Saturday, May 7, 2011

All in good time

"Thank you for sharing in the celebration of our love and commitment on our wedding day."

I recently set up a meeting with our reception vendors and it got me to thinking about a timeline. Of course, I would think about time because with our jobs (working at a newspaper) we're always thinking about time and making deadlines. So, I pulled out my wedding planning book and according to it a typical reception timeline follows this format:

Hour one:
-Guests arrive at reception site.
-Cocktail hour begins while wedding party finishes photos
-Guests sign guest book & pick up place cards
-Guests enter ballroom & take seats

Hour two:
-Wedding party is introduced
-Bride & groom are introduced
-First dance
-Relative or friend says grace
-Father of the bride offers welcome toast
-Guests take seats for first course - kicked off by toast by best man

Hour three:
-Maid of honor offers toast
-Father/daughter dance
-Mother/son dance
-Bridal party dance
-Main course is cleared. Open dancing begins. (Plan on 30 minutes of dancing before cutting the cake)

Hour four:
-Cake cutting
-Open dancing
-Bouquet toss
-Garter toss

Hour five:
-Last dance
-Bride & groom say farewell

It looks pretty good to me. I doubt I'll change much with this except that our reception will be six hours instead of four so I might have to do some adjusting here and there unless we shorten our reception time.

-Penny

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