Wedding Reception Forum

After party?

Do a lot of people actually have after parties? My reception is ending at midnight, I think I'm going to be more interested in going to sleep than staying up to party. How do you guys feel about after parties?

Re: After party?

  • I think it could be fun if you have a venue like ours that has noise abatement rules and has to end all music by 10pm.
    Depends on how people are feeling and the group.
  • CaliMel11 said:
    I think it could be fun if you have a venue like ours that has noise abatement rules and has to end all music by 10pm.
    Depends on how people are feeling and the group.
    Would you continue the party at the hotel you are staying at? (if you are staying at one) Our reception is at the hotel so for us I think it would be a little pointless
  • I've been to weddings where the hotel bar stayed open later, and drinks were paid by the patrons. FI and I enjoy going to this kind of 'after party' because the bride and groom, and usually BP, hang out, unwind and sometimes enjoy a nightcap. We plan on doing the same because we've enjoyed them so much.

    OP, I've been to the above mentioned after parties when receptions were held at the hotel and when they weren't. Both were tons of fun and gave some great stories the next day. If there's no extra charge to keep the bar open later, go for it. If people want to keep the party going, then awesome. If not, go and start enjoying your first night as husband and wife privately. :)
  • CaliMel11 said:
    I think it could be fun if you have a venue like ours that has noise abatement rules and has to end all music by 10pm.
    Depends on how people are feeling and the group.
    Would you continue the party at the hotel you are staying at? (if you are staying at one) Our reception is at the hotel so for us I think it would be a little pointless
    Ours is at a winery, and we rented the house on property, so unfortunately we can't do that. Our friend lives right now the street though, so if it moves anywhere it would probably be there. I think it really depends on your venue/what is nearby too.
    The hotel bar scenario sounds like it would be fun though!
  • We are planning to just let the after-party happen if our close friends are into it (and they probably will be).  Haven't even blocked rooms yet, but a priority for us is a nearby hotel with a great bar.  Knowing our crowd, they will want to keep the party going.  My general plan is to maybe go for a drink or two and then go, ahem, enjoy our wedding night.
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  • doeydo said:
    Personally, I would rather go to the hotel with the groom and, um, consummate the marriage then go to bed.  
    lol that was implied
  • Like some PPs, we were ready for some alone/quiet time at the end of our wedding (started at 1 pm, reception wrapped up around 7 or 8, so not even super late). 

    If you are going to do it, I would suggest a suite in a hotel or something like that.  For my BIL's wedding, we stopped by a liquor store on the way back to the hotel from the reception and then just had people to our room (but BIL and his wife did not join us).  We went to another wedding where the parents of the bride got a suite in the hotel and fully stocked it.  The parents were huge partiers and opened the suite up to all the guests after the reception ended. 
  • We had an after party, but that was b/c we got married at 10:30 in the morning, and our reception was over at 2 p.m. We went home and got some rest and then met up with people later that night at a bar. If we had had an evening reception, we would not have had the after party b/c a few hours partying at the reception would have been enough party time for us. 


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  • I never realized so many people book hotels...I have honestly never been to or been in a wedding where the whole WP went to a hotel. They have always been in our immediate vicinity and everyone just went to their homes to sleep, even the bride & groom. I've also never been invited to an after party anywhere else, like a home or a bar. My reception is ending at 8pm and we don't plan on having anything afterwards, if other guests want to go out together that's fine but we will be going home to just be alone. We are also not drinkers or night/party people though. 

                                                                     

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  • Our reception had to end at 10:30 pm, so we purposely booked a hotel with a bar, and pretty much everyone relocated there, and then we all just walked to our rooms. So yes, we had an after party. I think if our main reception went till midnight, we wouldn't have. But it really depends on your crowd.
  • jenna8984 said:
    I never realized so many people book hotels...I have honestly never been to or been in a wedding where the whole WP went to a hotel. They have always been in our immediate vicinity and everyone just went to their homes to sleep, even the bride & groom. I've also never been invited to an after party anywhere else, like a home or a bar. My reception is ending at 8pm and we don't plan on having anything afterwards, if other guests want to go out together that's fine but we will be going home to just be alone. We are also not drinkers or night/party people though. 
    I think it depends on your crowd.  My friends will book a hotel an hour away from home if we are going to a concert or something, so we can party.  Then again, I once picked Fi up at 2am in Newark on one of these nights when the rest of the guys went to a strip club.  So our friends are more into it than we are.  Whether or not we set it up, the after party is gonna happen.
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  • My brother and SIL had an afternoon wedding, so they did have an after-party later that night thrown by a relative of my SIL's.  The party was an outdoor barbecue at the relative's home.  All the out-of-town guests and wedding party members were invited.  It was nice.
  • I'm getting married in a college town (where FI and I went to school), during the summer. All the "kids" will be gone for the summer, so the "grown-ups" are going to visit all our old haunts - without feeling like old fuddy-duddies!
    ~*~*~*~*~

  • doeydo said:
    Personally, I would rather go to the hotel with the groom and, um, consummate the marriage then go to bed.  
    Um yes to this.  My grandfather (ha yes, he is the life of the party) threw an after party in his room.  Everyone was invited via word of mouth, but it pretty much ended up being all our friends who stayed over, and my family who stayed over- H's family didn't come.

    We had a semi-destination wedding.  It was more than 1 hour away for us and a handful of other people.  It was further for everyone else, so most people stayed overnight.

    I wanted nothing to do with an after party, but my grandfather did everything, so that was nice for the guests. 

  • jenna8984 said:

    I never realized so many people book hotels...I have honestly never been to or been in a wedding where the whole WP went to a hotel. They have always been in our immediate vicinity and everyone just went to their homes to sleep, even the bride & groom. I've also never been invited to an after party anywhere else, like a home or a bar. My reception is ending at 8pm and we don't plan on having anything afterwards, if other guests want to go out together that's fine but we will be going home to just be alone. We are also not drinkers or night/party people though. 

    I think it depends on your crowd.  My friends will book a hotel an hour away from home if we are going to a concert or something, so we can party.  Then again, I once picked Fi up at 2am in Newark on one of these nights when the rest of the guys went to a strip club.  So our friends are more into it than we are.  Whether or not we set it up, the after party is gonna happen.

    Aahhh good old Newark, NJ! Some of the best Portuguese resturants around. Can't wait till the world Cup to get some blue sangria at Iberia!
  • Our reception ends at 11pm, and we plan on making an stop at the hotel bar (not where reception is) for a nightcap. We put the bridal party in charge of spreading the news by word of mouth. I know some of my friends plan to go out in DC afterwards, bu twe'll probably head to bed after a drink or two.
  • I've been to many after parties. We're having one, however, our wedding will be ending at 5pm. 
  • We are having an after party. Our wedding will be from 4-8 and we rented a villa on next door to the reception where the whole wedding party is staying so we are hosting an after party there.
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  • jenna8984 said:
    I never realized so many people book hotels...I have honestly never been to or been in a wedding where the whole WP went to a hotel. They have always been in our immediate vicinity and everyone just went to their homes to sleep, even the bride & groom. I've also never been invited to an after party anywhere else, like a home or a bar. My reception is ending at 8pm and we don't plan on having anything afterwards, if other guests want to go out together that's fine but we will be going home to just be alone. We are also not drinkers or night/party people though. 
    I think it depends on your crowd.  My friends will book a hotel an hour away from home if we are going to a concert or something, so we can party.  Then again, I once picked Fi up at 2am in Newark on one of these nights when the rest of the guys went to a strip club.  So our friends are more into it than we are.  Whether or not we set it up, the after party is gonna happen.
    Aahhh good old Newark, NJ! Some of the best Portuguese resturants around. Can't wait till the world Cup to get some blue sangria at Iberia!
    Yum, Iberia is awesome but I have not tried the blue sangria!  We live in Jersey City and his friends booked a hotel in Newark to take a cab to a concert in Montclair... I have seriously no idea the thought process behind any of that.  Not even a nice hotel in Newark, it was a random Quality Inn or something on Route 21 in the North Ward.  Why not get a hotel in Montclair close to the concert?  Or why not just stay at home and take a cab?  Smh.
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  • We are having an after party because our ceremony and cocktail reception won't start until after 8 and ends at 12. We know our guests will want to keep the party alive after our short celebration. Friends of our family own the bar directly across the street from our venue and they are offering drink specials for us and our guests and opening a VIP area.
  • @ JCBride2014 - You couldn't pay me to stay at a hotel in Newark! They're nuts!

    Since you have yet to try the blue sangria, you HAVE to go this year in June when Portugal plays in the World Cup and they have the Portugal feast in Iberia's courtyard so you can grab one! If you see a young woman yelling at a guy climbing to ring the bell, that'll be me and FI. Happens everrryyy year.
  • I have only been to/seen after parties when they take place at the same venue as the reception and don't require getting up and possibly driving somewhere else.  Last time I was a BM the hotel the reception was at actually had a club with a DJ in it and the party easily continued there.

    Our after party was at the hotel bar and was very low key.  The friends that were not staying at the hotel used this time to sober up before driving home.

    I had so much adrenaline wedding week I wasn't tired until two days later when I was in Mexico on the HM and went to bed early the first night there.  We had enough energy to do the after party and then our own private after party ;)

  • csuave said:

    I have only been to/seen after parties when they take place at the same venue as the reception and don't require getting up and possibly driving somewhere else.  Last time I was a BM the hotel the reception was at actually had a club with a DJ in it and the party easily continued there.

    Our after party was at the hotel bar and was very low key.  The friends that were not staying at the hotel used this time to sober up before driving home.

    I had so much adrenaline wedding week I wasn't tired until two days later when I was in Mexico on the HM and went to bed early the first night there.  We had enough energy to do the after party and then our own private after party ;)

    I hope I have the energy you did! Our hotel does have a bar in the lobby, I have no idea what time it closes though, I guess poeple can hang out there if they want, depending on how I'm feeling I may or may not i guess
  • We didn't have an official after party. Our reception ended at midnight and we told everyone who was left that we were going back to the hotel bar to hang out. This way we didn't have to host it and no one felt obligated to stay out any longer than they wanted to. We stayed about an hour. 
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  • Our reception ends at 10 PM and many of our guests are out of towners - so we plan to have an after party. Luckily for us the bar where we met has agreed to have a late night buffet of goodies and drink specials for us. They are located next to three hotels (one of which we are hoping to stay at / have rooms blocked out) so it will work perfectly!
  • Ours will end at 10.  We are having the ceremony and reception at the same site and our "getting away" transportation has a 3 hour minimum.  We decided if we are paying for it to take advantage of it.  The current plan (still subject to change) is to have them take us back to the hotel for the send off and then have them go back and get everyone else parked there.  Then we'll join them and use it to go some place close by for the remainder of our time we booked so we get our money's worth.  If we don't make it back down to join them, they can still do the same and we'll have someone "watch over them".
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    csuave said:

    I have only been to/seen after parties when they take place at the same venue as the reception and don't require getting up and possibly driving somewhere else.  Last time I was a BM the hotel the reception was at actually had a club with a DJ in it and the party easily continued there.

    Our after party was at the hotel bar and was very low key.  The friends that were not staying at the hotel used this time to sober up before driving home.

    I had so much adrenaline wedding week I wasn't tired until two days later when I was in Mexico on the HM and went to bed early the first night there.  We had enough energy to do the after party and then our own private after party ;)

    I hope I have the energy you did! Our hotel does have a bar in the lobby, I have no idea what time it closes though, I guess poeple can hang out there if they want, depending on how I'm feeling I may or may not i guess

    Our hotel bar stayed open late because we told our coordinator people would go there. 

    I am surprised I had the energy.  It was totally not expected!  What we did was casually say "after party in the hotel bar" when the reception was breaking up.  Because this wasn't announced ahead of time we could have easily just not done it if we were tired.

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