Wedding After Party

How early is your ceremony? Depends on how long of a day it is for people. We went to a Friday wedding and most people were leaving or left by 11pm. Ceremony was at 3pm so it was a long night. At our wedding we were too tired to do an after party and just wanted to relax together back at the hotel. And ours ended at 10pm

At one of my friend's wedding, she had the after party at the hotel everyone was staying at. She rented one of their big meeting rooms and we drank what was left of the alcohol and hung out for a while. Was pretty fun!

Mimitrue, the cocktails before the ceremony is at 6pm with the ceremony starting at 6:30pm.

I was also thinking something similar that it would be a long day for us as the bridal party will start getting ready around 9am so that we can take pictures before the ceremony.

Since your day is starting later with everyone then an after-party definitely could work. But remember that it's a long day full of emotions and running around. You may just want to be with your new hubby to relax.

6-midnight is a long time. Keep in mind, you'll have been up since early in the morning, full of adrenaline, etc. Ours started at 4, ended at 10, and we were exhausted afterwards. We had hoped to go out just the two of us in our finery and have a quiet drink, but we were so tired by the time we got to our hotel.

That's good to know, KristenBeez.

That's very true E-Tex and mimitrue. I guess I was just trying to maximize the amount of time that everyone would be in one place again (i.e. family from out of town, college friends) but that is going to be a very very long day. Hmm

What about your honeymoon?

Leah, We are leaving for our honeymoon a few days later so we would still have a few days to pack and stuff.

I've never been to a hosted after party. It's always been people hanging out at the hotel bar or somewhere within walking distance of the hotel after we've had a chance to go back to our rooms, relax a bit, and change out of our formal wear. I'm anticipating that's how it'll go at my wedding (we'll be getting a hotel block).

We are having an after party. Our Cermony is at 3pm and the reception ends at 8.00/8.30pm. The after party will end at midnight or whenever people decide to leave. If you are having a larger wedding, I think it will be nice for you to catch up with people more on a personal level than you would be able to at the wedding. Maybe 25-50% of the guests will attend. We are having a shuttle from venue to after party location which will not be far from hotels.

Most after parties I've been too at weddings were an impromptu type of thing. People were excited to continue hanging out with people they haven't seen in a while. I don't think it would feel like much of an "after-party" if it was just an extended hour on your reception.

I had an afterparty after a daytime wedding, so a little bit of a different situation, but we did have a lot of people come and party with us. Just to give you an idea, our ceremony started at 11:30a, reception ended at 4pm, had the afterparty start around 6pm (it was in a different location, a decent distance away from the wedding venue). We had 50+ guests come to the after party and the last group left at 11:30 that night...so we're talking 12 hours (with a little break in between to change, drop off kids, etc) of celebration with us, lol! E-Tex is right, consider how tired you might be as well though. I had been up since 3:30 that morning and honestly we expected to take leave of the party around 9pm but we were just having so much fun, I didn't even notice myself getting tired, which was shocking to us both believe me. I'm normally not a late-night person at all. It comes down to just knowing your group though. If you have a lot of family coming in that doesn't see each other often, they might enjoy the excuse to keep visiting and catching up.

I have had several of my guests asking if we wanted to go out after the reception. Our wedding goes from 5:30-11:30. We said we planned on it since everyone is from out of town. But we will just be going to a local bar after changing out of our formal wear and will probably just go for a half an hour or so, nothing fancy. I know we will want to decompress, but I haven't gotten to see many of my friends in years and want to spend as much time with them as possible.

I've been to two weddings with after parties and we also had one ourselves. One of the after parties we went to was hosted as was ours. One of the after parties was not hosted. All three were super fun. The two hosted were daytime weddings and the not hosted one was an evening wedding. They started off with a lot of people and then dwindled down.

I think it really depends on your crowd as to if they will stay. Ours and the non hosted one happened at the hotel where everyone was staying, so most of the hotel guests attended.

Thanks for the input anyone. I think we might hold off and if something happens organically that works too. I'm going to chat it over with FH.

FH's parents are hosting an after party (that we are not attending) and I do believe at least half of the guests will show up. FH's family is hispanic and man do they know how to party and dance bachata all night long ! !

My wedding is from 3:30-9 and then we will continue to have fun back at the hotel, but I'm not really planning a whole other after party so I don't have much advice. Following out of curiosity.

It depends on your crowd. That 1 extra hour at the venue you will have to decide for yourself. It will be a long day for you and that extra hour may not be worth the time, plan and cost.

I ran this past my FH because our friends like to party. I thought it would be fun to keep the party going.

His response: "No. I plan on having a party of my own with my new wife."

Who the hell can argue with that?

I'm leaning towards not doing it after hearing your opinions and if we spontaneous ended up at a random bar at the end of the night that's fine too.

S&J, no one can argue with that hahaha!