HELP!!! Post wedding open house ideas???

[tinkerrn]

UGH!!!! We decided last January that we would have a destination wedding due to the high cost of having a wedding at home. The primary cost was the reception and our families are VERY different. His are Baptist and really quiet, mine are a mix who like to Party! Well, here we are with just about 6 weeks to go before we leave to get married ( just the 2 of us), when my FDH 'casually' mentions that his mother wants to have a reception/party for us. After discussing this many times over the last few months we decided to forgo the party post wedding. My mother also had wanted to throw a reception for us when we got back. The idea just created a lot of anxiety, so we decided not to. So, he then tells me that she wants to throw this
'party' in his bros. church basement!!!! It is in a really old church,; the basement has really low ceilings, no windows, dark walls, and has a musty smell. I do not want to remember this as the setting for my post reception. Sorry, if I seem like a snob, but this idea just makes me cringe. So, after some discussion with my sister, I was thinking of an open house at our house a few weeks after we get back. Renting out a place is out of the question.
HELP!!! What do you guys think? Have any of you had an Open House? If so, please give me some details!!! Thanks!

 

[hjc1277]

We are having one in my future in laws backyard. They are taking care of almost everything, but asking for our opinions... This is a nice way to include those who will not be at our wedding (we are keeping things small, under 40... but have a couple hundred that we would have liked to invited)

 

[tinkerrn]

How are you planning it? What food are you serving? Are you renting a tent? Having a wedding cake? I am sooooo confused and anxious....I just have no idea where to even start.

 

[Merandab4]

We did the same exact thing you are talking about.
Most of our friends and family were with us for our Disney wedding, but there were several family members and friends that we wanted to include in our celebration that could not be with us in Disney.

We did not want to do anything real elaborate (because we felt odd inviting people to a reception when they were not invited to the wedding, or were not able to come), So we just had an open house. This worked out well because DH and I did not live together before the wedding, and we had just bought a house together. This gave us several excuses to celebrate. It was kind of like "we just got married, come see our new place" kind of thing.
We also had all our wedding pictures back, so people were able to take a look at those, tour our new home, eat food, and just mingle. Having had the wedding picture back and having this be a house very few people have seen made this open house thing work out very well. Had we not had these two novelties, It might have felt a little awkward having people just stand around or something. Thankfully that was not the case.

We got married in September and had a slight cinderella theme. We had our Open house in october and our them was more of a fall them with cinderella pumpkins and such. We had personalized Cinderella candy bars and white chocolate castles as favors. We had a two tired cake catered and used our Disney wedding cake topper on the top of it. To go along with the fall theme, my grandmother made her homemade vegetable soup that everyone just loved. At the time I am forgetting what other food we had. It was a good time though.
I agree with you, I would not want my post wedding part in a dingy dark church basement. If you could do something like a backyard barbecue or clam bake, that would be fun.
How many people are you/or MIL planning on inviting to the post party? It is very generous of her to want to throw a party for you all. Maybe you could do something a little classier like maybe a cake and champagne celebration at your home. That could be classy but simple.

Sorry about rambling, but maybe I gave you some ideas. Let us know what you end up planning! Good Luck!

 

[tinkerrn]

I love the Cinderella and pumpkin theme!!!! That would be perfect since we will have it in October!!!!! Amazing!!! We have debated over and over again, and the list goes from 50 to 200!!!! What did you wear? I really don't want to wear my wedding dress....it will be way too cold outside! We have 2 decks and a pool, the pool will be closed by then though. I was thinking about renting a tent and putting it outside, some candles, pumpkins, etc...
We were thinking of a barbecue, maybe chili????? I just don't want it to be a pot luck kinda thing. Thank you so much for the Cinderella and pumpkin theme!!! That is soooo perfect for fall!! Did you have yours at night? I was also thinking of having twinkle lights outside around the bushes. Our house isn't that big, hope it won't be too chilly when we get back!!

Thank you!!!

 

[PlaneJoy1]

We had a destination wedding and held an open house when we returned. It worked out fabulous! I didn't have a wedding shower or anything really before the wedding so a lot of the people brought gifts, which was nice. I wasn't expecting it, I just wanted a gathering of people. I ordered a small wedding cake from a local bakery and had heavy h'orderves (sp?). I wore a simple spring dress (we were married in April) and had our wedding pictures on display.

Good luck - I think you'll enjoy the low key nature of it all.

 

[fun2bmomof3]

I agree... no basement. Castle themes are wonderful, but that just makes me think of castle dungeons. LOL
I like the cinderella/pumpkin theme with twinkle lights everywhere. Very romantic. You could do it late afternoon/early evening. That way it might not be as chilly. It would probley be daylight when you started so the lights wouldn't be very bright, but as the sun set it would really start to sparkle. For a fall party once I found these little gem stone things that poke into pumpkins and then when you put a candle inside they sparkled. I did a bunch of tiny pumpkins with these and lined the pathway up to he door with them. You could swag tulle around your deck. I love tulle... so cheap but so effective for decorating.
As for food if you want BBQ / chili do it ahead of time and have it simmering in a crock pot to keep warm. You don't want to be cooking on that day.
I love the vegetable soup idea. Loaves of fresh baked bread from a bakery... ymm!
Think buffet ,not potluck. Go to a party supply or food service supply place and get the pans, platters etc for serving food on; it will give it a more catered look. You can even get these buffet things with candle like heat source to keep food warm.
If it's a true open house where people can come and go you wouldn't want a wedding cake. Because it would have to be cut for all to enjoy and wouldn't be that pretty. But you could do a cupcake wedding cake or a dessert tower. For the top do a small cake duplicate to the top tier of your wedding cake with your topper.
If I was doing this I would probley wear a really nice white pant suit or dress. Something warmer and suitable for fall weather but still says Bride. The sort of thing you might see an older bride or someone getting married for a second time wearing.


Good Luck and congratulations.

crissy