last minute ques for order of events (reception)

[janinegirly]

just looking for some feedback from those who know weddings more than me (I''ve only been to 1-2 so a lot of what i''ve learned has been from the internet!).

we are doing the traditiona intros followed by bride and groom dance, and then parent dances.
My question is--how can I make it flow into the parent dances without it seeming like an assembly line of dances? Does the band fill in a few minutes with chatting or have others dance and then segway into parent dances?
just curious....

also when do toasts typically occur and in which order (my dad and the best man are giving them).

i know a lot of this is up to me, but i''d like to get a sense of the "typical" order so i have something to base things off of.

 

[sumbride]

I had a lot of problems with this too, so I decided to split them up a bit. This may or may not work for you, but here''s how I''m doing it:

intro of wedding party
entrance of bride & groom
first dance
open dancing
a little while later...
toats
cake
father-daughter dance (while guests eat cake)
mother-son dance
revert to open dancing

That way it''s not "stand here and watch a bunch of dances". I agonized over it for about 2 weeks before I finally asked my DJ and he said this is the way it usually goes. Of course, we''re not having a plated dinner so we expect people to be moving through food/dance all night.

 

[jesterjigger]

We had our dances in a row, but we just had one parent dance...my dad and I started and after about 30 seconds C and his mom joined us on the dance floor, I too was worried about it being too long, lol. We did the toasts at the end of the meal, and then segweyed into the dancing from there, that way people were free to do whatever they wanted without thinking they were going to miss something by splitting it up too much.

 

[Elmorton]

We had an "ipod" reception - so without a DJ, the music was really what indicated the order of events, and it was 100% seamless - no pauses. My dad introduced the wedding party and us, and then the mic was used again for toasts and the announcement of the bouquet/garter toss But other than that, the music was what kept everything moving.

Our reception order went like this:

Bridal party entrance/Bride and Groom Entrance (same song)
there was still some of the entrance song left, so our BP found our seats as did after we entered (no head table)
then our first dance song started playing - we got up from our table and had our first dance
then as the next song started playing, we parted, DH''s mom and my dad joined us on the dance floor for the parent dance
(while we danced, we had a slideshow of us growing up - the slideshow started about 30 seconds in to our 1st dance and ended about 30 seconds before the parent dance ended- so people could watch something other than us dancing),
then we hugged our parents, another song started,
and we cut the cake as the waiters filled the champagne for toasts
then toasts (at the last wedding I went to, the parents went first, BM and MoH second - ours was MoH and then BM)
then dinner (jazz music played softly through dinner).

Some people do special dances after dinner to lead into the dancing segment- instead, we just dimmed the lights after dinner, a new playlist of dancing music started, and the volume went up. A few people came out to dance right away, and then DH and I announced the bouquet/garter toss about 3 songs in (I didn''t wear the garter, so we threw at the same time, had everyone out on the floor together), and after that, everyone stayed on the floor/came out to boogie down.

We didn''t have a lot of formal dances, and we just let the music guide the night (with the exception announcing the BP introduction, toasts, and the bouquet toss). Worked wonderfully!