Talk to me about your AHR

For our DW, there will only be a small group of 10, including FI and myself. We're hosting a pretty elaborate and large AHR one week after we get back from Mexico.

We are expecting about 140ish people, we're holding it in a ballroom at a nice hotel, having a lovely plated dinner with lots of drinks! and basically, the rest of thing will be just like a traditional wedding...sans the ceremony!

The whole theme of the evening is going to be Old Hollywood (as we both LOVE movies and music) and we have this awesome "Hollywoods Best Kisses" reel (x2) that will play during cocktail hour. My cousin is going to be our "MC" and she has been in like 30 weddings...so she's going to do the whole "wardrobe change" before every introduction speech! The Bridal Party will be wearing their fancy shmancy outfits again...cake cutting, first dance, garter toss, bouquet toss...all of it.

Though having both is expensive, I'm thrilled at the idea of both, and have pretty much planned the AHR already, so I shouldn't be TOO stressed by the time the big day(s) roll around.

I say...try to implement all the best elements from both you and FI's ideas of the AHR day...and really try to collaborate on it. Compromise. Me and FI have had a lot of fun together trying to plan the whole night, and I think it is going to be a LOT of fun!

We are having ours in May once my FI is out of school and can relax. Since we are getting married in Hawaii we are probably going to do a Luau in our backyard - very laid back. We have tons of family on the East coast so hopefully they can make it. If not then there is a chance we will have one here for our friends and family here and then have a picnic in PA for all the family out there. Either way it's going to be very laid back and relaxing and hopefully not a ton of money!

We are rent out a room in a bar/restaurant, paying for alcohol for a couple hours and a couple passed apps and getting a awesome cake and a dj. Just kind of having a party! yeah that we are married!! Kinda like a cocktail party. and I have a cut white jill stuart dress that I'm wearing instead of my dress.

I swore up and down that we wouldn't do an AHR and guess what? We had the whole shabang 2 weeks before our DW. Full synagogue ceremony and almost a full blown reception. The only thing was that we kept it as non-traditional as we wanted. It was on a Sunday afternoon, there was no first dance or any other "official" wedding reception type stuff, no official MC and no cake. I did wear a wedding dress (different one than in Cancun) and wedding party did wear their attire (hubby insted we rent tuxes for him, the guys and the dads but I insisted on no vests) and the flowers were minimal! We had the photographer only at the synogogue where he took ceremony pics and family portraits. I guess we're lucky in that at a Russian restaurant (where we had the reception) music is "included" so there was no issue with hiring a DJ. All in all, it deffinitely felt more like a party then a wedding which is exactly what we wanted. We wound up having 100 people and it was loads of fun!!!!! Wouldn't have done it any other way since our DW wound up being very small and intimate (16 people total). I guess we also got lucky in that the gifts everyone brought covered our costs almost down to the last penny which helped a ton!

We're having a cocktail party reception about 6 months after the wedding. We're renting a hall and having a DJ but no photographer, no flowers at this point. The wedding party will all be wearing the same clothes. We'll have heavy appetizers, cocktails and dancing. We're having it on a Friday night about 7pm and pretty much hope everyone comes has some appetizers, drinks and dancing and enjoys themselves. We'll also have pictures from the wedding to show everyone. I think it can be as formal or informal as you want to make it.

We're going to have our AHR in August, and it's going to be rather large. We're expecting approx. 250-300 guests, live band, dancing, food, drinks, and just a good time! We're having it at my girlfriends home. Very laid back celebration, but with everyone we love!

I have given a lot of thought to this, and i decided to have about 60 people at the AHR. I was thinking a package at a restaurant---no music though---just a good dinner with apps, cake, etc. Do I have all the people who went to the wedding in mexico also go to the AHR? What is the rule on that?

We found this awesome loft space in downtown cleveland. It will be great just heavy appetizers and drinks. I let him pick the entertainment so we'll see how that turns out

Ok well I'm really having a hard time planning this whole AHR thing We are paying for everything, so I need to keep the budget down. For those of you who planned smaller parties, how did you limit the guest list without hurting anyone's feelings? And when did you send out the invites if you had a delayed reception?