tables with no chairs, and I ended up leaving my purse/wrap there with my mom while I danced with my H, but that wasn't a good set up for more than a song or two.  

    I don't think it's terrible if this is the venue you are using, but make sure you have enough places in the dancing room that people can put their stuff down and feel like they have a "home base" to come back to when they want to take a break from dancing.  If you have your ceremony up there, can't the venue staff rearrange chairs during dinner?  How will people get between the top floor and the bottom floor?  Will there be a line for the elevators?
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    bethanys86bethanys86 member
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    Yes chairs can be rearranged during dinner, I just don't know how they should be arranged. In rows off to the side? Try to make clusters of chairs? Simply have them lined up against the wall? I want everyone to have space to sit and obviously keep their stuff there, but I'm not sure the best way to do that. Do you think that having the chairs available would make nondancing guests stay longer? Not that I need a party to go all night, I just don't want anyone to leave due to being uncomfortable.
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    Avion22Avion22 member
    5 Love Its First Comment
    Definitely have chairs.  I'm not sure it matters if you have them in clusters or lined up against the wall -- whatever makes it easier to fit more chairs in without cluttering the dance floor.

    I would definitely stay longer if there was someplace to sit if I need to take a break from dancing, and somewhere to set my drink when I'm ready to get back on the dancefloor.   
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    MyNameIsNotMyNameIsNot member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would set up cocktail tables with chairs around the outside of the dance floor.  
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    JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    How big is the room upstairs?  If it is the same size as the dinner seating downstairs, you should be able to get alot of smaller tables w/ chairs up there.  This would allow guests who don't want to dance or want to catch up with others and just chat to still feel a part of the party. 
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    bethanys86bethanys86 member
    First Comment
    In Response to Re:Reception seating after dinner:[QUOTE]How big is the room upstairs?nbsp; If it is the same size as the dinner seating downstairs, you should be able to get alot of smaller tables w/ chairs up there.nbsp; This would allow guests who don't want to dance or want to catch up withnbsp;others andnbsp;just chatnbsp;to still feel a part of the party.nbsp; Posted by JoanE2012[/QUOTE]

    I thought about this. I will look into it more, but I don't think there would be enough room. That is why we are having the dinner downstairs in the first place. I think that some tables would fit, but if we put enough for every guest there would be no room for a dance floor.
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    bethanys86bethanys86 member
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    We are still brainstorming ideas. My wedding is OOT for a lot of my guests, and if I end up with a lot of regrets I may be able to fit everyone on the top floor for everything. Here is another idea my fiance came up with: instead of having a late afternoon ceremony, cocktail hour, then dinner, we may move the ceremony up to around 2pm, then have cocktail time/dancing and all the special dances, then move everyone downstairs for dinner for the rest of the evening. This way people only have to move one time. I still plan on having seating and some tables upstairs during the cocktail/dancing part of the reception. Does this plan sound any better (or worse)?
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