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Wedding Reception Forum
Budget & Timeline Conflict: After-Party or Traditional Reception?
We have our heart set on a ceremony venue for our 75-person wedding, with one major downside: We have to be cleaned up & off the property by 8pm. This means, I imagine, planning for dinner to end at 7. As we have many guests coming from out of state & possibly out of the country, we don't want people to feel like they have to end their evenings at this point & cut any conversations short. Initially, we were thinking of hosting an after-party at our vacation rental space where guests could continue to mingle until the later hours of the night (and we would shuttle them to their hotels).
However, I feel like we may be pressed for time if we proceed this way, even though it's more budget-conscious than hosting a traditional reception at a second venue. It seems like we'd need to have our ceremony at 1pm with a 4pm dinner (buffet-style, I imagine this taking 1.5 hours) while speeches are being given, then a cake cutting. My impression is that this may not leave very much time for the party/dancing (though I'm not sure how critical dancing is, for this group of guests).
I would appreciate any feedback on this, for brides that had the perfect venue & imperfect timeline!
However, I feel like we may be pressed for time if we proceed this way, even though it's more budget-conscious than hosting a traditional reception at a second venue. It seems like we'd need to have our ceremony at 1pm with a 4pm dinner (buffet-style, I imagine this taking 1.5 hours) while speeches are being given, then a cake cutting. My impression is that this may not leave very much time for the party/dancing (though I'm not sure how critical dancing is, for this group of guests).
I would appreciate any feedback on this, for brides that had the perfect venue & imperfect timeline!
Re: Budget & Timeline Conflict: After-Party or Traditional Reception?
With your timing, I would serve the meal somewhere around 2:30/3:00. People are traveling and at an event, they will adjust to a non-traditional meal time. Then after the meal, you have plenty of time for people to socialize and dance if they want to.
You could certainly open your space up as an after-party for anyone who wants to attend, but not rushing to it straight from dinner will leave it really feeling like a true after party and people won't feel obligated to attend. For a lot of people, ceremony at 1 and reception until 7/8 is a long day, especially with travel.
But if you really want a dinner reception with dancing into the late evening, then you will need to pick a different venue.
Otherwise, you need to unset your heart and look for another venue that can accommodate your desired schedule.