Luncheon Advice

I feel like one of OPs wedding guests waiting for her to finish her VIP luncheon!!!

FMG!!!

OP, why wouldn't you and your family eat at the reception with all of your guests?

Are you having a small ceremony with just family and lunch to follow on one day and the reception on another day?

Please clarify. Everyone will be able to give better advice if they understand this clearly.

Ahhh this got so confusing let me explain more!! I am having a religious ceremony in an LDS temple at 10 in the morning. Only family and close friends are invited to this portion of my day since only endowed members of the faith are allowed in the temple. The guests that will attend the sealing ceremony will attend the lunch. They rest of my guests don't know the details of the sealing or the lunch and only will join us at night for the reception. This is just tradition in the LDS culture and in Utah. The reception will be more of an open house style.

Okay. That clears a lot up.

No menus. Keep it short, sweet, simple.

Agreed with above poster, no need for menus on the lunch, focus your energy on the larger reception. Are you doing dinner or is it just cake and punch? My understanding for LDS, the reception is more of a come and say hi or are you doing a "traditional" wedding reception?

That makes a lot more sense. I don't think you need printed menus for the lunch. If you want them then that is ok, but you would really only need it printed if there were different options.

I understand what you are planning. For my first wedding the ceremony was small and followed by a lunch for 24 family members who attended the wedding. The reception was later in the evening for everyone else

See OP, sometimes all it takes is a little clarification. No menus.

Thank you, Nancy. I think everyone didn't fully read her post that this is her church/religion's tradition. We should respect this and offer suggestions with this in mind.

Ok I must have read it after an edit cause it made sense to me the whole time. Mentioned it being a LDS ceremony from the beginning

Definitely makes sense now, I agree with Celia, no menus keep it simple

Hey I know this was months ago but I did read any comments that actually understand... I'm also lds and I understand what toy are asking. To try and clarify for others, the ceremony is in the morning then those at the ceremony (or wait outside the temple) have lunch. Then later in the day is when the guests arrive for the reception. There is still food served or a desert. Where I live it is very normal to just have very close friends and family at the ceremony.

To help others understand, they are definitely feeding their guests. No one is having to get lunch on their own. The actual wedding guests are only a select few of close family and friends. The luncheon is after the wedding to feed those who attended the wedding. The reception is held at night and more people are invited to that. There usually is no rehearsal dinner because the ceremony is done in the temple. The luncheon is kind of meant to take place of the rehearsal dinner.

An example timeline of the wedding day is like 10 am wedding. Pictures 11 or 12ish. Luncheon 2pm. Reception (where other guests arrive) 6pm

The OP is asking whether this luncheon needs to be super formal with stationary menus or not. At my wedding we didn’t have any menus. We just had cafe rio cater because my husband loves cafe rio. It was set up buffet style so the guests could get up and bring it to their table. We did have a bigger luncheon though where a more people were invited than just the actual ceremony guests. This was because my a lot of my dad’s siblings couldn’t attend the temple.

View Quoted Comment There are very few people who attend a temple sealing. Those people traditionally go to thr luncheon. All others who will celebrate the wedding will do so at the reception that evening.

I'm not LDS but I get it. The festivities for most of the guests dont start until evening so there is no gap to worry about. They are just not part of the ceremony. I think you can do whatever you want for the lunch. Maybe do an upscale buffet to avoid upstaging your reception.

This is an old, dead thread. The wedding is long over.

View Quoted Comment I think that there was a big misunderstanding. The people that attend the luncheon are the only people attending the ceremony. It’s a religious ceremony that not everyone will attend. It is very common and no one is offended at this. So the people who are attending the reception do not attend the religious ceremony, so they are not being left out of the luncheon. It’s a very normal in common thing in our religion. No one thinks it’s rude and she’s feeding the people that do attend the religious ceremony.