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Just Said Yes July 2020

How to greet all guests at very large wedding

Mariam, on January 2, 2020 at 12:54 AM Posted in Wedding Reception 0 9

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Hi everyone,
We are having a very large wedding celebration - around 300 guests. The day is just going to include the reception (cocktail hour plus reception) since we had our small ceremony previously.
My question is, what could be the best way to greet our guests? Cocktail hour starts at 5:30 and we were planning on making a grand entrance right after cocktail hour. I have 3 ideas for greeting guests:
- We could take couple pictures during cocktail hour and then make rounds during dinner to greet guests at their tables. - We could take couple pictures before the event starts and could use cocktail hour to greet guests. Then we could leave cocktail hour right before the guests move to the dinner hall to make our “grand entrance” in the dinner hall. - We could have a receiving line, but I don’t really know how this works because I’ve never seen it done. Also I don’t know when we would do this - between cocktail hr and dinner?
I want to be able to greet everyone and thank them for coming. I also hope we get to enjoy our reception and not just spend the whole time trying to make sure we’ve hit every table. Any thoughts on how to greet every guest as efficiently as possible? And can someone explain to me how a receiving line works, and whether it would be wise for our guest count?
Thanks

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9 Comments

Latest activity by MOB So Cal, on January 2, 2020 at 3:07 PM

Legend November 2019
Caytlyn · on January 2, 2020 at 1:06 AM
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Receiving lines typically take place after the ceremony so I’m not sure it would work in your scenario. I would just use cocktail hour to greet guests. You don’t need that time for photos since you aren’t doing the ceremony the same day.
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Master October 2021
Sexypoodle · on January 2, 2020 at 1:51 AM
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Unfortunately, larger weddings naturally take away the “personal” feeling of a wedding. So with 300 guests you won’t be able to fully greet each of them and still complete the other events on your timeline. When you do the math.... Even if you only spent 30 seconds thanking each guest, that’s still a total of 150 minutes (or 2.5 hours). I guess you could do “speed greeting” but that would feel especially rude. Lol!

An option is for you and your FH to walk around the reception and say a group “thank you” to the entire table. There will undoubtedly be a few guests at certain tables who will want to say a few words to you and take a little extra time. But greeting tables would at least bring the time down to about 40-45 mins.
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Super August 2021
Dierdra · on January 2, 2020 at 4:30 AM
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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.
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Master October 2019
Meghan · on January 2, 2020 at 7:40 AM
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I think greeting tables during dinner will be the most efficient way to do this. As soon as you finish eating, which should be first because you will be served first, start making your rounds. Receiving lines take up way too much time.
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Champion June 2019
Gen · on January 2, 2020 at 9:09 AM
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I would definitely take photos before cocktail hour. Don’t let photo taking cut into your party time if you aren’t having a ceremony!

Also, going table to table at the reception really doesn’t take that long. We had a 100 person wedding with 12 tables and it probably took us 20 minutes to go to each table. You could easily do it in an hour, even with 300! A receiving line just seems so impersonal because you’ll have to rush people by.
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Super December 2021
Alyssa · on January 2, 2020 at 9:32 AM
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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.
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Legend July 2019
MrsD · on January 2, 2020 at 12:52 PM
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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.
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Super August 2020
Alex · on January 2, 2020 at 2:20 PM
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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!).
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January 2019
MOB So Cal · on January 2, 2020 at 3:07 PM
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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.
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