Friday wedding...not sure what to do about reception..

Feanor

Hi everyone

So we are pretty sure on Fri 15th Nov, just got to tie everything up with the venue this weekend.

I am confused about what to do about the reception though and hoping you might have some ideas for me

For the actualy civil ceremony, we only really want close family and friend there (about 16 poeple inc us).

The problem is my OH really wants all of our friends to be at the reception, for speeches/meal etc and I just don't know how to work this out.
Has anyone had an evening sit down meal before?

We think we will invite a further 60 people to the evening part, so not sure how many will actually come.
I like the idea of them all being there for the speeches and thank you's etc, but I don't know how to communicate to them that they woudl need to be there by a certain time, I guess 7 or 7.30pm?

I am scared people won't realise we would be paying for them to have their seat/meal etc and just casually turn up on the Fri night after work or not at all!
I think most people could realistically get there definitely by 8pm.

I'm just not sure how we can work it out!

bubbles0169

you could word it on the invite something along the lines of
'please join us at (insert time) at (insert place)

to celebrate our marriage with

the cutting of the cake

the speeches

and a three course meal

Alibear

We're doing something similar; family and bridal party at the ceremony and wedding breakfast, everyone else from about 5pm (ish) to listen to speeches etc. We'll be having two 'waves' of evening buffet, one ready for 5pm and a second later in the evening for people who couldn't make it earlier. Ours is a Friday wedding too and we thought this would work so people would only have to take a half day off work if they wanted. We'll be explaining that we only want an intimate wedding but want all our friends to celebrate straight after.

Feanor

bubbles0169 wrote: »

you could word it on the invite something along the lines of
'please join us at (insert time) at (insert place)

to celebrate our marriage with

the cutting of the cake

the speeches

and a three course meal

Ooh this is a good idea, thank you!
I also thought about putting a check box to say something like:

* Tick here to attend meal, cake and speeches from 5pm (for example)

* Tick her to attend evening celebration from 7pm etc

Feanor

Alibear wrote: »

We're doing something similar; family and bridal party at the ceremony and wedding breakfast, everyone else from about 5pm (ish) to listen to speeches etc. We'll be having two 'waves' of evening buffet, one ready for 5pm and a second later in the evening for people who couldn't make it earlier. Ours is a Friday wedding too and we thought this would work so people would only have to take a half day off work if they wanted. We'll be explaining that we only want an intimate wedding but want all our friends to celebrate straight after.

Glad I am not alone

So what time is your ceremony going to be?

Two waves of buffet is a good idea too!

darkrev

Feanor wrote: »

Hi everyone

So we are pretty sure on Fri 15th Nov, just got to tie everything up with the venue this weekend.

I am confused about what to do about the reception though and hoping you might have some ideas for me

For the actualy civil ceremony, we only really want close family and friend there (about 16 poeple inc us).

The problem is my OH really wants all of our friends to be at the reception, for speeches/meal etc and I just don't know how to work this out.
Has anyone had an evening sit down meal before?

We think we will invite a further 60 people to the evening part, so not sure how many will actually come.
I like the idea of them all being there for the speeches and thank you's etc, but I don't know how to communicate to them that they woudl need to be there by a certain time, I guess 7 or 7.30pm?

I am scared people won't realise we would be paying for them to have their seat/meal etc and just casually turn up on the Fri night after work or not at all!
I think most people could realistically get there definitely by 8pm.

I'm just not sure how we can work it out!

Congratulations, We are doing something similar on the 3rd of October( we had 63 days to plan)
The decision we made is registry office ( in another county)
, Any one can attend,
drinks across rd for half and hr to see guests not invited to meal,
meal by invite only with menu and booking in advance,
then an open house at inlaws with drinks and nibbles later for all those people u cant afford to invite but who want to come! Hope you have a lovely day.

74jax

This is what we are doing also. I haven't thought of wording as yet but it would be something like:

Venue - x y z
Time 7pm drinks reception for meal at 7.30pm

neilcrook

Was at a wedding on Saturday and they got married at 4pm. It was nicely tied in and flowed easily...

4pm service followed by some snacks and wine
5pm Optional tour (it was at a brewery)
6.30 Meal
7.30 Band played for an hour and a half
9pm Cake cut and speeches
9.30 Disco till close

Alibear

Feanor wrote: »

Glad I am not alone

So what time is your ceremony going to be?

Two waves of buffet is a good idea too!

Our ceremony's at 2pm (I think?!) we have the same venue for the whole day though, so that does make it easier.

You're definitely not alone, we started drawing up invitation lists and it was getting ridiculous, then family members start piping up about how it would be 'really nice' if we invited so-and-so or 'if you invite them, you HAVE to invite him too' etc, so we drew the line at immediate family and bridal party. Still 40 people though!

swimsink

My best friend went to a wedding last friday, the wedding wasn't until 5, then they had a sit down then the reception went into the late evening/night with a buffet. Aparantly as unusual as it was it was great!