Table Visits or Receiving Line

lauraminn · August 2013

Would really appreciate your opinions or experiences with table visits vs. receiving lines for greeting guests. What do you prefer as a guest? What was your experience at your wedding? What do you plan to do and why?

Thanks!

MayDay513 · August 2013

lauraminn said:

Would really appreciate your opinions or experiences with table visits vs. receiving lines for greeting guests. What do you prefer as a guest? What was your experience at your wedding? What do you plan to do and why? Thanks!

Culturally and in our circle, it is expected to visit tables. We had a buffet, and pretty much did it so that we would visit the tables that went through the buffet line first. I had about 18 tables and it took us an hour to get through all of them. We did a group photo with each table. Also for our circle, it's known we are coming to visit tables, and people hold off putting cards in a card box and will wait to see us to give it to us (The bridesmaids switched off carrying the card box to each table with us).

I've done the receiving line at weddings, I like having the option of not having to wait in the line immediately, like we can bypass it and come back when the line gets shorter.

Edit to include more info:
How I set this up was:
Table 1- Bridal Party Table
Table 2- Parents and a couple uncles and aunts
Table 3 - Siblings
Table 4-18 were in order of like Elderly (culturally as a respect thing they need to be towards the beginning), then extended family, our friends, parents friends etc.
Tables were released to buffet in numerical order. We ate for about 25 min. (Gave other tables a chance to start eating. Then we began visiting the tables in numerical order.

misssunshine17 · August 2013

I prefer table visits, I feel receiving lines are more rushed. Also, I don't like going through receiving lines when it's more people than the bride and groom since most of the time, I don't know one set of parents and definitely don't know most of the bridal party.

Maggie0829 · August 2013

As a guest I really don't care. Table visits always seem forced in my opinion and many times rushed. As for receiving lines guests only care about the bride and groom so if you do decide to do a receiving line leave the wedding party out of it.

southernbelle0915 · August 2013

We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

LDubHawksFan · August 2013

As a guest I don't really like receiving lines, especially if it is all wp and parents that I don't know, it is awkward and a very short amount of time with the bride and groom...but at least you get to see them. I prefer table visits. But I now know how hard it is to do them. Time flys by and you sometimes miss people.

ElcaB · August 2013

I would suggest a receiving line. It'll take the pressure off you having to visit every single table and allow you to just enjoy time with your guests on the dance floor. Besides, at a few weddings I've been to where there wasn't a receiving line, guests sort of created one as soon as they made their appearance into the reception and it got super crowded and awkward space-wise.

ashleyep · August 2013

southernbelle0915 said:

We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

I told my FI that he shouldn't expect to really get to sit down and eat his whole meal because we'll be too busy visiting tables. Now he keeps asking everyone we see that is married if they got to eat at their wedding!

lauraminn · August 2013

southernbelle0915 said:
We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

Who did you include in your line? How guests did you have and do you remember how long it took? Thanks!

melbelleup · August 2013

I'm doing both... not my choice though. I just wanted to go table to table, but my parents refuse to lose the idea of receiving line, they're paying, they get their way.

southernbelle0915 · August 2013

@ashleyep - we sat down for about 10 minutes and ate. It was by choice - we could have eaten our whole meal since we already greeted and thanked everyone, but we really wanted to mingle. If we had done table visits, there's no way we would have been able to eat.

@lauraminn - We did us, my parents and his parents. Just the 6 of us. We had about 170 guests and it took approximately 20 minutes.

I should also mention that we did a strolling dinner so although some people chose to have a seated meal, most people were mingling at the cocktail tables. It was super conducive to socializing, but not at all conducive to table visits so this was another reason we chose the receiving line.

Maggie0829 · August 2013

ashleyep said:

southernbelle0915 said:

We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

I told my FI that he shouldn't expect to really get to sit down and eat his whole meal because we'll be too busy visiting tables. Now he keeps asking everyone we see that is married if they got to eat at their wedding!

My H and I sat down and ate and chatted with our parents that we were sitting with for a good 30 minutes. For the bride and groom not to eat is completely ridiculous. Or for them to have to rush through their meal is dumb. Take a few moments to sit down and enjoy yourself. Make yourselves do it and do not feel bad about it.

TeddiD34 · August 2013

Just mingle after you finish eating. It's a party!

ashleyep · August 2013

Maggie0829 said:

ashleyep said:

southernbelle0915 said:

We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

I told my FI that he shouldn't expect to really get to sit down and eat his whole meal because we'll be too busy visiting tables. Now he keeps asking everyone we see that is married if they got to eat at their wedding!

My H and I sat down and ate and chatted with our parents that we were sitting with for a good 30 minutes. For the bride and groom not to eat is completely ridiculous. Or for them to have to rush through their meal is dumb. Take a few moments to sit down and enjoy yourself. Make yourselves do it and do not feel bad about it.

We're not doing a receiving line. We have to visit 160 guests at their tables so no one thinks we're rude for blowing them off.

Most couples who do table visits have said they had to rush through eating in my experience.

Jen4948 · August 2013

As a guest, I'd prefer to skip the receiving line and just have the couple visit me and my tablemates (and the other tables).

When you as a guest have to go through a long receiving line, you're spending a lot of time on your feet waiting for those ahead of you to go through the line-especially if anyone gets into a prolonged conversation with the couple, parents, and whoever else is in the line because it's been so long, it's so good to see you, etc. Some people just get so excited that they forget or don't realize that when on a receiving line, you need to keep it short and sweet.

And as one of the couple, I'd imagine I'd like to sit down after a while rather than stand in one place for a prolonged period of time. My feet would be killing me.

cmclaire · August 2013

We'll be doing table visits, because of the timings of things.

We'll also be hiding snacks in the car for our drive between the ceremony and reception (and the guests will have snacks on their coaches too). All day weddings are a marathon!

audreyecu61 · August 2013

My sister had a big wedding (over 200), she did receiving line with bride/groom only.

I recently married and had only 7 tables, we were served first, so we were able to eat. Then we went and visited each table, it didn't take us that long.

Receiving lines are great, but keep the welcoming party down to a minumum, especially if the guests have to wait in line outside, in the sun, in heels.

AprilH81 · August 2013

We are planning on doing both, but we will only have around 75 guests. We will do a receiving line after the ceremony (just us, no BP) then we will do table visits after we eat our lunch. We will only have around 10 tables so it shouldn't take us too long and with the receiving line we can enjoy the visiting a little more and stop and dance if we want to.

Maggie0829 · August 2013

ashleyep said:

Maggie0829 said:

ashleyep said:

southernbelle0915 said:

We did a receiving line at our wedding. For us, it was a great choice because we were able to see everyone, thank them for coming, and then actually enjoy the reception. We still mingled, but we didn't feel the need to rush to every table, make small talk and hurry along.

I told my FI that he shouldn't expect to really get to sit down and eat his whole meal because we'll be too busy visiting tables. Now he keeps asking everyone we see that is married if they got to eat at their wedding!

My H and I sat down and ate and chatted with our parents that we were sitting with for a good 30 minutes. For the bride and groom not to eat is completely ridiculous. Or for them to have to rush through their meal is dumb. Take a few moments to sit down and enjoy yourself. Make yourselves do it and do not feel bad about it.

We're not doing a receiving line. We have to visit 160 guests at their tables so no one thinks we're rude for blowing them off.

Most couples who do table visits have said they had to rush through eating in my experience.

H and I did table visits as well. We had said from the beginning that we wanted 30 minutes to actually sit and enjoy ourselves before having to get and visit everyone. We had 130 guests and we were able to visit every single one of them while still giving ourselves a breather to enjoy the fact that we just got married.

30 minutes is not a lot and it will guests time to actually eat and enjoy the food rather then having to put down their fork mid bite to get up and hug you.

doeydo · August 2013

I think it is always nice to visit all the tables and talk a little bit with each of the guests without the formality or the lineup of a receiving line.

SomethingBeautiful08 · August 2013

We debated this as we were not having a sit down meal but in the end went with "table visits" sure enough people hung out in their groups and we went around a visited with everyone. It worked out for us. I've been to weddings with both and personally I prefer table visits. The one wedding we went to with a receiving line I felt like it was awkwardly arranged and felt a bit like the end of game "high five event". If you want to do a receiving line... and they are good for many reasons, I think it should be kept to the Bride, Groom and parents, especially if the parents are hosting. Most people won't know the bridal party and I think it reduces the "high five" like event that it can be.

RandS52613 · August 2013

Our plan was to have a receiving line so we wouldn't feel rushed going to tables at the reception. It ended up raining, so we had our wedding in the reception hall.

I'd recommend a receiving line. We felt very rushed going to the tables, and some guests wanted to talk to us the entire night, so we didn't get to talk to some people for very long.

[Deleted User] · August 2013

We did both. We did a receiving line at the church and then did table visit to hit the people that didn't come to the ceremony. Since we had hit the majority of the people at the church, if they were out dancing, at the bar, there was no guilt about missing them at the table. Also since we hit majority of people at the church, we were able to sit down and enjoy dinner and get out on the dance floor with our guests too.

SB1512 · August 2013

We did a first look, so all our photos were done before we got married. We spent maybe 10 minutes after the ceremony taking a few more photos, and then headed into cocktail hour. By the end of cocktail hour, we had greeted about 90% of our guests. We finished visiting everyone before the main course was served. It worked out great because after dinner we were able to mingle with our friends and be out on the dance floor. And, we definitely got to enjoy our meal.

AddieCake · August 2013

We did table visits. I don't have a preference either way, but I don't like receiving lines if the bridal party is in them.

SP29 · August 2013

I *think* we will do a receiving line, with just me and the FI, right after the ceremony.

Our ceremony and reception are in the same room, so our guests will need to exit the room (to the veranda) for 15-20 mins before re-entering the room, and in my experience guests tend to crowd around the B&G anyway after a ceremony unless the B&G flee. I think what will work well is that the veranda is large and guests won't have to stand in a line per se, more we will stand in one place and let people filter over to us as they walk out of the ceremony.

I also want to be able to eat. We may also consider doing speeches in between courses- not 100% decided on that though.

Friends of ours did this and it worked well. It was nice to get that one on one time to congratulate the B&G after the ceremony but wasn't laboured.

NYCBruin · August 2013

We plan on doing a receiving line. With 250 guests, I can't imagine having time to see everyone during table visits and get to eat. We figure with a receiving line we can greet everyone. Once dinner is over, we'll still have at least 3 hours of the reception left so we should be able to get in plenty of mingling.

CaraMia886 · August 2013

We had a receiving line at the church. Just my H & I, and our parents. The people who came to the church tended to be family and very close friends who know our family, and by excluding our (rather large) BP, we saved time while still getting to greet everyone at the church.

We opted for a private cocktail hour with our BP to spend some time with our friends, as I found the day flew by, but I know at many other weddings I've been to, they seem to do the 'greeting' during cocktails. I still prefer a private one, as I find that many people skip cocktails and it can be awkward depending upon the space.

We did table visits during the meal part of our reception. We did miss our entree, but our venue actually offered seconds to all the guests, so we had a hot meal when they served seconds. It took us a good while because we had almost 180 guests, but we were able to socialize with them, and take photos. I still hear from guests from my wedding how much they appreciate our table visits as they have gone largely out of vogue in our area.

I think as long as you have some face time with your guests, whether it be a receiving line, cocktails or table visits, they will be appreciative and you will achieve your goal of being able to mark the most special day of your life with the people who you care about most. Enjoy it!

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