Reception Exit Question

I'd either delegate someone to clean up, or ask your wedding planner to coordinate this. You likely won't want to have to do the clean up yourself, though I've heard of a few brides on here who did it and said it wasn't a big deal. My family and some of our closer friends did the clean-up after my brother's wedding, and we all were happy to help out.

Most of my venue will be cleaned up by its staff and their vendors. The few things we bring are being delegated to our families to take care of. We're actually making a list of who's responsible for what. We are leaving at a specific time to signify the end of the reception to allow the cleanup within the time our venue has allotted for us.

We left and our families and bp stayed to clean up.

I stayed to do the clean up. I didn't have some big, grand exit planned. I didn't actually do much for clean up though because I was a little....discombobulated. My family and husband did most of it.

The end of the reception was signaled by our last dance.

Our caterers cleaned everything for us, but we stayed...after we did the last dance we said goodbye to everyone...most were OOT guests and we didn't know when we would see them again.

I'd say if you were leaving on your honeymoon then you could do the grand exit but if not I'd say stay and help clean up. I know that I wouldn't want to stick my parents and BP with the responsibility of making sure the linens get packed away.

Our hall handles some clean-up. we just have to take everything off the tables 1st.

I'm not doing a grand exit before everyone leaves..I am planning to stay until the end because I want to party with everyone, and have fun...BUT, I'm not cleaning anything up, LOL.

We have to set the hall up the morning of the wedding and they won't let me help, so I'm gonna be a brat after the reception and just stand around and drink :-)

By the time the reception ended, a good two-thirds of our guests had already left to go home. We did a last dance and the that was it. No grand exit. We packed up the minivan we rented for the weekend with the stuff we brought and the gifts we received. There was no real need for anything fancy. The party was more than enough.

My vote is alternate vendor, this is somewhat common, however do you really want to leave go in a circle and come back to clean?

It's not necessary for you to do a grand exit, especially if you're not going anyplace.

I don't really like the idea of cleanup though, either. Maybe you can ask the BP or family to help, and it won't be too bad?

At the end of the night, the venue cleans up. However, we can stay there, and we have a pool table at our disposal. So I'm sure we'll have some more drinks and play some pool afterward. We'll have to clean up the mess from that.

There is absolutely no reason to do a grand exit, unless of course you have someone who WILL clean it up and make it look as the way it did before. IMHO, grand exits are a bit ridiculous. Just my opinion!

I don't know what to tell you. Like Ednabugg I LOVE to party so I'm staying until the last note is played. I might move a thing or two, but I won't be doing anymajor clean-up. My decorator and event planner is the same person and she will have her staff come in and remove everything. Either the next day or whatever time the party finishes that night.

I dont get the idea of cleaning up after your wedding... so, you clean up in your dress??!!! You go and change into sweats and then come back and clean?! Trust me, I KNOW budgets are tight- mine is minimal (two kids in daycare, rent, two car payments, etc etc etc the list goes on) but that is one thing that i am not going to do unless absolutely neccessary...assuming you havent already gone Bridezilla on everyone, I am sure that you can find someone or a group of family and friends that will straighten up your venue after you leave. ENJOY YOUR DAY!!!!

Our venue is our home so no exit for us. My family will be here and I am sure I won't be allowed to lift a finger to clean LOL.

I agree with the others that unless you are leaving on your honeymoon immediately after the reception ends there is no reason to do a grand exit. I also agree that you should delegate cleanup to those you trust. I can't imagine anything less romatic than having to clean up when all you really want is some alone time with your new hubby!

Our venue does the clean up afterwards. We have our DJ until 2AM, so we plan to party long into the night!

No grand exit for us either. It'll probably be most of our friends left at the end, so they don't care about that stuff.

Also in agreement with everyone else. How about some extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) you trust to do clean up? What about a cleaning crew you could hire? Some high school or college students. Might end up costing you only $100-200; and if there is any left over dessert or food I'm sure the kids would love some. Just some thoughts

My venue is doing all the clean up, we're in a hotel so we get full service there. They even have concierege that will bring our gifts up to our complimentary "fantasy suite" (hubba hubba) that we get the night of the wedding. Our venue also has a night club so we are planning on having an after party right in the club downstairs to keep the party going--I'm in food and beverage and my BP and friends are partiers on special ocassions such as this--plus I am not going to want to take my dress off b/c I love it so much.

IMO I think you should delegate it if you're in love with the venue, no need to dirty your dress or stress yourself with that. If you're not in love with the venue, pick an all inclusive it eliminates a lot of these little headaches you might not initially think of

I booked my venue for the next morining so HF and I leave at 1145 and the party eneds at midnight. The clean up is happaning the next morining and my mother is organizing it

Thanks for the suggestions. I know it sounds crazy, but the reception is the part of the whole thing that I am dreading a little bit. I am a pretty strong introvert and I am going to be absolutely exhausted by the time 9 or 10pm rolls around that day and I don't want to be so tired that I can't spend time with my HUSBAND! I'm not really the 'partying' type either, and we're considering not having any alcohol. Nearly everyone who will be invited is from out of state, and they are all older, married relatives or young children. We don't really have a "20-30 somethings dance crowd". The more I think about it all the more I am leaning toward having the wedding and reception earlier in the day. If we did that, there would be plenty of time for cleanup and an evening spent with the one person I will actually WANT to see that day. I guess I have some things to figure out

My venue didn't mention anything aboutus having to clean the place up nor is it in the contract. I will talk to them about allowing me to pick up my centerpieces the next day.