Dinner reception and no dancing?

I've been to many weddings where they do this. Many guests leave after cake since there's no entertainment. Are you going for a short reception?

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The restaurant is allowing us use of the patio for several hours, so maybe just dinner and some socializing before leaving

My brother did this. It was very nice but definitely much shorter than a traditional reception. We ate dinner, drank, had dessert, and left.

My oldest did this. She only had 11 people and we had dinner in a private room at a restaurant in downtown Chicago. No music, but they did a cake cutting. It was very nice

If you want people to stay and socialize - do this before you serve dinner. Have some sort of cocktail hour with snacks and drinks and let people mingle.

Once dinner & dessert is served - many people will probably leave. (I would)

I would like it, I would think most of the conversations would take place while you are waiting to be served and while eating. If you don't mind everyone leaving after than go for it. When are you guys doing your pictures?

I'm aiming on doing some beach pictures of just FH and I before the ceremony and then the rest with family and wedding party after the reception. Then heading over the to the restaurant following the pictures. We're getting the whole patio for a few hours which is covered outside and right on the water/beach as well which will be a fun environment because of the view. We'll be doing apps before we get there for guests and then the dinner after we arrive. I can already estimate which guests will be leaving following dinner, but we will be having a few people who like to hangout out drinking and socialize. Maybe we'll go out to a bar after with the partier out of towners that are coming since there's a lot of nightlife close by

That sounds lovely! I am a big fan of dinner party style receptions. I would recommend having some background music to add to the ambiance. Your reception will likely be on the shorter side but, that shouldn't discourage you. I'd much rather attend this type of wedding than one with a loud DJ (I hate dancing/club music) and prefer being able to socialize instead.

This is how my wedding turned out. We all just talked and talked and ate and drank and had only 20 minutes of dancing. It was fine

This is like almost exactly what our plan is! We are getting married on a catamaran then having drinks and dinner on the rooftop patio at a local restaurant. They have live music for the whole establishment but we won’t have a specific FH/dancing. They are letting us choose which of their regular acts we would prefer to have booked during our reception since we can’t provide our own live music.

We're also having a small wedding (~34 guests). I put on the invitations that "Dinner to follow" to give a heads up that it wouldn't be a typical reception. We're having our wedding on a Sunday and most of the guests are elderly, so they won't want to stay out too late any way. Our venue time ends at 8 pm, ceremony is at 5. We're having a plated sit down dinner. It will give the guests a chance to mingle and talk a bit.

I am newly engaged and this is our plan for next November. My fiance and I aren't big partiers, dancers and/or drinkers. All we care about is having a spending our day with our family and close friends we are going for a shorter ceremony followed by all of us enjoying a meal at our favorite restaurant and spending time with our guests. We are planning on doing a very non-traditional wedding. No DJ (we will have light music being played by a cousin with a speaker and laptop) we aren't doing the bouquet/garter toss the only traditions that we are likely to keep is cutting of a cake, a first dance and a photographer for about four hours. Although this is not a typical reception, we are calling it a dinner reception and labeling our day as "nothing fancy just love". As I am going through the process of planning I find that everyone is judgy when I describe what I want like it isnt good enough for them, but that's okay because as long as the day is good enough for my fiance and I, is all that matters.