Reception Activities

Re: Reception Activities

• Nymeru member

  

  December 2014

  Fewer people tend to dance in the afternoons, but I know that I personally would love to have the music.  Weddings are not a lot of fun if there's nothing to do, especially if you don't really know any of the other guests.  By not having music, you'd be encouraging people to leave sooner rather than later. 
  
  Ending the reception by 6 isn't strange at all, but you should make it clear the the cocktails/apps aren't the usual cocktail hour that will be followed by a dinner.   Letting your guests know that you're having a dessert reception following the ceremony will help them understand that you're not planning a late-night event, so they should be making dinner arrangements and not feel disgruntled when an early dinner doesn't manifest.
  
  I wouldn't worry about closing up shop if you have a DJ--any professional DJ will know how to wind things down in a nice way where it's obvious that the festivities are over.
  
  What is your venue?  If you're having an outdoor wedding, having lawn games would be a fun option.  Regardless of venue though, I'd have some sort of music.  If dancing's not your thing, you could have a quartet play some nice background music for ambiance.
  

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• southernbelle0915 mod

  

  December 2014

  naynay1985 said:

  We are considering having an afternoon (2pm) ceremony that lasts about half hour and then doing cocktails & light snacks/apps + cake/various desserts for the reception. We want everything to be done by around 6pm so that people will be able to get dinner after (the wedding is far enough away from where most of our family lives that everyone will be staying in the area). What my FI and I are not sure about it during the reception, should there still be DJ and dancing with dance floor like a "traditional" reception would have or should we have a DJ just playing music while guests mingle, eat, etc. If so, would it be really strange just ending around 6? Should there be some sort of "it's over" announcement, or just stop playing music? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

  If you do this type of wedding and you're not serving a meal, I would end things at 5pm. That's still a 2.5 hour reception - definitely enough time for the type of party you're having.

  
  

  If you're doing introductions, first dances, cake cutting, etc. and you can afford to have a DJ, I think it makes sense. Most guests probably won't hit the dance floor like they would at an evening wedding though. 

  
  

  With a shorter timeline, I don't think you need "activities". People are fine to eat, socialize and hang out. To indicate it's over, you could do an exit or send off; you and your groom could take the mic and thank people for coming; you could have your DJ make an announcement that the B&G will be at the door to thank people for coming and say bye on their way out..... Lots of ways to do this without a "last call" or "last dance" that's typical at an evening reception.

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• climbingsingle member

  

  December 2014

  We had a Saturday afternoon wedding. We had a DJ and dancing, and contrary to popular belief, pretty much every single person was dancing for hours. The dance floor was packed. The DJ announced the last song, and then that was it. 

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• thisismynickname2 member

  

  December 2014

  I believe that listing the end time on the invitation (or in your invitation suite) would help too. I'd appreciate it, at least! 

  
  

  "Reception to follow: 2:30pm to 6pm"

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• jenijoyk member

  

  December 2014

   ClimbingBrideNY said:

  We had a Saturday afternoon wedding. We had a DJ and dancing, and contrary to popular belief, pretty much every single person was dancing for hours. The dance floor was packed. The DJ announced the last song, and then that was it. 

  Totally agree with this. I was recently in a brunch wedding, and when we found out she was hiring a DJ we were super skeptical and kept cracking jokes about how many mimosas it would take to participate in Daytime Dancing. The answer was actually Not That Many. The dancefloor was completely full for hours. Super fun.
  

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• lyndausvi mod

  

  December 2014

  ClimbingBrideNY said:

  We had a Saturday afternoon wedding. We had a DJ and dancing, and contrary to popular belief, pretty much every single person was dancing for hours. The dance floor was packed. The DJ announced the last song, and then that was it. 

  I grew up going to afternoon weddings, including my sister's which was from 12-5.   The dance floors were/are always packed.     I didn't know until I got here people thought afternoon weddings meant no dancing.

  
  

  And ditto, just a like an evening wedding.  The DJ plays the last song and the party is over.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  

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