Reception schedule

[caribqueen]

What was or will be your reception timeline?

I''m interested to know things like:
When will you do the first dance?
How long will your reception last?
How many speeches are you thinking of allowing and why?
How long for dancing?
Will you do father/daughter dance only or also mother/son dance?
When will you do the cake cutting?

Anything else you think of...

I ask this, because I just met with my dj and he brought up some interesting points that I will now factor into my planning and info that I pass to him. It would be great to hear from other planners and those who''ve already gone through it.

TIA

 

[sunnyd]

Our reception, starting after the cocktail hour, lasted 3.5 hours I believe. Our order was like this:

Dinner
Toasts
Cake
First Dance
Father/daughter, mother/son dances
Dancing because we nixed the bouquet/garter toss due to time constraints
Bouquet/garter toss thrown back in!

More dancing

Advice - everything takes longer than you think. Also, be wary when the groom allows each of his groomsmen to toast. While nice, toasting for a half hour was boring!

If you can, assign someone (wedding planner or the DJ) to keep time and make sure things stay on track. My DJ failed in this area and I ended up playing timekeeper, which was NOT FUN and horribly stressful on my day. Or just drink enough so that you don''t care.

 

[laughwithme]

This is all sort of a guess-timate as we haven''t really planned our reception details yet, but here is the general overview - - -

6:15-7pm - cocktail hour, appetizers for guests
7pm - bridal party arrives, "grand entrance"
Buffet Dinner
Toasts - Best Man, Maid of Honor, one of the groomsmen, groom''s dad, bride''s dad (total of 5)
First Dance
Father Daughter Dance
Mother Son Dance
Cake cutting (we are doing this before dancing because our cake cutting song is an upbeat party song and we want to get everyone going!)
Free for all dancing...
...mid-evening, bouquet and garter toss
...more dancing until 11pm!

 

[purselover]

After the cocktail hour we had a 4 hour reception, this is how it went:

Everyone sat down ordered dinner and more drinks and had their champagne flutes filled
DH and I were announced
I said a few words, DH said a few words
2 people gave toasts
We ate dinner
We cut the cake
Had our first dance
Ate the cake
Everyone danced

The DJ, my mom, and venue kept trying to convince me to move up the first dance but I really liked the dea of doing it after the cutting of the cake so that way while we danced the cake could be cut and the more formal dinner part would be over. The idea of everyone sitting there waiting for dinner and watching us dance made me so uncomfortable and I think the way we did it turned out well.

 

[caribqueen]

Thanks! The input helps a lot. (I was beginning to think no one else had/will have a reception). lol

I don''t want to have to keep time and an area of contention with my parents is how many people to toast. I say after Welcome from 1) Bride''s Father, 2) Best Man, 3) Maid of Honor and 4) family member from Bride, and 5) family member from Groom. But the parents want 1 from each side of my family for a total of 6 people speaking. (BTW: FI''s father is not in the picture).

I''m like ugghhh!!

 

[elrohwen]

Geez, I don't even remember! Shows how much thought I put into it

I believe we entered and did the first dance. Then sat down to start eating. At some point between courses (I think) the BM and MOH did their toasts, but after that I don't really remember. Our dj just coordinated everything at the times he felt were appropriate. We also did pub trivia, but I put a friend in charge of that so she kept the dj moving and told him when to ask the next question.

In my opinion, it really didn't matter what order we did things. Haha. As long as it got done and someone told me to do it, I don't think anybody noticed when, specifically, we did things.