Bride and Grooms Grand Exit

Sparklers! Instead of doing birdseed at midnight (no one will see it in the dark) give your guest some sparklers to light and wave as you and hubby make your exit! That's what we are doing for our 10:00 pm departure. I've seen some photos of this type thing and it looks so lovely in the dark!

I love the sparkler idea and was thinking about doing that but really my delima is that we aren't actually going to make an exit because we are staying over night and the reception ends at midnight.

So do we make an exit at 9-10pm so the older people/family don't feel obligated to stay later and then come back or how could that work?

Most of the weddings I've been to have gone until midnight or later with no grand exit from the reception. What seems to be the norm in my area (and what we plan to do) is have the"exit" as you are leaving the ceremony.

Yes, you could defiantly do an exit from the ceremony, even if the ceremony is at the same location as your reception. With birdseed and flower petals and such. This would allow everyone to see the exit. I wouldn't do an exit in the middle of your reception and then come back, it seems confusing. And it will interrupt your good time : )

You could give out little flashlights and peole could wave them around. my reception is also over at midnight and it's a sun so i do expect people to leave, but most of our guest have flown in for it,so i think a majoritiy of people will stay.

I haven't been to a wedding with a 'grand exit' from the reception, probably for the same reasons you have. people will be leaving at all different times, and if your staying the night, there isn't really somewhere to exit too. I agree with the other ladies, have your exit when leaving the ceremony, then dissappear for a while to have your photos taken, then have a 'Grand Entrance' to your reception!

I reaaly don't think it will be an issue. People typically leave when the want. Around the 9p-10p mark, you could do a little speech in which you thank your guest for coming, and announce that you guys plan to hang out for a while. How about this... "My husband and I would like to thank all of you for coming to share in our special day. We hope that you've enjoyed yourselves and if possible, please continue to do so until the close of the night. We plan to stay as long as we can so we can enjoy our guest, take pictures, and embrace every minute of this special day".

We did a grand exit from the ceremony, the guests had ribbon wands and noisemakers for the recessional. We didn't do one from the reception, since there was no way we were going to leave the party early!

Teresa, I love that idea of doing a speech! I would feel much better about staying after I gave a thank you speech. Plus I know my family would probably feel bad leaving before it was all over unless I said something about it. Great idea, thanks so much!

I'm so glad you asked this question! My future hubby and I want to stay till midnight at our reception too. I won't want the night to end! Someone told me it's tacky to stay till it ends so that didn't make me feel comfortable about it. I am super shy and get extremely nervous doing speeches especially in front of alot of people so maybe the big exit out of the church would be good. Do people still do that these days?

I am glad you asked this question as well! We are having a beach house wedding and we are staying there with family staying in the surrounding houses. We definitely couldn't have a grand exit so I was trying to figure out what to do. Teresa~thanks for the great wording! Kayla~hope you don't mind that you and I may be saying the same thing! lol