Pre-Reception Meal/Cocktail Hour-Purpose?

[honey2741]

Hello Everyone!

My question is quite simplistic but what is the purpose of a pre-reception meal or cocktail hour? Are they the same thing? Do I need one? I was trying to cut down on costs and told DFTW I wouldn't need one, but now I'm thinking I may? What made you decide to have one? What made you decide not to do it? What type of food did you serve? Did you do drinks only? How long was it?

On a side note if anyone has pictures of the pre-reception area of Atlantic Dance Hall to share, it would help me out tremendously! Thanks.

 

[OceanGdss]

Its typically used for time. The bride & groom need time after the ceremony for photos. So this entertains the guests during this time. We were very budget concious, so we cut this time. Our ceremony was at 12, and our reception started at 1:30, nothing inbetween. Our guests were fine and no one complained. If anything, they pretty much entertained themselves during this time catching up with each other and talking about the ceremony!

 

[lurkyloo]

We also cut out the cocktail hour/pre-reception by taking our photos together before the wedding. We went from the ceremony to the reception with our guests, which I really liked.

Frankly, as a wedding guest, I've always felt the cocktail hour was the most boring part of the day because you have to wait around forever for the bride and groom to show up so the fun of the reception can start.

 

[SarahInMN]

We are having a 90 minute cocktail/hors doeuvres period between the wedding and the reception. We're doing most of our pictures pre-ceremony but wanted people to be able to mingle and we wanted to mingle with everyone. Plus we're having our photographers stay through the cocktail period and take candids which we think will be super fun. Our ceremony is in like 2 days so we'll see how it goes.

 

[camara381]

Since our reception is in Epcot we decided to have our cocktail hour during Illuminations and since they both take place in the parks the site fee and minimum was waived.

 

[lpizzuro123]

Our ceremony was at 9:00am in Epcot. Our guests got picked up around 8:00 from the resorts buy our chartered bus. Our ceremony was over by 9:30 and they got back on the bus and headed to Atlantic Dance Hall. We stayed in Epcot until 10:15 or 10:30 taking photos. Our pre-reception was from 10:00 to 11:00. We just served coffee, tea, champagne punch, and pastries, fruit and dip (these were taken from our Tinkerbell brunch so there was no extra cost). There was an extra charge for the coffee, tea and punch but not the food.

We got to ADH around 10:45 and took some photos outside went in and checked out the room and the cake. We did not go upstairs to our pre-reception but they brought some food down to us. Around 11:00 they started bringing everyone downstairs and we along with the bridal party went upstairs through another staircase and then they announced us and we walked down the main staircase. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures at the moment of the upstairs but here is a picture of ADH and the pre-reception is on the upper level looking over the downstairs.

Linda

 

[chipscinderelly]

We had the majority of our photos taken before the wedding as we wanted to attend our pre reception and enjoy the time with our guests. Because our reception was in MGM (I can't call it DHS) we needed the pre reception to allow DFTW and MGM teams to set up our dinner.

We held a fantasmic pre-reception and it was fabulous!