Help - How are we gonna keep 100 people entertained and fed for 13hrs!

mjonline

Hi everyone

Apologies in advance for a ridiculously long post – I hope you make it to the end, with hopefully some great advice to follow J

So my lovely fianc! and I will be getting married in August 2012, yippee! We have our Church and Reception venue booked, which is great, however the timings of everything is a bit manic.

Here are some background factors which need to be considered prior to any responses:

It is now too late to change our ceremony venue. We require a church venue due to our religious beliefs, but due to a number of logistical factors, my fathers ill health being the primary consideration, we're marrying outside of our parish. As such, to be able to marry in August 2012, in a church outside our parish we need to attend 6months of church services, a minimum of 2x per month. A church ceremony is imperative for us, this cannot be changed. Due to the legal requirements re attendance, it is now too late to chose another church.

On the date that we have set, our church only has availability at 11am, due to other ceremony's taking place throughout the day. We had hoped for a start time between 11am and 1pm to ensure we got tons of photos during different parts of what I hope will be a glorious bank holiday weekend, so this isn't too tragic.

However, this means that we have now got the unenviable task of keeping 100 people fed, watered and entertained for 13hours, yes, you read that right 13 HOURS lol!

We would really value your guidance on how to make this achievable, enjoyable and most importantly affordable for all. I’ve detailed below our rough timings for the day, however if you can offer alternatives which you believe would be better please speak up, all advice and guidance appreciated!

10:30 - Pre ceremony- Harpist
11am - Ceremony – (NB: Neither the Church nor the ceremony time can be moved)
11:45am Photographs –
12:15- Drinks and canap! reception (For those not in formal photos) – Harpist also playing in the background during this time.
2pm - Wedding breakfast (2 courses) and Speeches (We’re only going for 2 courses as we’re struggling to get the venue to come down on their prices, we’ve negotiated, the canap!s and 2 courses, for the original price of a full 3 courses) I don’t want a buffet this is why we’re having a formal sit down meal...
5pm – Two options
A) - Break/Recess
For all guests who have travelled from afar and have accommodation either at the venue or close by which is approximately 80% of party)
we will suggest that they retire to their rooms/hotels to freshen up and relax before the evening entertainment

- Garden games/sports day/Pub quiz/Mr & Mrs quiz/Karoke
For those guests who are local, but not close enough to go home and so do not have hotel accommodation we are thinking to do a mixture of 1 or some of the above suggestions. All them apart from the Karoke I think can be done quite cheaply – Would especially value thoughts and suggestion on what our lovely guest can do in this section
7:30pm – Evening do starts, with a DJ
8:30pm – BBQ catering (chicken, hotdogs, burgers, fish, and salad) for approx 50% - i.e catering for 50 people .
12am- Bed!


So as you can see, its a long day, and lot of food and drinks to cater for - any thoughts on how to cut this down bearing in mind that

1 - Neither the start time, nor venues are negotiable
2 – I don’t want to have a buffet wedding breakfast

Many thanks in advances formidable MSE’ers! J

:beer:

Crowdpleaser

It sounds fine. i think you will have to accept though that some people who have travveled far, are elderly or who have kids will leave early as its a very very long day! I think a quiz is a good option. Prob not karaoke as i doubt people will be drunk enough yet lol! Consider maybe finishing the eve at 11? anyone who wants to carry on could do so in the hotel bar???

elliebobs

Perhaps I'm missing something or the weddings I've been to have been strange but I can't see what the problem is with your timings.

If you have 100 guests then the odds are that they will amuse themselves whilst you are busy. To that extent you may be worrying unncessarily.

Both inbetween options seem fine to me; if people want to nip off for a quick freshen up/nap then they can do so but if they want to stop and talk to Great Uncle Fred then again, they can do so.

I've no doubt that you'll find that you'll actually run out of time!

Unless you have a large amount of young children attending and it's tipping it down with rain then I honestly think it will be fine.

I know you want to make sure that your guests don't get bored but honestly, I've been to loads of weddings and none have had karaoke or quizzes and I've never once looked at my watch and tutted that things were moving too slow!

Perhaps others here can give you a bit more advice but, from me I would say, relax...your guests will have a great time regardless.

sweetilemon

Might be a bit early for kareoke but you'll know your guests. I think asking people to go to their rooms or sit in the bar would be fine. You could maybe provide some pimms or something? Not too alcoholic but at least they've been provided with a drink, or keep the tea and coffees for this time? Even the cake cutting of and serving of the cake?

shinytrousers

Hi, I've not made myself known on this forum yet. I get married in October and like you I have an early ceremony - mine's 11.30am.

My sister-in-law said that her only regret about her wedding was having the ceremony too late and the whole day feeling like one big rush, trying to cram everything in and not having chance to speak properly to all of the guests.

I really wouldn't worry about keeping everyone entertained all day, you sound like you have plenty to do already. A little break in the middle of the day may be a good thing for your guests who have travelled a long way - they can pop off and have a nap for an hour or two s they're all refreshed and up for a party in the evening.

Hope you have a fab day x x

BugglyB

Really don't worry about it. People expect weddings to be a lot of standing around and chatting, and waiting, and standing around

daisiegg

I also think it sounds fine. You've worried me about the church though - I am getting married in a parish I don't live in (although it's my parents' parish and I grew up there) and they haven't mentioned anything about having to attend church services leading up to the wedding!

neilcrook

Timings aren't bad.
I don't particularly like breaks in weddings but that's personal preference, i went to one last year where there was a 2 hour break inbetween meal and evening and as we weren't staying at the hotel and most of the other guests were we were left alone for 2 hours which really dragged.

If your worried about it dragging why don't you move your meal time till 3.30/4.00 - likelihood is that it will last at least an hour (speeches another half an hour, cake cutting 15 mins so could take you to 5/5.30) which means there's less time for guests to get bored and means your canapes will have settled enough for people to be hungry again.

Daisiegg - don't worry - you can get married in your parents parish without attending the church for 6 months.

Hollie84

I think it sounds fine.
We get married at 11.30 out of the church by say 12.15 a few pics (our FIL is photographer so dont want loads of pics at the church) 40 min journey to the venue 1.20 the majority of the pics here so 2.30 then 3 course wedding breakfast and speeches 5pm,then the evening doesnt start till 7,majority of guests are staying over so gives time for check in and loads more pics and time to let our food go down,freshen up etc.
food for evening will then be served about 8.30

Idiophreak

There's a bar there, right? That's normally what entertains people between the meal and the evening do.

Seriously, some people will pop to their rooms, some girls will change. Some people will chat, some people will drink. It's really not a biggie...

White_Sapphire

I think you'll be fine; like Idio says, there's a hotel bar.... Unless you're in the middle of nowhere, you could let people know about any local places of interest in case people don't want to sit in the bar or go to their rooms. Just places like a nice park, cafes etc?

Don't feel that you have to entertain everyone for every minute of the day; a lot of the guests won't have seen each other for a while so they will quite happily chat for a couple of hours.