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Timeline critique

missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
in Wedding Woes
Since Prudie isn't up yet, would anyone like to proof my timeline?

2:00 photographers start
    WP photos, first look, as many other pictures as we can get done ahead of time
5:30 ceremony
6:00 cocktail hour/ pictures cont.
7:00 receiving line into reception space. Hopefully we won't need the whole hour for pictures and can start this early.
7:20 dinner
8:30 toast
8:40 cake cutting
8:50 parents dances
9:00 first dance
10:45 last dance
11:00 curfew

What do you think? Questions/comments/concerns?
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Re: Timeline critique

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    NOLABridesmaidNOLABridesmaid member
    First Answer 5 Love Its First Anniversary Name Dropper

    I've never been married....but.

    1. Your receiving line is for 20 minutes. How many guest are you inviting? Do you think people will be chatty and take longer time?

    2. Your first dance and parent dances seem late in the evening. Some people may miss it if they leave early. Maybe think about doing it before you cut the cake. Just my 2 cents.


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    mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    Instead of the receiving line at the start of the reception, I recommend nixing it and planning go around to tables after you're done eating (since the B&G should get served first) and talk to people while they're finishing up.  Just remove that time and move everything up.  

    And then as soon as you get done with greeting people, go right into the toast, cake, and the dances.  Each of those will not take a 10 min block a piece.  I bet you can get it all done in a half hour or less.  

    By the time you're done with all of that, people will be ready to be up and dancing/mingling. 
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    bleve0821bleve0821 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Just a thought about the dances:  My photographer recommended that the first dance occur before dinner and that the parent dances occur after dinner as a way to open the floor to dancing.  It didn't happen like this at our wedding, despite my express wishes, because our DJ was a POS who was working HIS schedule instead of the one I paid him to work, but that's another story.

    Just a thought.


    "And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me..."
    --Philip Pullman

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    missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    We are inviting 140, I don't think the receiving line will take 20 minutes, I was over estimating using the advice "everything will take longer than you think it will".
    My only issue is, the DJ is going to be set up where the dancing is which is not where the dinner will be. They are adjacent to eachother through a large doorway but we can't do toasts while everyone is eating.
    @mrsconn23 so would you have dinner start at 7? Do people need time to transition from cocktail hour or can we expect them to be in their seats by 7?
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    missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    @AtomicBlonde I ran this scenario through my head too but since there are two different rooms I wasn't sure how it would work. They enter the reception space, find their escort card, find their table and then go into the other room to watch the dance? If it were me, I would be ready to sit at my table and eat some dinner!
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    OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its

    Also, check with your reception venue/caterer.  Ours preferred for us to have our first dance as soon as we entered.  It helped with their timing for dinner, but we had a sit down plated meal.  It also allowed people who wanted to dance in between courses to do so, since we had already "opened" the dance floor by having our dance first.

    We also did table rounds after we finished each course.  We would just keep going until we saw our next course was at our table, then we would go eat and back to table rounds.  Table visits are expected in my family, the bride even carries a special purse because family members will give the envelopes (cash is king in my area) directly to the couple when we greet our guests.  My mom heard it from some relatives when my brother and his now XW did NOT do the table visits!  And we married about a year & a half after brother.  So maybe check in with both sets of parents to see if there is anything "expected" due to tradition in either family.

    Another thing to do, would be to enter the reception venue and go right into your cake cutting.  That way your caterer can serve immediately after dinner.  You can also move up the first dance (which should be before your parent dances) and then have your parent dances.

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    mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    At 6:50-6:55p, I'd have an announcement made that dinner is about to start and every should take their seats.  And then if there are still a fair amount of people milling about, I'd make another announcement at 7p.  


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    missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    @OliveOilsMom I shared this with our caterer/DOC and she had no suggestions. There are no family expectations except an open bar. We could have made them sit on hay and they would have been pleased as punch, lol. 

    @mrsconn23 and everyone else: is it normal for people to find their seats during cocktail hour, even if it is in a separate area. Our cocktail hour will (hopefully) be on the covered porch and patio but people will be free to go inside. 
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    mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
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    Whenever I go to a wedding, the first thing I do I find my seat and I dump my stuff (purse, wrap, etc.) and then go to find a drink.  
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    missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    mrsconn23 said:
    Whenever I go to a wedding, the first thing I do I find my seat and I dump my stuff (purse, wrap, etc.) and then go to find a drink.  
    Perfect. I was a little worried about not giving people a true hour for cocktails and then having dinner delayed by them finding their seats, hence the 20 minute buffer of the receiving line. I think a 7pm dinner would make everything run just a little smoother. 
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    ILoveBeachMusicILoveBeachMusic member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    You could also cut your cake earlier (before dinner). That allows the caterer to cut the cake and have it ready to be served or set out. I personally think that 3 hours of pictures before the ceremony plus more pictures afterwards is overkill. Also 10 mins each is too long for spotlight dances so hopefully your dance floor will open sooner.
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    mrsconn23mrsconn23 member
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    missJeanLouise said:
    mrsconn23 said:
    Whenever I go to a wedding, the first thing I do I find my seat and I dump my stuff (purse, wrap, etc.) and then go to find a drink.  
    Perfect. I was a little worried about not giving people a true hour for cocktails and then having dinner delayed by them finding their seats, hence the 20 minute buffer of the receiving line. I think a 7pm dinner would make everything run just a little smoother. 
    You could also put a sign with the placecards that says, "Please find your seat and then join us for cocktail hour."  

    Just because sometimes you have to lead a horse to water.  ;) 
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    missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    ILoveBeachMusic said:
    You could also cut your cake earlier (before dinner). That allows the caterer to cut the cake and have it ready to be served or set out. I personally think that 3 hours of pictures before the ceremony plus more pictures afterwards is overkill. Also 10 mins each is too long for spotlight dances so hopefully your dance floor will open sooner.
    We are doing a small cake for us to cut and sheet cakes (in the same flavors and quality) for everyone else so they will be pre-cut in the kitchen before we cut the cake.

     Our photography package was for 8 hours, they threw in 2 extra hours as a "signing bonus", I imagine the 3 hours will include some getting ready photos. We certainly don't have to do any pictures afterwards if they all get done before. I would personally love that.

    It is 10 minutes total for 2 songs, again I padded the time a little. Idk what FH and FMIL will dance to but I know my dad's and my dance takes a little over 2 minutes. 

    mrsconn23 said:
    missJeanLouise said:
    mrsconn23 said:
    Whenever I go to a wedding, the first thing I do I find my seat and I dump my stuff (purse, wrap, etc.) and then go to find a drink.  
    Perfect. I was a little worried about not giving people a true hour for cocktails and then having dinner delayed by them finding their seats, hence the 20 minute buffer of the receiving line. I think a 7pm dinner would make everything run just a little smoother. 
    You could also put a sign with the placecards that says, "Please find your seat and then join us for cocktail hour."  

    Just because sometimes you have to lead a horse to water.  ;) 
    I think we'll have an announcement made shortly before 7 and I will mention to FSIL to start a trend of finding your seat early. She good at that sort of thing.
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    ILoveBeachMusicILoveBeachMusic member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    missJeanLouise said:
    ILoveBeachMusic said:
    You could also cut your cake earlier (before dinner). That allows the caterer to cut the cake and have it ready to be served or set out. I personally think that 3 hours of pictures before the ceremony plus more pictures afterwards is overkill. Also 10 mins each is too long for spotlight dances so hopefully your dance floor will open sooner.
    We are doing a small cake for us to cut and sheet cakes (in the same flavors and quality) for everyone else so they will be pre-cut in the kitchen before we cut the cake.

     Our photography package was for 8 hours, they threw in 2 extra hours as a "signing bonus", I imagine the 3 hours will include some getting ready photos. We certainly don't have to do any pictures afterwards if they all get done before. I would personally love that.

    It is 10 minutes total for 2 songs, again I padded the time a little. Idk what FH and FMIL will dance to but I know my dad's and my dance takes a little over 2 minutes. 

    mrsconn23 said:
    missJeanLouise said:
    mrsconn23 said:
    Whenever I go to a wedding, the first thing I do I find my seat and I dump my stuff (purse, wrap, etc.) and then go to find a drink.  
    Perfect. I was a little worried about not giving people a true hour for cocktails and then having dinner delayed by them finding their seats, hence the 20 minute buffer of the receiving line. I think a 7pm dinner would make everything run just a little smoother. 
    You could also put a sign with the placecards that says, "Please find your seat and then join us for cocktail hour."  

    Just because sometimes you have to lead a horse to water.  ;) 
    I think we'll have an announcement made shortly before 7 and I will mention to FSIL to start a trend of finding your seat early. She good at that sort of thing.
    You could still cut the cake at the beginning. That makes sense about the getting ready photos. I was thinking all that time was for group pictures prior to the ceremony.
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