As a wedding guest which would you prefer?

kitschkitty

We're on a tight budget but there is something that would be classed as entertainment that I really want. But the thing is to budget for it we would have to cut back on the evening buffet/food budget.

So the day would go

ceremony
followed by wedding breakfast for 30 guests
then
"entertainment" and
disco
small amount of buffet/snack/food for 65 to 75 people (as it turns out the entertainment can cater for our evening guests numbers too).

As an evening guest would you appreciate this extra "entertainment" if it meant you'd need to be available at 4pm or possibly 5pm (rather than just turning up to the disco at 8pm).

As an out of town day guest would you be happier being entertained all through the day rather than having several empty hours in the afternoon?

Trying to work out what my day guests would enjoy and if many evening guests would bother to turn up for extra entertainment!

VK-2008

i think just turning up as an evening guest at bk of 7ish for disco and buffet is fine.
you will end up people pleasing if you try and compromise adding extra stress to your day

jess444_2

Hi,
hard to say without knowing what the entertainment involves. However, I hate that time between the wedding breakfast and the evening, so any entertainment would be welcome. I think it would be quite nice to be invited a bit earlier to the evening 'do' - especially if you also went along to see the wedding.
We are currently planning my daughters wedding (also on a tight budget) so would be very interested in what you decide.
Jess

aliasojo

Ooooh..it depends on what the 'entertainment' is....is it a balloon modeller man? Is it...is it? I'd like a yellow duck please.:rotfl:

Lol seriously though, I think turning up early might be a problem for the evening guests, especially those who work or need babysitters.

garthdp

Feed your day guests and tell the evening ones there will be no buffet so eat before you come.

Weddings are often far too expensive and cost the newly weds more than they can afford.If they are your friends and family they wont mind

Gemmzie

You can only pick one option on the poll so it doesn't make much sense.

As a day guest, I'd like the option to do something in the afternoon but remembering that those with children (if you have any) might want that opportunity to get them to have a nap etc.

As an evening guest, I wouldn't want to be available from 5pm if I wasn't going to get a decent amount of food that evening - it sounds like the buffet will be small.

bubbles0169

im with gemm
that is very early to go to an event, getting ready to be there for that time would mean having a very early tea as most buffets dont start til 8pm ish
i'd just have the entertainment for the day guests

maggie111

Umm I'm slightly confused and dying to know what the entertainment is! As a guest at any wedding I would like to be there for as long as possible. If I could only be invited as an evening guest I'd be pretty chuffed to be able to go at 4pm as long as I was getting fed. To be honest, I'm not a party person, so I would enjoy being able to go before the music was loud so I would be able to say congratulations and you would be able to hear it

Edit - you did say you could provide a small amount of food and that isn't good enough for me to turn up at 4pm.

(And to be honest, if you're asking people to turn up at 7.30 and there's a buffet at 8 depending on what time you feed your day guests I don't think a 'small' buffet is going to go down so well then either. Well, it'll go down too well if you know what I mean!)

nozzy6

I would skip the entertainment, the day guests will probably just take the opportunity to have a quiet drink and a chat amongst themselves and the evening guests will have a decent buffet to look forward to.

Depending on your venue a set of giant jenga or something is fun to have a play on but personally I think spend the money on the food!

kitschkitty

Arghhhhhhhhhhh stupid computer just deleted my reply *sigh*

I didn't get any sleep last night and this is not improving my mood (and hence me messing up the poll a bit - sorry )

It wouldn't be any more stress at all so that's not an issue.

OK, so I don't think any of my guests will be reading this board so I will share with you all!

The "entertainment" would be our own private double decker red bus taking us on a tour of the city followed by a trip along the seafront!

If we cut back on the buffet budget (which I think is extortionate for what we are getting anyway) we could afford it.

I had wanted it to entertain our day guests (most of whom are from outside the city) as I was a bit concerned about the empty afternoon hours but it turns out it can actually seat pretty much all our guests and as it is a fixed price I thought it would be nice to invite our evening guests too (and in a sense better value for money too)!

We're having a small registry office ceremony so don't really want to/can't afford to invite more people to that and can't afford to pay for more guest to the wedding breakfast either.

I suppose really it's hard to justify any part of a wedding budget though, and you just prioritise what's most important to you and spend more on that.

In our 30 day day guests there is only 1 baby and 1 child if they come. More kids are invited in the evening.

I too was a bit worried about no extra evening guests wanting to come, so really wondering if it's still a good idea (based on our day guest numbers) as I originally thought, or if I was just getting carried away with the idea as it's what I really want (would have been even better if it were an open top bus but then what if it rains lol).

The afternoon gap and time between meals is my bugbear at the moment anyway, so I just don't know what I'm up too!


I guess I just resent having to spend a fortune on food *sigh*

maggie111

I love the idea of a gap to be honest. The way I imagine the wedding going:

Busy morning getting ready, but mainly drumming my fingers waiting to get married.
Getting married
5 minutes after getting married to neck champagne and say a quick "hi!" to everyone
dragged off for photos
dragged back for wedding breakfast, which will be mainly spent separated from a lot of guests
quiet time - i get to walk round everyone and talk to them properly
disco, loud music and heavy drinking starts.

Although, if it were me I'd really consider the bus - and when you stop off at the seafront, I would have arranged a time with a chippy for your guests to stop in and grab a bag of chips! Got to be a pound each and you could have it by the sea!! To be honest, that sounds awesome and now I'm jealous!! And you could keep your buffet small because evening guests etc could fill themselves up then!!