Do i talk to every guest at my wedding?

If I were invited to a 300 guest wedding and the couple didn't even stop by to say hi and thanks for coming, I would assume I was only invited so I'd bring a gift. I'm sure that's not the impression you want your guests to leave with.

Yes,

You can do this either in a receiving line or by walking around to each table during dinner. You do not have to spend 5 mins. However you do need to stop by and say hello and thank each table for coming

View Quoted Comment Of course culture is subjective. And you’re right, not everyone knows every culture but ppl should be willing to learn. The OP made it seem as if she’s explained the dollar dance as being part of her culture. Her MIL is rude to say something like that if OP has explained its part of her culture. Point blank period.

Greet and thank your guests. Do not ask them for money.

The wedding is for you. The reception is a party you give for the guests at your wedding.

View Quoted Comment I think it's really important her MIL communicated this. Wouldn't you want to know that something you are doing may come off as shallow, rude, and money hungry?

As I said in my previous post, if you are in mixed company the dollar dance may be best executed with a penny reserve. No guest should have to open their wallets to spend time with the host of the event.

Absolutely. The guests are supposed to be people you want to spend time with! It's pretty rude to invite them and then not even spend a few moments with them.

Have a smaller wedding if you don't want to do this.

Also, think of it this way: As you got from table to table you will want to sit and catch up with guests. When you invite people to an event you say hi to them and thank them for coming.

Your future MIL is very traditional, that is great. With a lot of wedding rules being re-written (and with society changing that is a good thing) some things, like properly hosting and greeting guests, never goes out of style.

Some advice--- don't talk to them during the wedding. After you've had the coffee/tea/biscuits at the end of the night do the receiving line thing but as a goodbye and thank you for coming. This is what people from my country do and you end up talking to everyone for like a minute.

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It is very much part of my culture and I did not like her response to that. We are two cultures or two different people coming together and sometimes people have to be open to differences.

It is super rude not to talk to everyone IMO. They are spending time on celebrating your marriage (and most likely getting you a gift). If you couldn't do this you shouldn't have invited so many people.

If you dont greet everyone, the people you dont greet will remember (it has been one of guests biggest complaints after a wedding).

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Wow that is such a good idea! thank you.

View Quoted Comment I say do your dollar dance but make sure Your DJ/ MC explains the cultural significance to the guests. And if they don’t like they don’t have to participate in the dollar dance.

As far it being tacky a lot of american culture is tacky as hell but we still do it. It’s your day and you’re allowed to represent your culture. Your MIL can be mad as she wanna be about it.

300 guests x 5 minutes /60 minutes = 25 hours. Is your wedding 25 hours long?

Yes you should probably try to say hello and thank everyone, but also don’t stress and overwhelm yourself about it. At my cousin and his wife’s wedding, the maid of honor escorted them around to each table, and let them/the table know when it was time to move on to the next table. Even though sure I was bummed I couldn’t talk to them longer, i absolutely plan to do this at my wedding and loved their plan. By having their maid of honor be the one to time them and move them along, people couldn’t be disappointed at the bride and groom. The MOH moving them along, as well as thanking/talking to tables rather than individuals, helped them have time to talk to and thank everyone

View Quoted Comment This is our plan! We too will have a larger guest list so I receiving line (and hugging 😣) would take WAY too long! We plan to start the buffet line and then make rounds to each table! That way we can still say hello/thank you but can move it along quicker!

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I think the "5 min with each guest" is the problem. Here's my suggestion: during dinner visit each table - you guys can split up so 15 tables for each of you or maybe visit the ones with really important folks (close family etc) together. That way you visit everyone, but not one-by-one, but instead 10 at a time. Take selfies, give kisses, tell jokes. It won't be too painful. That's our plan!

Listen here, girlfriend. I totally understand where you are coming from. We are most likely inviting 240-250 people, and i absolutely do not want to waste half my night saying hi to every single person. And to say "invite less people" isn't exactly the correct response because sometimes you just can't!!

I think the best way to resolve an issue like this is having a receiving line after the ceremony. That is a fool-proof way of making sure you say at least "hello" to every guest, and moving right along. This could potentially take an additional half hour to 45 minutes so you would have to plan accordingly, but also most people understand the purpose of the receiving line and keep their comments short. You literally have your entire life after your wedding to talk to someone and reminisce. Any guest that wants to have a full blown heart to heart with the bride or groom at their wedding is rude for taking them away from their one special night.

Also, at the end of the day, it's YOUR day.

My fiance and I are having around 130 and are doing exactly what you stated...after toasts he is going to say thank you to everyone for coming and say a few nice words. We are not going around to 130 people and saying hi thank you to each individual. We both agreed we see 90 percent of these people all the time and they won't be offended. We want to enjoy the 40,000 wedding we just payed for. We wanna drink and dance not say hi thank you to people for 2 hours. Everyone on weddingwire is so stuck in old tradition and things change. With 300 people I think doing just what I said is your best bet but you do what you need to. Just no that no one on here will ever say it's ok lol I have been to multiple weddings where the bride and groom didn't eat,and only danced for a half hour because they spent the entire tikme talking to ppl...Just keep your timeline in mind. I just think that's silly. Dance drink eat and enjoy your wedding. Your guests can dance with you on the dance floor and have fun. The rooms only so big, you'll see them all.
Hope it works out for you!

Husband and I did a reveal before the ceremony so that we can enjoy *SOME* of the cocktail hour. That was the time in which we were able to say hi and thank our guests for coming so that we can dance and take pictures during the reception.

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So my guest list is 450 - 500 people INVITATIONS. meaning there will be over 1000 people there. I am doing a receiving line for 45 minutes and that is it. However, my parents are paying for a lot of it, so my parents and my soon to be husbands parents plan on going around and making sure every guest is acknowledged with at least a brief "Hello, thank you so much for coming!" If you put on your invitation that you will be doing a receiving line from lets say 6:30 - 7:15 pm, then they will know if they show up after that time, they risk not being able to speak with you!