Receiving Line vs. Visiting Tables

I don't exactly hate receiving lines, but I attended a wedding last summer with my fiancé where I didn't know the B&G and the receiving line was super awkward for me. And for them, I'm sure. Weird place to meet someone for the first time.

We're visiting tables. We also have our ceremony & reception at the same place and wouldn't want to waste the cocktail hour. I've never been to a wedding with a receiving line, but I feel like guests at the end of the line might get bored. For 200 people, the last few guests will be standing in line for 30+ minutes just to say a quick hello and snap a picture.

Just my opinion though, I'm sure either would work out!

We nixed the receiving line because we had everything in the same location and wanted to get photos with family and then go to a park to get photos with the wedding party right after the ceremony. Not doing the receiving line allowed us to cut down on the time between the two. We did have just a few guests that only came for the ceremony, so I made sure to come find them and say hi before we left for the photos. After we got back from the photos in the park, I made sure to greet a few more people, and again after dinner. I managed to say hi to all but a few of our 155 guests before the end of the night, so it worked out great. The few that I didn't get to talk to slipped out a tad early, before I could even catch up to them. I will say though, that people finished eating before I could get a chance to go around to greet them, so I didn't get to go around to tables at all.

I went through a receiving line a couple years ago. It took an hour and a half to go through it because we had to greet the bride and groom, the families of the bride and groom and the wedding party. There were 20 people to greet. It was terrible and I would have skipped it except that was the only way into cocktail hour. So please for the love of your guests, if you have a receiving line, just have the bride and groom.

With that many guests, a receiving line is wayyy too long. It will seriously cut into your picture time! We visited tables, kept it short and sweet. I actually did not plan on visiting tables and just would "see them on the dance floor!" as my mother said lol. But we were served dinner first, and were done eating in plenty of time to greet guests! Start with older guests and guests you don't see as often and work your way around that way, so if you don't get to guests that are close friends/family it won't be a big deal.

We will be doing a first look for a few reasons but mainly because we want to use the cocktail hour to greet and thank our guests. Then we will be able to enjoy our reception. Plus our venue has a bar on Saturday nights from 10-2am so after the reception we will be going to change then heading to the bar to continue the party and spend more time with our guests.

We did a receiving line and it took 30 mins for 150 people. It's pretty quick "thanks for coming!" -- "congrats!" Type convo. I'm glad we did it since we were at least able to say hi to everyone once. Most guests we talked to again later. And it made for good pics

We did a receiving line since with 150 people for timing reasons really since we needed a little bit more time before people could get into the reception venue. I would say for 150 people it took about 20 minutes total. People just said a quick hello and congratulations so it moved rather quickly. It made the reception much more relaxed for us since there was no pressure to make sure we visited every single person, we were able to just have fun!

Following as I hadn't thought about this at all...though I still have plenty of time.

This is the sucky part of the wedding that nobody really likes. We're planning on a quick hello as they exit the church. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm all about getting the party started and having fun at the reception.

I'm hoping to greet everyone at cocktail hour so I can enjoy the reception

FH and I will be standing at the back of the church right by the stairs so guests can greet us as they head down the stairs and out of the church. We'll be doing a send off of sorts as we exit the church. We will exit and get in the getaway vehicle (lol) and go for a short drive while guests leave and head to the reception venue and we will return to take pictures in the church. We will probably also do table visits so we can get pictures with everyone.

I don't like receiving lines as a guest. I have to stand in line for so long just to say congratulations and rushed past the bride and groom. What's the point. Visiting tables though i think are batter. You can take pictures with your guests at the table, you can spend maybe 3 mins per 10 people at each table. And if you have to stop and do something else like cut the cake, you can and then continue.

We are going from table to table just because we feel it's more personal. Since we will be served first, we should be able to finish eating first. Then we'll cut the cake and while it's being cut and plated to be served, we'll go around and greet our guests.

FH and I will be dismissing guests row by row after the ceremony ... Hopefully it won't take too long

We are dismissing people ourselves so we can personally thank each person. It also seems more meaningful to me because we are going to the people ourselves rather than having people come to us. We'll go around to as many tables as we can too.

It has been interesting with the feedback - seems somewhat divided between a modified receiving line and visiting tables. I may actually try something I've seen done once and have FH and I dismiss rows from the ceremony to greet quickly and say hello then - guests still get to stay seated and it may make it that much quicker....We'll see!

I don't think I've ever been to a wedding with a greeting line so I don't have an opinion on that, but as a guest I really don't mind (actually like it) when the couple comes to my table to say hello and get a picture. I think it's the easiest way to have a picture with almost every one of your guests. It's what we will do as well.