After the bride and groom walk back down the aisle, what's next?

LOL my thoughts too! I was thinking about standing there saying thank you as people made their way to the patio for cocktail hour but i dont know is that weird. Im fallowing this for advice.

Hahaha I had a similar thought and then realized that we need to head to a room to sign our marriage license. All the weddings I've been to that were outside the couple leaves with their witnesses to sign it somewhere else and the guests head to cocktail hour. We'll sign it and then come back out to take photos with family and friends (we're doing first look photos and stuff like that before the ceremony) and cocktail hour.

I don't think that sounds like a bad idea for you! The question that came to mind with that idea was, some people like to take their time to get up after, so would greeting and thanking them take away from your photo time?

We are doing all of our photos before hand, first look and family pics. Wouldn't really be taking away from photo time. I just thought that was a good way to say hi and thank you to everyone right from the beginning so we don't have to be running around all night greeting people and can enjoy it.

It depends on if you want to do a receiving line or not. If you do want to do a receiving line, you just line up with your bridal party and talk to people as they file out of their seats. Otherwise, I would suggest you just head to wherever you're having pictures done or find a quiet spot away from the exiting crowd to celebrate/make out/breathe a sigh of relief/rally for the next part of the day/whatever else you need to do in the moment!

Our ceremony was in a garden/park area right outside the venue. We met our photographer at the end of the aisle and walked off to take portraits while the guests went to the venue's terrace for cocktail hour.

Oh! I like that idea, no standing around.

We got married on the beach and we had a similar situation. The guests came and congratulated us, then headed up for cocktail hour while we finished up a few pictures. It wasn't as awkward as it seemed like it would be.