Wedding Q & A – How Much Time To Spend With Wedding Guests
Q. I’m worried that we won’t have enough time to socialize with all of our guests at the reception, but still have fun too. My fiancé and I want to be able to enjoy ourselves, have fun and dance. But we also know that we need to mingle and talk with all our guests too. Any suggestions?
A. Wondering how much time to spend with wedding guests at the reception, and figuring out how to do that, is a big concern for many couples.
How Much Time To Spend With Wedding Guests
Greeting and visiting with your guests at the reception is a wonderful way to show your appreciation to them for coming to your wedding and sharing this special time with you. But with a large number of people involved (according to The Knot, the average number of wedding guests was 138), you don’t want to get caught in “meet and greet” mode and miss out on the party. So figuring out beforehand how much time to spend with wedding guests, and how to actually do so is very important.
This is the perfect time to divide and conquer, so to speak.
A few things to ask yourself are:
Who is going to be at your rehearsal dinner? You’ll get a good chance to visit with them at that time, so you won’t need to spend as much time doing so on your wedding day.
Who do you absolutely HAVE to socialize with? These would be the most important people to you – your parents, your grandparents. Also elderly guests who probably won’t be on the dance floor, and other guests who you don’t see very often, especially if they’ve traveled a good ways to come to your wedding.
Who’s going to be partying on the dance floor with you and who won’t?
Plan ahead so that at some point, you’ll have a chance to speak with everyone who took the time to celebrate with you, and still get to enjoy the party.
Hearts, Joy, Love!
Jean
Do you have any wedding planning questions or concerns? Contact me at [email protected] or at 937-581-3647.
Another way for your guests to not feel slighted is to have a receiving line after the ceremony. This is more relaxed, everyone is greeted, shown the way to the reception by the bridal party and the pre-party begins.
Though it works for some of my couples who use the idea… have the bridal party start the pre- party at the reception greeting everyone on behalf of the couple. There is not a worse feeling than to be a family member or friend who was invited out of 'duty' or a dear friend who knows no one, and then no one speaks to you during the course of the evening.
When the bridal party meets and greets each person along with asking them to dance even, if it is the funky chicken, it means the world to your guests.