Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Ceremony/Reception Gap

My nephew is getting married and my sister called yesterday to discuss what I thought about gaps between the wedding and reception. I know this is a big problem with Catholic weddings especially, since brides have to get married earlier in the day due to mass times and then have to wait till the evening for their reception, if they want a night time reception. There are several things that happen when you have a large gap (we’re talking several hours here) between the wedding and the reception.

The good news is there will be plenty of time for pictures at a different location for the bridal party. There will be an opportunity for guests who are staying in a nearby hotel to go back and rest up.

The bad news is many of your guests will only attend one of the events. Most will skip the wedding and come only to the reception. People do not want to dress for a wedding, then after the wedding sit around dressed up with nothing to do and wait for a reception. Keep in mind some of your guests will have a hotel room or home to return to and wait, but what about those guests that have driven in from a neighboring town or city and do not have somewhere to go back to and wait. What are they suppose to do?

You can help avoid this by having an activity planned for your guests during that in between time. Have an informal gathering of guests in a hotel suite or at a friend’s home. If you are in a destination city, maybe rent a tour bus to pick guests up and tour them around town. For an inexpensive idea, supply guests with a map of interesting locations in the area, including things to see, places to eat or get something to drink. Don’t just leave your guests floundering with nothing to do.

This is your day, but if you want your day to turn out perfect remember happy guests are what will make it that way.

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