Afternoon Wedding -- Timeline ideas?

Your venue looks beautiful! I'm sorry I don't really have any ideas about the timeline though - I have given some thought to this as well, but haven't come up with anything. Good luck!

You could do something like this.

9:00 p.m. Guests head into the reception area.

9:05 p.m. The emcee introduces you and your groom. Once you’re in, start greeting guests!

9:10 p.m. Food stations open, and passed hors d’oeuvres start rolling out.

9:30 p.m. The first dance. Food service pauses.

9:35 p.m. The father-daughter and mother-son dances. Food service is still paused.

9:40 p.m. Food service resumes. If there will be dancing, an upbeat set would start now.

10:10 p.m. The toasts.

10:15 p.m. The cake cutting.

10:20 p.m. A couple of slow songs play as the staff cuts and plates the cake.

10:25 p.m. Cake is passed around.

10:40 p.m. The final dance set plays.

10:55 p.m. The last dance

Oh course just changes the times. Hope this helps.

As far as I can see... you are going to have a REALLY hard time with the FLOW of your event, regardless of the timeline.

For example... when it's time to do the few formal dances, how will your guests know?

How will you organize your guests for a grand exit? Believe it or not, one of the biggest challenges we experience as DJ's is not "what music to play next" but how to move dozens of people from one activity to another. Without a microphone and some sort of knowledge... you are going to encounter lots of resistance. Most likely your guests will resent this.

My brunch recpetion will be like this - We are not big dancers to we picked a time that people won't really dance

10:00am - 10:40am -- Ceremony

10:40am- 10:50am -- Everyone Directed to Rooftop

10:50am- 11:30am -- Momosa Hour

11:30am- 11:45am -- Everyone seated in Reception Hall

11:45am - 11:50am --Enterance and first dance

11:50am - 12:30pm --Brunch Buffet Served

12:30pm- 12:35pm --Cake Cutting

13:35pm - 2:00pm --Dessert Buffet served and dancing/mingling

We will have a sound system, and plan on having ushers and perhaps a 'Master of Ceremony.' I think the ushers and MOC will help things flow along and direct people, but I was just trying to map it all out. Other folks have had small afternoon weddings without a DJ, right? I'm starting to feel really nervous...

I'm having a 11:00 am ceremony with a cocktail hour and 4 hour brunch reception.

I am having a ceremony musician - a guitarist.

Early in my planning, I thought I didn't want a DJ/band for my reception - but quickly realized I would have to worry about people coming up and changing songs on the Ipod, guests being confused about what happens next, etc...

I decided to go with a DJ - I searched around and a few of my FB friends recommended my DJ, he DJ'd my daughters' HS party this summer and was great, reasonable cost too!

It's totally one less thing I'm worrying about now that I have a professional.

I'm working with my venue to dim the lights - to get ppl in the mood to dance later during our reception!

Honestly, I love the idea of a dj, it's nice to have someone to offer to keep the night structured, and likely you have to rent the sound system anyways ( speakers, microphone, lighting for the dance floor so the pictures aren't dark, etc)

Mine is 525 for the ceremony, plays music 30 mins prior to ceremony, provides the wireless lapel mics for the ceremony, playing music while setting up for dinner, and he let's everyone know when the dances are and makes sure the right songs are played. I was worried that People would be slow to

Do the dance songs and cutting cake song and we'd be standing there in awkward silence.