No Receiving Line

I know receiving lines are a very unpopular opinion but we are doing one for a couple of reasons:

1. FH has social anxiety; trying to make small talk at 20 tables will be extremely uncomfortable and difficult for him.

2. This way we can make sure we greet and see everyone. Since it may take a long time to move from table to table, we may miss guests who aren't seated or perhaps may have already left.

I'm team receiving line.

ETA: the receiving line will be just us, not the bridal party or our families. That should make it a little more bearable for our guests. We've also considered releasing rows by greeting them as another option.

ETA#2: I didn't answer your question... if you can make it to the reception location before everyone else, you could greet them as they enter the reception. Otherwise I think the only other opportunity to greet is during dinner. Otherwise you may end up running into the issue of guests leaving or not being seated and it'd be hard to keep track of who you have and have not talked to.

We thought about doing them, but then our florist mentioned she saw a wedding where the Bride and Groom dismissed everyone from their pew after the wedding. So we're thinking we'll do that. With 250 people on the list, trying to get to every table during dinner would mean we wouldn't get to eat, and this way we see everyone. Also, I think people are less likely to hold up the line for a long conversation when others are waiting to get out of their pews. . . (hopefully!) and I've seen people in my family do that at a receiving line.

ETA-clarity and of course, we'll still say hi and dance with our guest all night, we may even walk around tables. But we want to make sure we see everyone, if only for 10 seconds, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

We went from table-to-table and I didn't find it forced or awkward at all. We also made it to the last 15 mins of our cocktail hour and greeted some guests there too. I've been to 5 weddings in the past year (including mine) and none of them had a receiving line.

Our wedding is small (50guest), so we are not doing the receiving line. Our plan is to talk to everyone at cocktail hour- we have extended cocktail hour to 1:45, which should be plenty of time.

With a 200+ wedding, that might be difficult- so im on team receiving line otherwise you might misses someone

Okay, so my area must be old fashioned as I have never seen a wedding that didn't have a receiving line. Where do you go if you skip it? Like after you and FH walk down the aisle do you just go to a picture location or what? It seems like you are waiting for all your bridal party and everyone to exit so I guess I don't understand how you avoid having everyone coming up and greeting you like a receiving line?

We are doing family pictures immediately after. We have a lot of immediate family so it'll take a while. Still working out the logistics of that.

@Erica - designate a spot that's a little out of the way for the wedding party to go to. Our ceremony was in my high school's chapel, which is attached the actual school, so we walked down the aisle for the recessional and everyone went straight to an empty room in an adjoining hallway to wait for all of the guests to leave. We also had our priest announce that we were going to receive our guests at the reception, so that nobody would hang around and wait for us at the church

Don't do it. It takes forever and you basically have 10 seconds to say hello. It's pointless.

UO; If you don't want to take time to even say hello to your guests, either at the tables or during cocktail hour, why did you invite them? Isn't that the reason you invited them?

@Susan - that's a GREAT idea! We are having a full Catholic mass for 225 people, most of whom will be at the ceremony. We will still go table to table, but I just love that idea!

Wait a minute... where did I say that I didn't want to take time to say hello to guests?

We MAY go to our cocktail hour for 10 minutes, but we plan on doing the table visits while the guests are eating their dinner that way they won't hold us up - they're going to want to eat lol.

We'll get fed first, so we'll take several bites, then get up and do the visits. We'll have 14 tables to visit. We hired a DOC and I told her to help us move it along. I WANT TO DANCE lol.

Just to add, my cousin had a receiving line as you came into the reception which worked out nicely as well. They still made table rounds too.

Do you have a day of coordinator?

We are skipping the receiving line as well. We should with the schedule we have, be able to make it to some of cocktail hour. That is where we are hoping we'll get to greet some guests, and then we will be doing table rounds. I've heard that some people's DOC helps them keep going. Conversation can be kept pretty short. "oh hey! Thank you for coming, we are so glad you're here, hope you're having fun, how's Billy?" and move it on out. It'll be fine

We are not doing a receiving line. We are mingling during an extended cocktail hour. If you don't want to do it, then don't do it.

We do have a DOC. It sounds like going around to tables is the way to go if timed right.

We are coming to cocktail hour and will talk to everyone there

I think that's better Constance. I honestly haven't seen more than a handful of receiving lines in my 10 years of doing this

Our venue coordinator actually suggested arriving early to the cocktail hour, before people start arriving, and greeting people as they come in. People will be anxious for drinks and apps, so they won't want to stand around talking as long as they might if you're doing table visits while they are well fed and had a few drinks. That is what we're doing, we have 250 invited so an actual receiving line would be insane.

I have never been to a wedding with a receiving line. I cannot picture how to execute it.

We're doing table visits.

Of all the weddings I've been to (around 12-15 or so), there was only one that had a receiving line.

Didn't matter if it was a small wedding or a big wedding, most did not have one