This is a thread that was started in our old BlissWeddings.com forums by OOPHIE on 07/05/2005.
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posted by OOPHIE
Hello...I am now thinking that I might want to have an early ceremony...either 11am or 1pm...any suggestions for reception food / activities? Though, having a dance is not a priority on our list...I was hoping someone might have any other ideas they could help me out with.
Thank you for your ideas/thoughts/suggestions! OOPHIE
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posted by Lizbet
In my opinion, an 11am ceremony suggests a luncheon reception, where you might serve finger sandwiches, fruit and cheese trays, and fresh veggies with dips.
A 1pm ceremony gives the guests time to eat a lunch prior to the ceremony, and therefore does not call for anything but a cake and punch reception, though you could do more if you wanted. If you choose a more elaborate reception for the later wedding time, I would make sure your guests are aware. Otherwise, you will probably be trying to serve food to already full guests.
As for activities, a receiving line, the cake cutting, and the bouquet/garter tosses are the general activities (other dancing) usually found at a reception.
Were you looking for other ideas? Some people actually enjoy karaoke. We are not having it as part of our reception, but it will be available in the "kid's room" for any who want to indulge. We are setting up a part of the reception hall to act as a sort of a Chuck E. Cheese for our young guests. We will have the kid's food table there with two PS2 for playing the dance game and the karaoke game. There will also be a small table where the kids can sit to color or play cards (both things are part of the chidren's favors). We are hiring a Sunday School worker -- currently a nursing student -- from the church where we will be married as the Guardian of the Games.
Edited to add: I just noticed you are from Canada. Do you know what I mean by Chuck E. Cheese? It is an American chain "restaraunt". They serve not too great pizza. But, the draw is that they have games galore for kids. The parents can go and order the pizza and sit a a table, while the kids run and jump and wear themselves out playing the games. They have the plastic jungle-gym tpye stuff and arcade games.
"I send you a cream-white rosebud with a flush on its petal tips, for the love that is purest and sweetest has a kiss of desire on its lips." -- Excerpt from A White Rose by John Boyle O'Reilly
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posted by 080605bride
I am having my ceremony at 1pm. We are having a seated luncheon with the usual activities. I'm not sure what you mean when you say having a dance is not a priority. Do you mean a first dance or dancing during the reception?
I have a friend that did not want dancing at her reception, so she has it onboard a cruise ship. (I live in Florida). They had a private room where we had cake, dinner, the 1st dance, and stuff. The rest of the time you could gamble or dance or do whatever else they had on the ship. It was actually really fun! If we were having an adult only wedding, I would have gone for it!
Maybe you could find something like that or at a local theme park or national park.
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posted by gymrat
My ceremony was suppose to start at 1130. It would of but my Aunt fainted as she was walking to her seat just as we were about to start the processional (sp?). There was such a delay bc we wanted people to look around the arboretum since we paid for them to enter. Our reception started at 2 pm with fruit then 2:30ish we had people sit so we could start with food (had to do toasts, pray, that kind of stuff) We did a sit down meal since it was lunch time. As we saw most people were finished with lunch we did cake cutting. Then we went onto the little bit of dancing. Steve, hubby, made all of our CDs for the reception. We had the GMs do MC duty. We told them what to say. We did 1st dance, F/D, & M/S dances. Since, most people were older they did not want to dance any way but we did play music and a few people danced now and then. The reception was over by like 5 pm.
I think with a 1 pm ceremony that you still might want a full meal. I know I would have to eat a late breakfast bc I eat around 1230/1 pm for lunch which means I would be driving or at your ceremony.
It kind of depends on the crowd that you plan on inviting for activities. I know for us we probably could have not done any more music after the few we wanted to do and no one would of cared. Not sure if this helped at all so I will stop going on and on.
Smiles,
Lisa Marie
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posted by NovemberGal
With a 1 pm ceremony, you could get away with a cake and punch reception, but I think you'd be better off doing either a meal or a heavy-ish hors d'oeuvres reception, for the reason that LM mentioned. For a 1 ceremony, most guests are going to aim for being there 15-30 min. early, and what with driving and dressing time, most folks would probably eat an early lunch/late breakfast--or possibly not eaten at all if they aren't morning people and are rushing (umm...ME! ) and folks WILL get hungry during your reception. If you have only cake & punch folks will mill around for a bit then head to the closest eatery.
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posted by aug05bride
My ceremony is at 1:30 and we're having a deli buffet luncheon with little sandwiches and sort of picnic type foods (neither me nor my FH like what I call froo-froo foods so this is more "us"). The meal is pretty much a light lunch and cool foods also as the ceremony is outside in August so we thought eating anything too heavy or too hot might actually make people a bit sick. We'll have a couple of hor d'eurvre (spelled wrong but you know what I mean
) also but those are actually part of the buffet line. We'll have pretzels, peanuts & M&M's for people to snack on while we finish pictures. You have to realize that with a 1:00 or 1:30 ceremony, those IN the wedding are probably there at least an hour before - 2 hours for us - and will have been getting ready before that so a "late" breakfast might not even have happened so cake & punch really wouldn't do it. For the guests, I agree that you should assume they've not eaten within about 45 minutes of the ceremony at least (and that's men as women tend to take a bit more time to get ready) so probably haven't had lunch by the time of the wedding.
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posted by OOPHIE
Thank you ALL, for your thoughts and suggestions...they are appreciated. Lots of great ideas! Thanks again!
PS - By meaning that a dance is not a priority...I meant that we'd like to have our first dance and father/daughter-mother/son dance...but nothing more.
Thanks again, OOPHIE
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