Advice on separate space for ceremony cocktail hour/dinner and dance? Or what to do in the cold?

Ceremony and cocktails might work, but it gets chilly early in October. The dinner and dance need to be inside. Plus, have a plan B in case it rains.

But does anyone have ideas about what to do about this "third space" issue. I'm worried about the extra seating I'd have to rent (there would have to at least be a few cocktail tables upstairs and a few benches for people who want to watch the dancing but don't want to dance and for people who get tired), and about setting up two different bars or moving stuff from the downstairs bar to the upstairs bar (our caterer didn't seem to think this would work). If the dinner needs to be inside too, there just isn't room upstairs for it. Tents with heaters?

Fewer guest. Bingo, everyone fits. Your guests comfort comes first. Always.

My wedding is also on a farm and we basically have 2 areas. One for ceremony and then a barn for cocktail hour with a tent that is connected to that barn for reception and dancing.

It would be way to cold to be outside all day with no covering or tent and heaters. So that won't work. Is your only option dinner outside? If so I would say look for a different venue. We are not having a building hold our dinner and reception but we have a tent rented with sidewalls and we have a heater which I believe I am going to keep even though the low is 64 for the night.

Update: the barn area is supposed to fit "80 comfortably with dancing and band". I'm having a DJ, so that gives us a little more room. Although tbh, I've been up there and I don't see how we could possibly fit 80 people for a seated dinner, the buffet table, and a dance floor. Not to mention the logistics of servers going up and down the stairs to replenish the buffet table.. I think it would delay dinner service (it's gourmet pizza, so the pies will be rolling out at a constant flow). Dinner doesn't have to be outside... but it would just be so pretty. I think I'm going to shift everything up & make things earlier, so that cocktail hour is from 3:30 to 5, and dinner is served at 5. This way by sunset, everyone will be upstairs, cozy, and ready to dance. Low of 50 sounds cold, but this past Monday we had a high of 75, low of 50 (exact same historical average for 10/27 in this town). As long as the sun is out, it is BEAUTIFUL out, not too cold at all. It's when the sun goes down that the temperature drops. So this is what I'm counting on for now... Plus.. global warming is (unfortunately) on my side.

Invite fewer people or do it inside

Okay gals, most of these comments are incredibly unhelpful. "nothing. you do nothing the cold" "fewer guests"... 50 is too cold sun or not ( I just said it doesn't drop to 50 if the sun is out and it's actually really nice out.) This is my first time posting on this kind of forum... I thought it would be a much more collaborative and positive atmosphere. Thanks to the couple of people who actually gave thoughtful responses.

50 degrees is too cold for the reception. I would definitely be ready to leave after 30mins. If you a set on going this route, please at least inform your guests that it will be held outside so they can plan accordingly.

@ Kirsten - Nope. I asked for ideas, solutions, if anyone had this kind of experience. I'm not trying to start an argument on wedding wire... as if wedding planning isn't stressful enough. I get it, 50 degrees is cold. I never said I'd be making my guests sit outside in 50 degree weather. Ive talked about space heater solutions & brining everyone inside well before it would be cold. someone told me walls would be needed for a tent to contain heat with heating lamps (that's something helpful I didn't know). There's a difference.

Do you have any pictures of the venue? That might help some of us get a better idea, and then we can give you suggestions.

You find a space that comfortably fits all of your guests and make sure it's fucking heated. If I'm not mistaken 50 is about 10*C which is when I pull our my mitts in Autumn so no, you need another space or heaters, lots of heaters, to make the space at least 72.

So, we actually did have three separate spaces for ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. All were at the same venue and one space led into the other (ceremony in the outdoor courtyard, bar and cocktail hour just inside in the hotel's conservatory, which was right up against the entrance to the ballroom, where dinner and dancing were. The bar was just outside the ballroom doors and the same display tables in that area were used during dancing for servings slices of cake, coffee and tea bar, and serving late night snack. It wasn't an inconvenience to guests.

The difference here is that the two spaces for cocktail hour and the rest of the reception were both indoors and they were both right next to each other. PPs make a really good point that in October, it's very likely you'll need an I door backup option, or that your guests will be very uncomfortable as the evening progresses if you keep them outside. It will cool down.

Our plan worked well for us because it enabled us to have a very convenient indoor back up plan in case it was too cold or raining. We could decide the morning of if we wanted to move our ceremony indoors. It would have been held in the ballroom, then guests would have been ushered to the conservatory room for cocktail hour, just outside the ballroom where the bar was set up. During cocktail hour, hotel staff would flip the ballroom and set it up for dinner and dancing.

We almost had to use our backup plan.

What if it rains.

What if it rains.

What if it rains.

What if it rains.

Christina, I have a hard time believing it didn't occur to you that heaters by themselves, with nothing surrounding them to trap the heat in one space and thus raise the temperature of some mutually occupied space, would be completely pointless.

My first recommendation would be to talk to the owners of the venue. Find out how people with your size guest list have worked with that space. Ask them to show you layouts of how others have set up the space indoors so it maximizes useable space (the whole "comfortably fits 80 plus dancing and a band" thing). That might be your best bet. We're all just imagining your space, we have no idea what it looks like.

You also need to consider flow: flow for your vendors, flow for your guests, and for you. Again, hard to give you ideas on this since we really don't know what's where in your venue. Do they have a website you could link us to?

Lastly, weather. You can't control this, and you chose a venue that might leave you with issues if the weather isn't good. It won't matter how pretty the scenery is if it's too cold outside for anyone to enjoy it. If you want outside at that time of year, a tent is really a necessity, unfortunately.

I think you do have to plan for a worse case scenario. My sister's wedding was in late October as well, and her ceremony was outside - it was absolutely frigid.

If managing the three spaces seems like too much, it probably is. Stick with the outdoor area and rent a tent with some space heaters.