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Not really sure what to do for the reception

deannagirlydeannagirly member
100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
in Wedding Reception Forum

So, my FI and I are planning on having a private ceremony. It will only be us and a few other people and a photographer, then we plan on going around and getting pictures taken for maybe a few hours. Then we are going to have a reception with the rest of our family and friends at an ice rink. The reception will be from 4:30-6:30 most likely. So it will cut into dinner time for a bit.

 

I was wondering, is it tacky to have it at an ice rink? My FI and I both love the idea of going ice skating to celebrate our marriage, but as we don't know a lot of children, it will most likely be adults attending our wedding. Although I feel as if adults can have just as much fun ice skating, and we would pay for everybody's ice skating rental, then they would be able to choose whether to skate or not.

I was wondering also, if we should serve food here? Although my FI and I will be in full wedding attire, (I have a large satin gown and he's going to rent a tux,) we're not really expecting our guests to dress up formally, just nicely. So would just ordering some pizza be ok? Or would it be fine to just have some snacks, maybe some wraps and chips and then some cupcakes and have punch and that kind of stuff?

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Re: Not really sure what to do for the reception

  • OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    Tenth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    deannagirly said:

    So, my FI and I are planning on having a private ceremony. It will only be us and a few other people and a photographer, then we plan on going around and getting pictures taken for maybe a few hours. Then we are going to have a reception with the rest of our family and friends at an ice rink. The reception will be from 4:30-6:30 most likely. So it will cut into dinner time for a bit.

     

    I was wondering, is it tacky to have it at an ice rink? My FI and I both love the idea of going ice skating to celebrate our marriage, but as we don't know a lot of children, it will most likely be adults attending our wedding. Although I feel as if adults can have just as much fun ice skating, and we would pay for everybody's ice skating rental, then they would be able to choose whether to skate or not.

    I was wondering also, if we should serve food here? Although my FI and I will be in full wedding attire, (I have a large satin gown and he's going to rent a tux,) we're not really expecting our guests to dress up formally, just nicely. So would just ordering some pizza be ok? Or would it be fine to just have some snacks, maybe some wraps and chips and then some cupcakes and have punch and that kind of stuff?

    I think that everyone should have the type of reception they want.  As long as you host your guests properly, I think that you can have any type of reception you want.  And if that's at an ice skating rink, I think it sounds unique! 

    Two things stand out though, you can't dictate how you want your guests to dress.  And if you were having a reception at an ice skating rink, as an attending guest, I would not think to dress formally at all. I would probably choose jeans and a nice top.  Second, if you plan to have your reception from 4:30 to 6:30, that does fall during a meal time, so you do need to have enough food to constitute a meal.  If that's pizza and other snacks, that works.  Just make sure there is enough for everyone to leave full.
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  • RebeccaB88RebeccaB88 member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    Are you planning on ice skating in your big dress?  That sounds...dangerous. As a former figure skater, there's a reason why we all wore short skirts to skate in. :)  Or were you planning on changing clothes?  I can also attest to the fact that alcohol, hard surfaces, and sharp objects don't mix well. Not sure if you were planning on serving that or not.

    I think the venue will be lost on your guests. I don't see them wanting to ice skate. That's what you do for kids birthday parties, scout activities, and church groups. I doubt I would, and as I said, I was a skater. It just doesn't fit with the idea of a reception, to me. And what about your elderly relatives, or those who can't physically skate? Or the ladies who show up in dresses?  People will really just want to see and congratulate you, and chat with friends and family. Can't do that while on the ice.

    Your timeframe is over the dinner hour, and as a guest I'd expect dinner. I think pizza, salad, beverages, and cake is fine for a very casual reception. But, you wearing a big gown and formalwear doesn't give me the picture of a casual reception. I'd expect everyone at an ice rink party to be wearing jeans and sweatshirts, and that's not what I would wear to a wedding reception, even if you said it wasn't dressy. I definitely wouldn't skate in my nice clothes. Plus, ice rinks are cold. Any kind of catering will have to be in a separate location if you have a hope and a prayer of keeping it warm. You want your guests to be comfortable, too, not shivering cold.

    For the kind of ceremony you're planning (private but formal, am I wrong?) I think you should nix the ice rink idea. Maybe find a nice restaurant with a private room you can rent, or rent the whole thing (depending on the size of your guest list), or a hotel meeting room, museum or art gallery, historical building, Elks Lodge, or even your own home. If your ceremony is dressy, the reception vibe should match.

    And if all your ceremony guests are going with you to take pictures, I'd limit it to an hour or less, not a couple of hours. More than that just isn't polite to the people with you, and you really don't want to tell them to just go and entertain themselves while you take pictures alone all over town . Then go straight to your reception.
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  • deannagirlydeannagirly member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    RebeccaB88 said:
    Are you planning on ice skating in your big dress?  That sounds...dangerous. As a former figure skater, there's a reason why we all wore short skirts to skate in. :)  Or were you planning on changing clothes?  I can also attest to the fact that alcohol, hard surfaces, and sharp objects don't mix well. Not sure if you were planning on serving that or not.
    No haha, we weren't going to be serving alcohol and I was planning on changing into a smaller dress before skating. I would only make an entrance in my dress.

    I think the venue will be lost on your guests. I don't see them wanting to ice skate. That's what you do for kids birthday parties, scout activities, and church groups. I doubt I would, and as I said, I was a skater. It just doesn't fit with the idea of a reception, to me. And what about your elderly relatives, or those who can't physically skate? Or the ladies who show up in dresses?  People will really just want to see and congratulate you, and chat with friends and family. Can't do that while on the ice.
    Yeah I suppose so. We were only going to have about 20 or so people, maybe 30. Not really a big wedding at all, and most of the people would be able to skate except for perhaps a few.

    Your timeframe is over the dinner hour, and as a guest I'd expect dinner. I think pizza, salad, beverages, and cake is fine for a very casual reception. But, you wearing a big gown and formalwear doesn't give me the picture of a casual reception. I'd expect everyone at an ice rink party to be wearing jeans and sweatshirts, and that's not what I would wear to a wedding reception, even if you said it wasn't dressy. I definitely wouldn't skate in my nice clothes. Plus, ice rinks are cold. Any kind of catering will have to be in a separate location if you have a hope and a prayer of keeping it warm. You want your guests to be comfortable, too, not shivering cold.
    The ice rink we were looking at has a separate room to keep the food in so it'd be all nice and warm for people.

    For the kind of ceremony you're planning (private but formal, am I wrong?) I think you should nix the ice rink idea. Maybe find a nice restaurant with a private room you can rent, or rent the whole thing (depending on the size of your guest list), or a hotel meeting room, museum or art gallery, historical building, Elks Lodge, or even your own home. If your ceremony is dressy, the reception vibe should match.
    I really don't want a hotel wedding. I don't even know why, I just don't. That just isn't who my FI and I are. We aren't hotel wedding type of people. I want a more intimate wedding. I was trying to find a hotel that had a rustic feel, maybe a fireplace even, but the only one I could find was about 3 hours away, and they already have a wedding booked on my date. As for the restaurant Idea, I suppose that could work. But I'm not exactly sure how intimate that would be.

    And if all your ceremony guests are going with you to take pictures, I'd limit it to an hour or less, not a couple of hours. More than that just isn't polite to the people with you, and you really don't want to tell them to just go and entertain themselves while you take pictures alone all over town . Then go straight to your reception.
    Oh, and the ceremony guests weren't going to take pictures with us. Maybe a few right after the ceremony. (I'd imagine our parents would want pictures) but after the ceremony, it was just going to be him and I running around and getting pictures taken. We are sort of an odd couple. We love the idea of running around totally decked out in our wedding gedup and taking pictures downtown.

    So I guess I can start looking into other ideas. The funny thing is, even though we're going to be all dressed up, if we were to go to a restaurant, we'd probably still go to a pizza place. We both love pizza. Or maybe Olive Garden. Italian food <3. I mean, we have some nice pizza places here, it wouldn't be like pizza hut or anything haha, but that'd still probably be where we'd go.
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  • RebeccaB88RebeccaB88 member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    If you want to go all over town taking pictures, I'd do it before the ceremony. Do an awesome first look and then go take all the pictures you want.  Just don't make your ceremony guests (even if it's just a few people) go somewhere to wait around on you while you do that. Then have the ceremony and go straight to the reception. I get wanting to wear your dress as much as you can. It's the only time you can get away with that. I'm just thinking a smaller, more intimate venue would give you more of the feel you're looking for. All the ice rinks I skated in were basically big, cavernous metal buildings with no atmosphere whatsoever. A private room at a great restaurant would fit your guest list perfectly. You don't have to be out among the regular guests.

    Have you gone to the rink you're considering and just hung out there for awhile?  And would they be willing to rent it to you for that kind of party? The main rink I skated in would rent it out, but only at certain times of the day on certain days, and then it wasn't cheap. You had to work around the public skate sessions, private lesson sessions, club ice, freestyle practice sessions, hockey games, hockey practices, and ice maintenance times. They would not rent it out for a private event at all on the weekends, because they had too many other activities scheduled that made them more money. The time of day you're talking about, if it was a Saturday, they'd have laughed in your face if you asked to rent then. They made bank on public sessions on Saturday afternoons and evenings.  So definitely check with the rink and see what they are willing to do. My rink only rented out the entire place for private parties on weekdays during the morning hours, and late nights, after 10pm. Everything else was already scheduled. Plus, the place always smelled like sweat and ammonia. :P
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  • deannagirlydeannagirly member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    RebeccaB88 said:
    If you want to go all over town taking pictures, I'd do it before the ceremony. Do an awesome first look and then go take all the pictures you want.  Just don't make your ceremony guests (even if it's just a few people) go somewhere to wait around on you while you do that. Then have the ceremony and go straight to the reception. I get wanting to wear your dress as much as you can. It's the only time you can get away with that. I'm just thinking a smaller, more intimate venue would give you more of the feel you're looking for. All the ice rinks I skated in were basically big, cavernous metal buildings with no atmosphere whatsoever. A private room at a great restaurant would fit your guest list perfectly. You don't have to be out among the regular guests.
    Yeah, I'm looking into some pizza places. We have some 'hole-in-the-wall' pizza places that are to die for. Then there is la perla, which is pizza from the heavens. 

    Have you gone to the rink you're considering and just hung out there for awhile?  And would they be willing to rent it to you for that kind of party? The main rink I skated in would rent it out, but only at certain times of the day on certain days, and then it wasn't cheap. You had to work around the public skate sessions, private lesson sessions, club ice, freestyle practice sessions, hockey games, hockey practices, and ice maintenance times. They would not rent it out for a private event at all on the weekends, because they had too many other activities scheduled that made them more money. The time of day you're talking about, if it was a Saturday, they'd have laughed in your face if you asked to rent then. They made bank on public sessions on Saturday afternoons and evenings.  So definitely check with the rink and see what they are willing to do. My rink only rented out the entire place for private parties on weekdays during the morning hours, and late nights, after 10pm. Everything else was already scheduled. Plus, the place always smelled like sweat and ammonia. :P
    Oh yeah, the place here rents out a bunch of times. They don't really do that much business I think. But perhaps a restaurant would be better. Then that way we would know people got their full on food as well.

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  • mysticlmysticl member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary First Answer
    deannagirly said:

    So, my FI and I are planning on having a private ceremony. It will only be us and a few other people and a photographer, then we plan on going around and getting pictures taken for maybe a few hours. Then we are going to have a reception with the rest of our family and friends at an ice rink. The reception will be from 4:30-6:30 most likely. So it will cut into dinner time for a bit.

     

    I was wondering, is it tacky to have it at an ice rink? My FI and I both love the idea of going ice skating to celebrate our marriage, but as we don't know a lot of children, it will most likely be adults attending our wedding. Although I feel as if adults can have just as much fun ice skating, and we would pay for everybody's ice skating rental, then they would be able to choose whether to skate or not.

    I was wondering also, if we should serve food here? Although my FI and I will be in full wedding attire, (I have a large satin gown and he's going to rent a tux,) we're not really expecting our guests to dress up formally, just nicely. So would just ordering some pizza be ok? Or would it be fine to just have some snacks, maybe some wraps and chips and then some cupcakes and have punch and that kind of stuff?

    What are the non-skaters going to do?  Do all of your guests know how to skate?  I totally get wanting to be fun and unique but I can see this backfiring on you.  It think the restaurant idea is a better one for you.  Find some unique local place.
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  • deannagirlydeannagirly member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    mysticl said:
    deannagirly said:

    So, my FI and I are planning on having a private ceremony. It will only be us and a few other people and a photographer, then we plan on going around and getting pictures taken for maybe a few hours. Then we are going to have a reception with the rest of our family and friends at an ice rink. The reception will be from 4:30-6:30 most likely. So it will cut into dinner time for a bit.

     

    I was wondering, is it tacky to have it at an ice rink? My FI and I both love the idea of going ice skating to celebrate our marriage, but as we don't know a lot of children, it will most likely be adults attending our wedding. Although I feel as if adults can have just as much fun ice skating, and we would pay for everybody's ice skating rental, then they would be able to choose whether to skate or not.

    I was wondering also, if we should serve food here? Although my FI and I will be in full wedding attire, (I have a large satin gown and he's going to rent a tux,) we're not really expecting our guests to dress up formally, just nicely. So would just ordering some pizza be ok? Or would it be fine to just have some snacks, maybe some wraps and chips and then some cupcakes and have punch and that kind of stuff?

    What are the non-skaters going to do?  Do all of your guests know how to skate?  I totally get wanting to be fun and unique but I can see this backfiring on you.  It think the restaurant idea is a better one for you.  Find some unique local place.

    I'm looking into either La Perla, a unique little pizza place that has pizza from the heavens, or Beppe and Gianni's, an Italian place that can't be beat. The only thing is neither of them takes reservations. Maybe if I explain it's my wedding haha.
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  • mysticlmysticl member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary First Answer
    deannagirly said:
    mysticl said:
    deannagirly said:

    So, my FI and I are planning on having a private ceremony. It will only be us and a few other people and a photographer, then we plan on going around and getting pictures taken for maybe a few hours. Then we are going to have a reception with the rest of our family and friends at an ice rink. The reception will be from 4:30-6:30 most likely. So it will cut into dinner time for a bit.

     

    I was wondering, is it tacky to have it at an ice rink? My FI and I both love the idea of going ice skating to celebrate our marriage, but as we don't know a lot of children, it will most likely be adults attending our wedding. Although I feel as if adults can have just as much fun ice skating, and we would pay for everybody's ice skating rental, then they would be able to choose whether to skate or not.

    I was wondering also, if we should serve food here? Although my FI and I will be in full wedding attire, (I have a large satin gown and he's going to rent a tux,) we're not really expecting our guests to dress up formally, just nicely. So would just ordering some pizza be ok? Or would it be fine to just have some snacks, maybe some wraps and chips and then some cupcakes and have punch and that kind of stuff?

    What are the non-skaters going to do?  Do all of your guests know how to skate?  I totally get wanting to be fun and unique but I can see this backfiring on you.  It think the restaurant idea is a better one for you.  Find some unique local place.

    I'm looking into either La Perla, a unique little pizza place that has pizza from the heavens, or Beppe and Gianni's, an Italian place that can't be beat. The only thing is neither of them takes reservations. Maybe if I explain it's my wedding haha.
    Exactly.  My rehearsal dinner was at a place that doesn't normally take reservations.  However, they will do special events.  One of those places might even let you rent them out for the night.
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  • Dreamergirl8812Dreamergirl8812 member
    1000 Comments 500 Love Its Second Anniversary First Answer
    I don't like skating so I wouldn't have much fun. And the reception is supposed to be for your guests. Could you do pictures, then go ice skating (and get pics) and then go to a restaurant and have a reception?



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  • SP29SP29 member
    Sixth Anniversary 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    At first I thought "AWESOME!" but then other posters made some valid points. You would have some people skating on the rink, others eating in the other room... where will you spend all your time? I can also see a fair number of people who wouldn't skate at all.

    I think a nice idea is to get photos done of you and FH skating. That would be very romantic. Then host the reception elsewhere. 
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  • deannagirlydeannagirly member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    I'm not sure how to change this to say "answered", but it has been, and we have made new plans.
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