Things to do between ceremony and reception for guests

heatherdutcher · January 2012

Hi all,
We are having our ceremony and reception at the same place. Our ceremony will end around 3ish (we will then depart for pictures) and the reception will start around 5. The guests are free to roam within the foyer of the hall but that's about it. I'm worried people will get bored in that time frame. We have a photo booth but it's not available until later in the night. We aren't having h'ordeuvres served due to budget restraints and the bar doesn't open until 5pm (we can have it open earlier and end earlier or pay extra $$ per person but again, budget). Any ideas that we can have the guests do while they are waiting for us?
We are having our pictures done near by and am hoping to be back sooner than 5 but I also don't want to rush our picture time.
Thanks for your ideas everyone.

LetsHikeToday · January 2012

Honestly, two hours in the same place with nothing to do is way too long. My suggestion would be to have a first look and take pictures before. That way you will not have a gap. If you can't do that, then I would figure out a way to have a cocktail hour. If I were a guest and I had nothing to do for 2 hours, I'd really be bored.

kmmssg · January 2012

You can't expect these people to wander aimlessly around the hall for a couple of hours. I really encourage you to rearrange your budget and find a way to at least provide some apps and non-alcoholic beverages.

Starfish0116 · January 2012

Agreed, there needs to be some form of food or entertainment. If I were a guest who had to wait 2 hours with nothing to eat/drink/do, I'd leave.

I would seriously consider altering the budget in some way to provide food/drinks during the gap. Could you change the photobooth so it is available in between instead of just the reception?

If all else fails I would highly consider a first look, and getting all your photos done ahead of time.

heatherdutcher · January 2012

Thanks everyone. I will definitely make some changes in the food/drink department

Any ideas as to what they can "do" while waiting?

seesawgirl · January 2012

Do you have any aspiring musicians as friends? Check your local craigslist if not. Offer them a place to play their music for an hour or so. Many musicians (I'm one of them so I speak from personal experience) just want to be heard, and would love the opportunity to put their music out there. If they charge anything, it would be much less than a band, and that, coupled with some appetizers and non alcoholic drinks can hold people over for an hour or so. Depending on the feel of your wedding, you can use the same idea and use a magician, a comedian, caricture artist, or a combination of those.

MairePoppy · January 2012

If you provide drinks, appetizers (even if it's iced tea or lemonade and crackers and cheese) and a place for everyone to sit, adults will be able to entertain themselves.

bltata · January 2012

Definitely. Some refreshments and food to munch on should be enough to keep everyone occupied while they socialize.

DramaGeek · January 2012

Two hours is a really long time to have to entertain oneself while waiting for a hosted event to begin. Honestly, we'd probably leave and not return if that happened.

Either move your ceremony back or start your reception earlier. It's fine to host apps for an hour or so, but a two hour cocktail hour is too long, imo.

LetsHikeToday · January 2012

Even with things to eat and drink, I think 2 hours is too long.

sloanam1 · January 2012

If you do decide to stay and serve drinks and aps, I would suggest having an ice breaker. I know people typcially are not into ice breakers, but it gets everyone mingling and itneracting together. What I am doing at my wedding because we have a delay in between the ceremony and reception is having a trivia game that everyone can participate in. I am planning on having a video shown through a projector that will show pictures of my fiance and I growing up through the years. In between each series of pictures, a quest will pop up and each guest has to answer it on the sheet of paper that is provided. To get people to partcipate, a basket wil be provided to the winner.

If you decide not to serve drinks and aps, in your program you can suggest places to go in the mean time. For example, if there are cute shops in the town you are getting married, write down the address in the program and let them tour the town.

Hope this helps.

Angelg3737 · January 2012

What type of things do your guests like and where exactly is the wedding being held? That may help get you some ideas. Casino games, corn hole, could all be ideas but may or may not fit your wedding. I definitely agree with someone elses idea of looking to see what is really close by and suggesting some of those attractions.

melntaitt · January 2012

That's tricky because even with food and entertainment, it's a very long time to just hang out with a bunch of strangers you're planning to spend even more time with later.

Would it be at all possible to put your ceremony and reception closer together? Also from your post, it seems that they will be waiting for you to come back from getting your pics taken. Is there any way to move your picture taking time to accomodate your guests??

wbianculli · January 2012

I agree 2 hours is a long time. However since the invitation states the time of the actual ceremony & cocktail hour--your guests should know about the gap.

If I was the guest I would go for a cocktail or light snack at a nearby diner. I've gone to ceremonies & have done this, but the only difference was it was not at the same venue.

My suggestion is start the ceremony a little later, take most of your couple pics at the venue & have your photographer take pics before the wedding with you separate & the groom separately.

stefaniewattie · January 2012

Sometimes - gaps are unavoidable, no matter what some people say on here.. I have no choice to have a gap because my ceremony and reception are in the same place - therefore the staff needs time to change the space from ceremony to reception and FI refused to get first look pictures anyways, so even if we could have put them closer together, we wouldnt have.
Your guests are adults. They received an invitation stating ceremony time and reception time, im assuming they can read and can do the math since they RSVPed YES. They KNOW about the gap and chose to still come - if you want to and CAN afford to provide something else to do, great! but it is not required, any ADULT that needs to be entertained for 2 hours is pretty pathetic. And the people that WANT to be at your wedding, will not complain about having to kill a bit of time, and if they want to be there - they will NOT leave because of a gap that they KNEW about long before the wedding. If they do decide to leave...well, theyre lose, not yours.

BUT for my wedding, were setting up lawn games and hopefully a photo booth - if I were you I would move my photobooth to that 2 hours, your money will probably be better spent having it during that time than later in the night. If you have a wedding website (or even put it on the back of the program?) put things that are in the area that your guests could do?

Stina2012 · January 2012

Can't you cut down photo time for yourself down to an hour. Two hours is way too long to wait even with lawn games, drinks and food. That would all keep me entertained for maybe an hour. And I have to sit around because you want to spend a million hours taking pictures, but can't be considerate enough to your guests to do a first look? Lame.

staceycaine · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_ceremony-ideas_things-between-ceremony-reception-guests?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:10Discussion:78cf9e02-f885-45c9-b372-6b26d7bf536cPost:78aa174a-1109-46b6-8979-5e323be4eed6">Re: Things to do between ceremony and reception for guests</a>:
[QUOTE]You can't expect these people to wander aimlessly around the hall for a couple of hours. <strong> I really encourage you to rearrange your budget and find a way to at least provide some apps and non-alcoholic beverages.
</strong>Posted by kmmssg[/QUOTE]

This. In fact, I can do it for you. Nix the photobooth and serve some food instead.

thousandtrees · January 2012

Is there nothing interesting to do nearby? A park, a museum, an art gallery? Maybe there are some options you can offer for your guests.

Word of warning: if you leave a long period between ceremony and reception and there are bars and pubs nearby, you will have drunks at your dinner if they're not entertained between.

Can you possibly even set up board games or icebreakers for the interim period?

Our ceremony and reception will have about two hours in between, but there's a drive between the two and we've arranged for our guests to have a tour of a local heritage site in between. A lot of places can help you arrange a cheap or possibly free local walking tour.

heatherdutcher · January 2012

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Taking into consideration everyone's advice, we are leaving the 2 hour gap (stefaniewattie - you hit the nail on the head) and we will be serving food and drink and moving the photobooth from the reception to the gap. I've got a few other little things for the guests to do. This should hopefully be enough.
Thanks again.

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