Reception responsibilities (during)

GrrArgh · October 2013

What are the Bride and Groom's responsibilities during the reception if it is being hosted by the Bride's parents?

I assume going around and talking to everyone (not just your friends) is polite regardless, just curious are there any other things to be done by that point.

JustNicki · October 2013

Other than being polite and talking briefly with all of the guests, I don't think there's anything else do do but enjoy yourselves. I do think that the bride and groom should include a toast to thank the host(s) and to thank guests for being there to celebrate.

jessicabessica · October 2013

You need to thank each of your guests for coming. Some people do a receiving line after the ceremony, others do table visits---usually you will eat first, and then you can walk around while all your guests are eating.

phira · October 2013

If you're not the hosts of your own wedding, then you are the guests of honor (the party is being thrown in your honor). I agree with other folks that it would be nice to thank the hosts at some point during the reception, and it's very polite (and good!) to greet every guest at some point. I prefer going around to tables during the first courses (not the entree).

Jen4948 · October 2013

Thank the guests and the hosts, and enjoy yourself.

Maggie0829 · October 2013

What the others said. Make sure to thank each guest whether through a receiving line or table visits. And then just have a fabulous time

GrrArgh · October 2013

We are going by a very loose schedule for the reception does this sound about right?

We are having the ring ceremony then we will recess out to a bridal room off to the side, the caterers will open up the bar and appetizers at the opposite end of the hall from where the ceremony took place allowing them room to set up the tables while everyone snacks and gets their drinks and such (this will take approximately 10-15 minutes.) We will come back once the tables are back in place, and open up the dance floor with our first dance followed directly by opening up the buffet.

Once everyone has gone through the buffet, I was thinking we could start going around tables starting with those who received their meals first as they'd be close to finishing by that point and work our way around the room from there. Does that sound like a good plan or should we wait til later?

Once everyone's wrapping up their meals we were going to do the Father/bride dance and then the dance floor would be officially "open" to everyone - after that I think it would be hard to catch everyone as hopefully they wont all stay at the tables they started out at and rather go around and mingle.

We wont be doing a sitting arrangement outside of a couple of reserved tables for our parents and grandparents and the WP with their dates and we will have a sweet heart table with a couple of extra chairs in case anyone wants to come visit before we can go visit them.

completely unrelated topic, does anyone else find the garter toss embarrassing? I really don't think I want to do one.

[Deleted User] · October 2013

We skipped garter/bouquet toss at our wedding. We had very few single females and only 2-3 guys. We thought it would be ackward. My female friends told me that they were happy to here we weren't doing that because they hate being singled out as the unmarried ones.

Maggie0829 · October 2013

We are going by a very loose schedule for the reception does this sound about right?

We are having the ring ceremony then we will recess out to a bridal room off to the side, the caterers will open up the bar and appetizers at the opposite end of the hall from where the ceremony took place allowing them room to set up the tables while everyone snacks and gets their drinks and such (this will take approximately 10-15 minutes.) We will come back once the tables are back in place, and open up the dance floor with our first dance followed directly by opening up the buffet.

Once everyone has gone through the buffet, I was thinking we could start going around tables starting with those who received their meals first as they'd be close to finishing by that point and work our way around the room from there. Does that sound like a good plan or should we wait til later?

Once everyone's wrapping up their meals we were going to do the Father/bride dance and then the dance floor would be officially "open" to everyone - after that I think it would be hard to catch everyone as hopefully they wont all stay at the tables they started out at and rather go around and mingle.

We wont be doing a sitting arrangement outside of a couple of reserved tables for our parents and grandparents and the WP with their dates and we will have a sweet heart table with a couple of extra chairs in case anyone wants to come visit before we can go visit them.

completely unrelated topic, does anyone else find the garter toss embarrassing? I really don't think I want to do one.

All of this sounds pretty good and normal. H and I started table visits once we were done eating and once the first couple tables that went up to the stations first looked mostly done. I can't remember how long that took (maybe 45 minutes) or so. Then the music started and the dancing for 3 straight hours commenced

As for the garter toss. I hate it and think it is disgusting. No one, and I mean no one, wants to watch your new husband dig under your dress to retrieve a piece of fabric.

GrrArgh · October 2013

Ok thank goodness. I hate the idea, a lot and can't think of a more embarrassing staged situation and when I get embarrassed I blush beet red and just due to the nature of my skin... I stay beet red for hours. I've asked the FI and he says its cool to scrap it especially if I'm uncomfortable with it, and I think I'm going to scrap the bouquet toss as well. At my age, the very few of my friends that are single probably don't want a spot light put on them for their singleness.

AroundTheBlock · October 2013

The garter toss is really not all that traditional, anyway. I first saw it done in the sixties, and it was something of a novelty. You do not see it referenced in historical accounts, for all that wedding website after wedding website recounts some garbled version of its historicity -- leaving me gnashing my teeth in frustration at not being able to mark [citation needed] all over the entirely-unreliable page.

When the garter toss was introduced, brides and grooms were still in the habit of leaving directly on their wedding trip clad in their "going away" clothes. After the cake cutting they would retire to some private rooms to change and then reappear ready to travel. The bride would have already removed her garter and simply handed it to the groom for tossing. The "racy" version with the groom reaching up under the bride's dress while the DJ cued bump-and-grind music was a "humourous" touch that came in the seventies when simply tossing a piece of lingerie was no longer considered risque enough to be funny -- it was vulgar then and is vulgar now.

By all means, forego the practice.

CLI242009 · October 2013

Lobster1987 said:

GrrArgh said:

We are going by a very loose schedule for the reception does this sound about right?

We are having the ring ceremony then we will recess out to a bridal room off to the side, the caterers will open up the bar and appetizers at the opposite end of the hall from where the ceremony took place allowing them room to set up the tables while everyone snacks and gets their drinks and such (this will take approximately 10-15 minutes.) We will come back once the tables are back in place, and open up the dance floor with our first dance followed directly by opening up the buffet.

Once everyone has gone through the buffet, I was thinking we could start going around tables starting with those who received their meals first as they'd be close to finishing by that point and work our way around the room from there. Does that sound like a good plan or should we wait til later?

Once everyone's wrapping up their meals we were going to do the Father/bride dance and then the dance floor would be officially "open" to everyone - after that I think it would be hard to catch everyone as hopefully they wont all stay at the tables they started out at and rather go around and mingle.

We wont be doing a sitting arrangement outside of a couple of reserved tables for our parents and grandparents and the WP with their dates and we will have a sweet heart table with a couple of extra chairs in case anyone wants to come visit before we can go visit them.

completely unrelated topic, does anyone else find the garter toss embarrassing? I really don't think I want to do one.

Yep. Don't do it. You don't need to do anything you don't feel comfortable with. We are not doing the garter or bouquet toss.

We are not doing it either. My FI and I like our PDA, but something like that is just too personal to be doing in front of all the guests. Even if you just put it on your knee and not all the way up, it's still embarrassing because even though he is not, it's the illusion of him touching me in an intimate place. Plus all the cat calls and whistles, we're just not that kind of couple.

I'm not doing the bouquet toss. I'm keeping my bouquet and not spending the extra money on a "tossing bouquet". So do what is most comfortable for ya!

Reception responsibilities (during)

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