How to greet all guests at very large wedding

Larger weddings we went to the bride and groom greeted each table ( quickly) and thanked everyone for coming. Typically if you are having a plated dinner, everyone is seated so as soon as you are finished eating (served first) you get to work. With people chowing down, they tend to be less conversational and understand that you have many more tables to talk to. Usually ( in our family) the immediate tables get a little more attention ( maybe extra picture with grandpa) at the table.

We have also been to a wedding where the guests were around 500 - the bride and groom made a small speech at the beginning that thanked everyone for coming and that they hoped to speak with everyone either during dinner or on the dance floor. It was a pretty cute speech.

Go to Youtube and look up Jamie Wolfer-she's a DOC and has a ton of videos on stuff like this, but she recommends doing "table visits" with your photographer to move things along so you can keep things flowing, not get stuck, but still say hi to everyone at least once.

So we only had 125 guests (much smaller than yours) but this is what we did:

- Had a large rehearsal dinner with 70 people (we had a lot of out of state guests & a large wedding party)

- Invited all guests who arrived Friday to hangout in the hotel bar with us (not hosted, we mentioned this on our website, invites & in the welcome bags)

- Took pictures during cocktail hour (didn't want to do a first look), but had guests seat to a plated salad while we did our entrance & first dance then released guests to the buffet by table. During that time, we walked around to each table when guests weren't at the buffet. We did that until speeches, then after speeches until the parent dances.

- The next morning, we hung out in the lobby & got another change to talk to all our guests before they left.

This is what we are doing:

We have about 250 people coming. Most are traveling from out of state, so we want to make sure we see everyone! Our whole wedding (ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception) is at the same venue.

We are doing ALL of our photos before hand except 3 (two separate big groups on my side and one on his).

We are using cocktail hour to try to see everyone. Anyone we miss, we will try to get towards the second half of dinner (we want to eat the first half!).

Daughter and SIL only had 100 guests -- seated at 13 tables. They were the first people served dinner and as soon as they ate, they began table visits -- with the photographer, as a pp mentioned. They greeted and thanked everyone at each table and then the photographer took a group picture of them at each table, and they moved on. Even with that much structure, it was easy to get held up when individual guests would stand up to hug and talk with them individually. With only 100 guests, I'd guess it still took over 40 (and from a guests' perspective it probably started to drag because by then everyone had finished eating). With 300 guests, I'd expect it to take a REALLY long time to do table visits.... However, I also think a receiving line will likely be awful; typically everyone waits in line for their turn, which means the people toward the end of the line will be standing in line forever rather than enjoying cocktail hour (or they'll just skip the receiving line...). As a guest, I'd HATE that! Personally, of the options you're considering, I'd probably try to really make the rounds during cocktail hour. It will be harder though to keep track of who you've greeted and those you might miss.... As others mentioned, if you're having out-of-town guests at the rehearsal dinner or any other event, I'd do my best to greet and talk with as many people that way as possible to cut down on the number you absolutely HAVE to talk with one-on-one at the wedding. Good luck! This is definitely a downside to a large guest list.