What Order Are You Doing?

[jeffandrobyn 82]

What order are you doing things at your reception? For example dinner first, then party or dancing mixed in between courses? something else? I have a 3 hour reception and want to make the best use of the time. Here's what we were thinking: 

 

Entrance

First Dance

Two dance songs

Serve appetizer and salad

father/daughter and mother/son dance inbetween  

toast

Serve dinner

cake cutting 

dancing 

[acw271011 1,763]

That sounds ok to me. It gets everyone moving a bit before they have dinner, but after appetizers/salad. As much as we want to feed people, I think the party is the most important part of it all! lol But that's just me....

 

Gee - you're only a month away now! It's getting close!

[yycbride2016 752]

@@jeffandrobyn

Sounds good! I think for me, I would probably replace the two dance songs with the father/daughter mother/son dances. But thats probably just me speaking from my stomach haha. I feel like id be hungry and want to do the food before group dancing. You just have to figure out maybe based on the time of the wedding and reception to see if people would be hungry by the time of the reception I think.

[TinkerSofi 2,028]

This is what we're doing: 

 

Entrance

First dance

Dinner

father/daughter dance, mother/son dance

party starts

cake cutting

party continues

bouquet toss

party continues

maybe garter toss (depends how tipsy we are at the time haha)

party continues. 

 

I don't think there are any rules and you can do whatever you want but in my opinion it's better to have the party continue rather than breaking it up with dinner in between. The reason for that is that it takes a bit of warming up for the party to get started and every time you go back to eat then you have to get the party started again afterwards. I think it would take away from both, your party and also the dinner because people will be eating anxiously so they can get back to partying, without truly enjoying the food. That's just my opinion but of course doesn't mean that I'm right. You should do what makes you and your fiance happy

 

I forgot to add when we'd be doing toasts. Sometime after the main course starts and dessert . that way everyone's belly is full but no one is yet so anxious to get dancing that they don't listen to what people have to say

Edited June 12, 2015 by TinkerSofi

[calgarybride2015 3,513]

I think it looks good, but I agree with the poster above that I would probably replace the 2 dance songs with the mother/son father/daughter dances.   Dancing then dinner may be an odd start/stop as that is getting the party started, then cutting into it for something large like dinner.

 

Here is an idea of our day (ha I just cut/paste it from my review) I think it worked well for us, but we had a 6 hour reception. 

TIMELINE  (this is a general idea, some of it’s a blur)

9:00am – everyone had breakfast together (Shawn and I didn’t part until after breakfast)

10:00am-1:30pm hair/makeup appointments and quick lunch at the spa

1:30pm-2:00pm Men have getting ready photos, Bridesmaid’s get ready

2:10pm-2:40pm Kim getting ready photos, photos with bridesmaids and garden shots alone

2:40pm – 3:00pm Drive to ceremony location and organization of bridal party for entrance

3:00pm-3:30pm ceremony & toast (possibly shorter)

3:30pm-4:00pm group and family photos

4:00pm-5:00pm bride/groom shots – guests had cocktail hour with mariachi band

5:00-5:30pm? Entrance, housekeeping, speeches

5:30pm-6:30pm buffet dinner (probably shorter)

6:30-6:40pm people introduced themselves, thank you from bride/groom

6:40-7:00pm all dances (bride/groom, parent’s dances, etc.)

7:00-8:00pm PARTY!

8:00pm-8:10pm cake cutting

8:10pm-8:30pm any photos people wanted with bride/groom before photographer left and PARTY

8:30pm-11:00pm PARTY

 

OHHHHHH and 1 month today! OMG you must be so excited.

Edited June 12, 2015 by calgarybride2015

[KayRae 33]

Hi! Congrats everyone on the upcoming weddings. Wish you all the best of luck!! I got married in January at Secrets Maroma Beach and this is the order that we did for our reception. Reception was 4 hours long (5:30-9:30, sunset at 5:30)...

 

Started off with entrance/announcement of the wedding party and my husband and I. Went straight to 1st dance followed by father/daughter dance and then mother/son dance. Afterwards we sat for dinner. Speeches were done during the main course (best man, MOH, my father) . After dinner they opened up the dance floor for 3o min or so if I had to guess (hard to keep track of time), then did cake cutting. Then danced until around 8:30 and did the bouquet and garter toss (because photographer time was up at 830). And then danced afterwards till the end. We just went with the flow through according to the photographer time and also let the MC do his thing.

[KayRae 33]

Hi! Congrats everyone on the upcoming weddings. Wish you all the best of luck!! I got married in January at Secrets Maroma Beach and this is the order that we did for our reception. Reception was 4 hours long (5:30-9:30, sunset at 5:30)...

 

Started off with entrance/announcement of the wedding party and my husband and I. Went straight to 1st dance followed by father/daughter dance and then mother/son dance. Afterwards we sat for dinner. Speeches were done during the main course (best man, MOH, my father) . After dinner they opened up the dance floor for 3o min or so if I had to guess (hard to keep track of time), then did cake cutting. Then danced until around 8:30 and did the bouquet/garter toss (because photographer time was up at 830). And then danced afterwards till the end. I didn't really come up.with a timeline ahead of time, just kind of went with the flow and the MC did a great job of keeping everything moving.

[Lia33 95]

I'm currently trying to figure out my timeline! Our reception is from 6-10. So far I have:

 

Guests arrival

Intro of wedding party

Intro of bride and groom

First dance

Father/daughter dance

Dinner/speeches/toasts

Party starts

Cake cutting

More party time

 

Not 100% set on the order. I figured dinner can wait a little since people will have had snacks and drinks during cocktail hour right before. Also not sure how much time to give for each thing but I have to come up with an estimated timeline. I kinda wanted to get the 'must-do's out of the way early so that once people start dancing there will be minimal interruption or does it help to have a little interruption? I don't know lol

[AdamnJenn17 12]

It is good to have an order but let things flow through the night - its a time for celebration and relaxation