Long cocktail hour

Lots of yummy foods and some form of entertainment (photobooth, magician, tarot card reader, caricature artist, etc.).
Also, just because they offer a 1.5 hour cocktail hour doesn’t mean you have to do it!

I would probably ask them to shorten it, but as Cece said, as long as you're serving lots of food it should be OK.

View Quoted Comment It isn’t an option to shorten it. It’s a small venue for small wedding, so extra time is needed for reception decor setup.

View Quoted Comment

Gotcha. I think then serving good quantities of food should be fine.

We had a 1hr 15 cocktail due to set up issues day of. We just had music and snacks/drinks. No one cared about the length because they were socializing.

Some ideas I've seen go over well if you do want entertainment would be "table top" activities (personalized crossword, wedding word scramble, etc. Think bridal shower games, but put the answers on the back instead of having someone read them out), Cornhole, ladder-golf, etc. If you are having a small wedding you could do Guest Guess Who, where you put things personal to guests like "Find 3 guests who have been to Europe" or "Which guest played Ariel in their High school musical?" and the guests have to talk to each other to fill in the answers.

One cocktail hour I attended had live music. I think it was 3 guitarists and they were performing upbeat music like, Dave Matthews and similar music. I would also have your photographer get a lot of group shots at this time. All the cousins, all the friends from college, etc.

Maybe a scavenger hunt with clues about you and your fiancé?

Cocktail hour is often my fave part of a wedding its so fun to mingle, eat the yummy food, and check out all the little details. I would be absolutely thrilled to have a longer one! Some simple things you can do

1. table topic cards on the cocktail tables

2. a wedding scavenger hunt

3. fuji instant cameras out

4. a live musician

5. Photo Booth

6. Fun facts about the couple cocktail napkins

7. Trivia games

8. If you and/or your partner celebrate Christmas you can have ornaments for your guests to decorate/write sweet messages on for you.

9. Hot coco/hot cider bar

But honestly as you long as you have plenty of delicious food I think you don't need much else. Since it is a longer cocktail hour I d make sure there's plenty of seating/ lounging areas for people.Happy planning!

I'd join the cocktail hour early and mingle

I would reccomend serving a good selection of non-alcoholic drinks. We served coffee, hot tea, hot cocoa, punch, and sodas at our winter wedding. The hot drinks, in particular, were well received. If you have the option of serving appetizers or other food then I would go for it.

We had a 2 hour cocktail hour. Open Bar with heavy appetizers, 360 photo booth, an emcee to orchestrate the Newlywed Game and toilet paper wedding dress design contest. We also started dancing early for the guest as well. No one noticed it was two hours.

Great appetizers, including stations where guests don’t have to chase down waitstaff. Hot nonalcoholic beverages (hot cocoa, espresso bar, hot spiced cider). Dj or live guitarist playing background music. Photo booth guest book. You are only limited by your imagination and budget. What do you envision in your daydream when you walk through the entrance?

We're having small games available at our wedding and also serving light snacks during the cocktail hour that should help.