Post Wedding Ceremony

What you would do is walk down the aisle (called a recessional), and go hide, go back in through another door....anything to not be at the exit greeting guests. That is what the reception is for. The recessional will give your ceremony an ending without being awkward.

I would think it was super odd for the ceremony to end and the couple to just stand there. Not only because I've never seen it happen but...what are you going to do? Stand there and watch everyone leave? I also think it's important to take a minute or two alone with your brand new spouse and soak it all in. Receiving lines definitely aren't a necessity, I think they're outdated, but I think there are plenty of other options besides just standing at the front of the church and waiting on photos.

I would walk out & leave, then have your pastor & ushers help escort guests out of the church. Then you can go back into the church (through a side entrance) to take pictures. If you stay in the church, people will want to come up and talk to you and get in the way of pictures.

We walked out, then came back up a side aisle and did kind of a hybrid seat release/receiving line so we could quickly make sure we thanked everyone and saw them. Took about 15 minutes, then we went back up and took pictures in the church. I think it would be very odd if you two didn't at least process back down the aisle.

we did that because - Just my preference - but I really dislike "table visits" during dinner/reception - they interrupt people eating, take forever, and bride and groom never get to really enjoy dinner. Or dinner lasts FOREVER bc everyone is waiting for that to finish. But I also think just assuming you'll talk to everyone at the reception is risky.

Overall, doesn't matter how you do it, but you should absolutely 100% speak to everyone at your wedding/thank them for coming/etc.

We aren't having ushers (because I think they are so not necessary) so I'm considering this idea of bride & broom releasing people from their seats. You said it took about 15 minutes? How many people abouts? I want to do a receiving line but keeping the time in check is important to me too, so if dismissing people from the ceremony is a little shorter I'd like to do that!

We walked out for the pics (it was like 30 ft of walking so not far, lol) but then we turned around and went right back. We wanted one group shot with everyone that came (less than 50 ppl) and the ceremony location was the best place, plus everyone was already together. Then we signed the license and herded the people we needed for family pics outside for that.

We had about 175 at our wedding. We started with our parents row and basically just hugged everyone and said thank you and then moved on. It goes very quickly as long as you keep yourself in check and don't have a full on conversation with everyone. It also helps to have music in the background the whole time because it feels more like part of the recessional, as opposed to the end of the wedding where people are just standing around. It worked really well for us!