Intimate wedding with no dancing - will this work out ok?

Will you be having any entertainment for guests?

With a short 3.5 or 4 hour total, that is fine. With that small a group, try to keep pictures to 1/2 hour, even if you do groups and family pics ( all but couple) earlier. It is awful to have 50-70 people, and 20-25 immediate family inc grandparents, sibs and family, and wedding party and couple gone. For many years the standard was a half hour away for photos, max. It has moved up to an hour for most big weddings. When more, people really complain, that you care more about photos than your guests. Having the hosts and a third of guests absent even an hour during cocktails is a real party killer, with small weddings. If you do photos mostly in advance, gone less than a half hour, guests will enjoy the whole event more.

There are plenty of dry weddings for various reasons. Depending on your reason for it I don’t see anything wrong with this personally, but you may have some guests that wish otherwise. You mentioned cocktail hour and appetizers, but seeing as how there won’t be any cocktails end it usually doesn’t take people very long time to eat an appetizer, did you ever think about maybe having some sort of lawn games like giant Jenga like in the picture

Hi Samantha! It doesn’t sound boring at all!! I had the same worries about my own wedding and to my surprise, several guests called me to tell me if was the best wedding!! Mine was similar to yours. - all outdoors, significant dances only. We went into the first dance right after we were announced, toasts, dinner, father daughter dance, cut cake, etc. We added significant dances like of me and my Man of Honor and groom danced with his grandmother.


keep in mind, people have been cooped up for so long, to be able to be outdoors in a beautiful, safe environment to celebrate you - it’s wonderful!!!
I thought I needed something “extra” and we had our videographer setup a camera so our guests could leave a video message for us. Everyone was having so much fun we only had like 5 messages 😂
I love your wedding plan - keep it ❤️

View Quoted Comment I was not intending to. It’s just our main families and i wanted it to be very intimate just talking and eating like a dinner at a restaurant

View Quoted Comment Aww thank you. I’ve just been so worried it’s going to be boring but i appreciate your response thank you 😭

View Quoted Comment Yea I thought about that, that’s a good idea thank you.

I’m not a fan of dancing when you’re not allowing your guests to participate, but otherwise I think this is fine as long as you’re okay with most guests leaving shortly after dinner.

View Quoted Comment I agree. I love dancing at weddings so I wouldn't be thrilled to sit there and watch others dance but be told the set of us can't. I don't drink so a dry wedding wouldn't bother me, but that's more of a know your guests kind of thing.

I was in my friends wedding last September where she couldn’t only have 50 people and no dancing. Before covid happened, she paid for extra hours so the wedding didn’t end until 1A I think. I honestly thought it was going to be boring and we were worried about coming up with games to keep the guests busy until 1.
.
.Each person in the bridal party gave a speech. It was spread out throughout the night so it wasn’t boring. The dj did a great job in keeping people engaged. They did do the husband & wife dance, parent and bride/groom. I thought this was great to see. I know the guests can’t dance but being able to see the bride and groom dance was special...We also didn’t even get to the games we can up with because everyone was enjoying catching up or talking. They did have alcohol but honestly didn’t really drink. Would’ve actually been fine if they didn’t have alcohol.

Hi Samantha, me and my fiancé are having the same type of wedding... getting ready, ceremony outdoors, photos, cocktail hour, and the reception will be at a restaurant, and we’re having just our first dance there (no more dancing after that), cut the cake, have dinner for 3 hours and that’s it. We’re are so excited, we will be just 23 people including us. ❤️❤️❤️

So we didn't have a dry wedding, but we did have an intimate wedding of about 50 with no dancing. We did all of our photos pre-ceremony, including couples and family pics, so besides 15 minutes of alone time, we were with our guests for the whole event. We had a cocktail hour and a half, but I think if you're having a dry wedding, I'd keep the photos/mocktail hour to a half hour max and only take pics for a half hour. Our reception was 3 hours and we didn't have any entertainment besides guests eating dinner and mingling and chatting. It was the perfect length for everyone except me, who would have loved to talk to my guests for longer!

You're overthinking this. Most guests love to mingle and catch up. Even without the current Covid restrictions requiring guests to sit and chat. As long as you're a good host, you will be fine.


Dry weddings are very common. Do not let anyone tell you that forgoing alcohol will result in a boring event. People go hours without it everyday and still have a great time.

As long as you keep your wedding and reception to around 3 hours total, I think it will be fine. With no dancing, entertainment, or drinks, your guests will get pretty bored after 3 hours and likely leave anyway.

People have receptions like this all the time that are successful. Guests are more than happy for a chance to mingle. They typically last 3 hours max.


Do not let make you feel bad for going this route if that's what you want.