Receiving Lines

Jen4948 · March 2018

CMGragain said:

Jen4948 said:

I'm not a receiving line fan either. I understand why they're used at larger receptions with more guests, but I get stiff while standing on lines waiting for them to move and there are always guests who get too chatty and long-winded, either with each other or when it's their turn to greet the couple.

How rude of the guests who do this!

I'm not sure if you're being sympathetic or sarcastic here, but it is annoying to be standing in a receiving line behind guests who hold things up because they're talking too long.

southernbelle0915 · March 2018

scribe95 said:

I have always preferred receiving lines as a guest because I have been to several weddings where I never got to chat with the couple during table visits. People move around, go to the bar and get a drink, go to the restroom etc. And it's easy to miss people. A receiving line I can choose to be in it as a guest or can bypass it.

This.

MRDCle · March 2018

STARMOON44 said:

MandyMost said:

I don't like receiving lines. The idea of standing in line to talk to someone at a social gathering just screams awkward to me. I've never not felt extremely socially awkward in a receiving line.

Table visits are another story. It seems natural to me to get up at a party and circulate among the guests--it's easier to simply say a nice "hello, thanks for coming" to the person you barely know and "OMG your dress is amazing, is this your new boyfriend, he's so cute" to your friend from college without feeling like someone's waiting in line to talk to you next, or as a guest, I don't feel forced to come up with more small talk until the person ahead of me is done.

I don't know where people get the idea that the bride and groom have to scarf down their dinners if they're doing table visits. It wasn't like that at all for my wedding. We were served first, and had plenty of time to eat before getting up to do the table visits between courses. Like any wedding (or dinner out at a nice restaurant) the courses don't come out rapid-fire where you're expected to be eating 100% of the time from start of the first course until the end of the last course; you just do the table visits between.

Table visits definitely do take more time than a receiving line, but they just seem so much more natural/less awkward to me.

At lots of weddings in between courses there’s dancing, which changes the time frame on this.

The way our dinner was set-up (stations), we almost missed a couple tables because by the time we got to them, they had finished eating and were up mingling, getting drinks, or had stepped out for a smoke. It was fairly small so you think table visits would be quick enough but we really did have to hurry through!

banana468 · March 2018

We did table visits too but it was definitely tricky.

The other part of table visits is as @LondonLisa said, doing them means you're going to eat FAST because you're getting up to visit seated guests. Guests are seated when they have food and they're up when they're done eating.

We did both a receiving line and table visits but it did mean that for table visits we didn't get everyone.

MissKittyDanger · March 2018

Another thing I'm pro table visit for is that if there's anyone unable to stand in a line.
For example, my nana has a walker - she wouldn't have been able to stand in receiving line. My aunt got her food at the buffet since she was unable to be in line.

MissKittyDanger · March 2018

banana468 said:

We did table visits too but it was definitely tricky.

The other part of table visits is as @LondonLisa said, doing them means you're going to eat FAST because you're getting up to visit seated guests. Guests are seated when they have food and they're up when they're done eating.

We did both a receiving line and table visits but it did mean that for table visits we didn't get everyone.

Or in the case of M and myself, we barely ate. Emotions running too high lol

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