We're almost done with wedding planning, and the big day is coming up soon! One final detail we are trying to work through is the transition between our ceremony (at my dad's church) and reception (at a venue just down the road from the church). To give you an idea of our unique day...
-We want to have an open ceremony at the church, meaning there will be ppl invited to the ceremony but not to the reception. The guests that were invited to both have received an invitation and RSVP link to our website. Those without an invite who might come to the ceremony are basically just any people who live in my parents' town who know me/know of me and my fiance and want to celebrate with us. There is plenty of space at the church for people to socially distance, but the reception venue is pretty small so we have a very tight guest capacity limit.
-My fiance wants the first time he sees me that day to be when I'm walking down the aisle (not even a first look) -- meaning that we will need to carve out a good bit of time to take all of our couple photos, bridal party photos, and family photos after the ceremony. We are having a dry "cocktail hour" with snacks and a few things set up for guests to do while they wait for us at the reception venue during that time. When we arrive, we will start the reception (bridal party introductions, first dance, prayer, meal served, etc.).
SO. I'm thinking about the guests who may come to the ceremony and not the reception... I don't want to be rude and have guests come to the ceremony just to watch it and leave, without ever getting to speak to us (even the guests who we don't know very well). At the same time, I'm also hyper-aware that the invited guests going to the reception right after the ceremony will already have to wait a while for us to take our photos, and I don't want to do a receiving line and make them wait another hour before beginning the reception! I also don't love the idea of having a receiving line before all of our photos because I know we will be tired from smiling and talking to so many people and I think it will show in the photos (my mom said that at her wedding, she had photos taken after talking to a bunch of guests and she felt like those photos looked funny because by then her face was tired and her makeup and hair was worn down). Plus that really would mean the reception would have to start much later...
Help!
