Reception Only!

Here’s what I did for my reception:


Grand entranceFirst danceDinnerSpeechesBouquet tossGarter tossCake cuttingOpen dance floor

View Quoted Comment Yesss perfect I love that idea. Thank you so much.

We had a semi-formal local reception a few months after our wedding which went like this:


5:00-6:00 cocktail hour (Our grand entrance was 5:30)6:00-7:00 dinner & live band7:00-8:00 Frank Sinatra impersonator/dancing8:00 cake cutting8:00-10:00 live band/dancing

I think still kicking things off with a cocktail hour is a great idea! It's a nice way for people to trickle in and start mingling!

Then our reception went: entrance, first dance, a quick blessing, dinner started, father daughter dance, toasts, then open that dance floor! We did the cake cutting about an hour and a half later and kept dancing.

I love the idea of starting with a cocktail hour, too. Then any latecomers don't interrupt the flow of events in the reception and you can say hi to everyone before things kick off.

We are doing an open-house concept in Sept for our Wedding Celebration. We are having it at a lodge at a metropark that also has a lot of outdoor space just for the lodge. We will have 3 time frames (we are allowed 50 people at a time at our venue) and we will have yard games and music and we are praying the governor will lift the ban on dancing at weddings (darn COVID!).

In your special case it would be just skipping out the ceremony but an example would be after the ceremony exit to cocktail hour. I would definitely recommend still keeping your special dance with your spouse, parent's, cake cutting, garter/bouquet, and a grand exit for all your guest to be a part of. Even though you have been legally wed it's still a very special day for the both of you celebrating the union of your marriage. Congratulations