Receiving Line.. Yay or Nah?

Holy shit! 300 people?!?

You definitely need a receiving line. If you did table visits where you spent just one single minute with each person it would take you FIVE HOURS to greet everyone. Obviously that is completely outside the realm of possibility.

It is the height of rudeness to not personally greet each and every guest.

Skip the receiving line - it will take up too much time. We did table visits and we breezed through it with plenty of time to dance.

Would you want to do that as a guest? I find it rude. Just my opinion tho

I am in the 300 plus club as well. I am having a church wedding and it is custom that the bride and groom only will greet everyone as they walk out. I will also walk around and try to hit everyone that didn't make it to the church but are at cocktail hour. The DOC at my venue is really great about identifying those people. I would hope by then I had seen everyone at least once and I will do rounds again to tables because that is a cultural thing for us. I know it is UO but that is how I have seen weddings growing up.

We are doing a receiving line. We will have around 250 guests and I want to make sure I thank them all for coming. We chose this over going to each table because I think the receiving line will go quicker. People know not to interrupt the bride and groom during the receiving line. However, if you are making your way around the reception, you are going to be stopped a million times by other people.

I'm thinking of doing it for the same reason, at least this way you will get a chance to see and thank everyone that came. But if you do a receiving line it would help to have someone like your DOC to move everyone along so great aunt Ethel doesn't stand talking to you for 5 minutes while everyone else is waiting.

We are skipping the receiving line. We've been to two weddings in the last two weekends that had a receiving line and it took forever and was awkward to be honest. I'm a much bigger fan of greeting guests at their tables. I would feel rude if I didn't greet guests at the reception anyways. I kind of get the feeling of why was I invited? if the bride and groom don't make the effort to visit at least for a short amount of time at the reception.

Personally I've only seen one receiving line in any of the weddings I've attended in the last 3-4 years. While I'm sure it was great for the bride/groom (and their parents) to see everyone, the entire bridal party (including my fiancé's ex) was in the bridal party which was also in the line. This made for at least 20 ppl in the receiving line, and we ended up having to stall chatting with people we didn't know.

So if you do the receiving line, especially with 250-300 guests, make it just you two and your parents to keep it speedy. Then you'll be able to enjoy your reception.

I don't know if this would work, but I just thought of his when you asked this--are you having a buffet style dinner? It usually takes a while to get people through and they're just standing around in line; maybe that'd be a good time to say hey to everyone. Or to go see people while they're waiting for their table to be called up. Idk, just a spontaneous idea.

We're doing a receiving line to make sure we don't miss anyone. It will just be FH and I though, not our family or bridal party. We are considering dismissing rows and greeting everyone as we do that, but either way, we will be doing a receiving line of some sort.

No. It's awkward, time consuming and boring for everyone except you. Even with only you on the line, 300 person receiving line will take over an hour.

Do table visits and make an effort to greet all these people who have to be invited. If you don't have time to interact with them personally?

Don't invite them.

I went to a 400 person wedding where they did a receiving line at the cocktail hour with the bride and groom and their parents. it wasn't like a traditional receiving line in that you had to go through it, but a lot of people did (and we were drinking while we waited, so it wasn't so bad). maybe that is an option for you.

We just did table visits during dinner. It was nice because it was more relaxed, felt like a party atmosphere, we could have actual conversations with groups of people, and everything felt so natural. Plus, while we weren't visiting the other tables, those guests had food, drinks, music, and conversation with their friends at their tables to keep them entertained. No one felt like they were just waiting.

For the record, my vote was for receiving line but I much prefer table visits. The reason I said receiving line is that the OP will not have time for "relaxed...casual conversations" with several hundred people in attendance. With 300 guests, you have *maybe* 20 seconds to spend with each one. You can't possibly have a personal interaction with every single one of 300 guests in any way other than a receiving line.

We will for sure be going around to do table visits during the reception as well! And we are not having a buffet so everyone will be eating at the same time.

I find it extremely rude when the bride and groom don't at least make an effort to thank everyone! Just trying to find a way to make sure we make an effort to see as many people as we possibly can and thank them for coming.

I find receiving lines awkward and not personal for larger weddings. Because you feel the time crunch of a ton of people behind you in line, you just give the B&G a hug, tell them congrats and how happy they are for them, tell the bride she's beautiful, and that's about it. Visiting at tables is a lot more personable. Because even though you won't have long conversations, you can feel more relaxed and your guests can too.

We skipped it. We greated tables as a whole and mingled for just a few minutes at each table. We stayed in the middle of the room for the rest of that night and if people wanted more time to chat with us they came to us.

I don't mind receiving lines at small or medium-sized weddings, but I'd skip it with a wedding that large. It's true that most people try to make it around to all their tables and that's great! But I've also seen a lot of B&G not eat at their wedding and you want to avoid that.

As a guest, I hate them. It always seems like you spend ages in line, then have awkward conversations with members of the bridal party, all to get a few seconds with the couple. Tables visits put the burden of greeting the guests on the couple, where it belongs.

We have 170 and are doing a receiving line because we want to be able to enjoy the rest of the day knowing we greeted every guest!