Reception without dancing... what do you think?

[ecoon]

Wow, sounds like we are all having similar weddings. Well I will be writting this in my TR within a few days but I thought I would share my experience.

We had 29 people (including us) at the Attic. We did not get announced coming in and I don't think it was a big deal at all to not be announced. I didn't have a DJ. I had Disney set up an AV tech with a speaker and hooked it up to our ipod. When it was time to eat, the planner told us and we started going though the buffet. Everyone saw this and realized it was time to eat so no announcement was needed. It was the same for everything else. With a small group everyone just seemed to see what was going on and didn't need to hear an announcement. We had out first dances after diiner, and then had music that was very dance optional. If people wanted to it was appropriate but it was low enough volume to still be kinda in the backgroud. We had donald duck come for the cake cutting and so everyone was watching him and knew it was time for the cake cutting.

I have to say though I had alot of the ame concerns you guys have about keeping people entertained for several hours. Two things I am really glad we squeezed into the budget. 1.) A character: Everybody loved having donald there and every single person there had their picture taken with him. He was worth every penny. 2.) A bar: My family doesn't drink so orginally we had no had a bar in our budget but we added it last min. We had the bar open after dinner and it encouraged mingleing and gave everyone something to do.

WOW sorry that was so long, it is just so fresh in my memory, read my TR for more info!

 

[cseca]

Thanks everyone

ecoon, what time was your ceremony and your reception?
(btw I read your PJ and you looked beautiful in your dress... )
We picked the 5pm because firstly the 2:30 were already booked and because we don't want the pre-reception to take hours...
And now *I* worry about the time being too short (1hr pre-reception, 2hr dinner, 1hr DP) ... sigh... there's no winning for me...

 

[ecoon]

ecoon, what time was your ceremony and your reception?
(btw I read your PJ and you looked beautiful in your dress... )
We picked the 5pm because firstly the 2:30 were already booked and because we don't want the pre-reception to take hours...
And now *I* worry about the time being too short (1hr pre-reception, 2hr dinner, 1hr DP) ... sigh... there's no winning for me...

Our wedding ceremony was at 2:30. We got married at SBP and then just had to walk to the Attic (after pics of course) Out guests got to the Attic at about 3:30 and we got there at about 4:00. We did a dessert party so we left the Attic at about 7:45 to grab the limos to Epcot.

If you really are not planning on doing dancing I think two hours for dinner will be fine. Good Luck!

 

[yanners]

I think many people have answered this well but I thought I could thow out an idea for the non-speech.

I didn't want to have to give a speech so what I did was write each person a little note saying how they positively affected my life.

Everyone LOVED that and it wasn't hard to do. They thought it was the most touching and heartfelt thing they had ever seen.

Just a thought......

 

[lurkyloo]

I love that idea too! What a wonderfully personal and meaningful gift.

Dang - another thing to add to my list of projects...

 

[figmentfan814]

I was thinking to hire a DJ even though I really didn't want to. I know that no one is going to dance and it seems silly to me to basically pay someone $1500 to come in just to make a few announcements. As a couple of other brides here have mentioned, their WPs were willing to do it. If not, I may have to find an outgoing family member....

The other thing about the length of the reception is that I was unable to shorten it really. My ceremony is at 2:30 and the reception (at LSS) is immediately after, plus we are having a DP at 8:30. It wouldn't make sense really to have everyone leave for an hour and then have to come back to Epcot again.

Do you guys think a plated dinner vs a buffet would take up more time?

We're at the LSS and we're paying to have a pianist play background music throughout the entire reception. There aren't any real dancers and we're using an iPod for our first dances. The piano there is really cool- clear acrylic with gold, so there are always options for other background music from live musicians too which is less than a DJ.

 

[cseca]

I think many people have answered this well but I thought I could thow out an idea for the non-speech.

I didn't want to have to give a speech so what I did was write each person a little note saying how they positively affected my life.

Everyone LOVED that and it wasn't hard to do. They thought it was the most touching and heartfelt thing they had ever seen.

Just a thought......

That is an EXCELLENT idea... may we borrow it too?
Thanks for posting that...

 

[PrincessBride07]

Another non dancing wedding here. We did have a dj though. All he did really was play background music. He did announce last call for the bathroom, and the dances. He kinda announced us in the room (actually fed the words to my 9 yr. old nephew). Even if you don't have dancing, I would suggest some sort of background music whether it be a dj or Ipod.

Cseca ~ our wedding was at 5p.m. with dinner served at 7. We ran a little late (about 20 minutes) to our dp, but illuminations started at 9:30 that night. It didn't seem like it was too little time at all.

 

[cseca]

Another non dancing wedding here. We did have a dj though. All he did really was play background music. He did announce last call for the bathroom, and the dances. He kinda announced us in the room (actually fed the words to my 9 yr. old nephew). Even if you don't have dancing, I would suggest some sort of background music whether it be a dj or Ipod.

Cseca ~ our wedding was at 5p.m. with dinner served at 7. We ran a little late (about 20 minutes) to our dp, but illuminations started at 9:30 that night. It didn't seem like it was too little time at all.

Thanks PrincessBride!
hmm... I was getting anxious about the time recently. Your post helps a lot.
May I ask how you did your pictures?
Did you do before or after the ceremony?

 

[PrincessBride07]

Thanks PrincessBride!
hmm... I was getting anxious about the time recently. Your post helps a lot.
May I ask how you did your pictures?
Did you do before or after the ceremony?

DH flat out refused to do a reveal. I was concerned that we wouldn't have much time for the just us pictures. We did the individual pictures preceremony, and the rest afterwards. Though half the time was group pictures, we did have plenty of time for the just us pictures. We did have Randy take an extra hour of pictures for us at the Boardwalk after the dessert party. We ended up with a ton of pictures, especially considering we did the MK photoshoot too.

 

[cseca]

Thank you so much!
That was our plan too... no reveal.
The added time afterwards was a good idea.
I should ask my photographer if he is willing to do that if necessary.
You are a sanity saver... thank you so much!!!

 

[PrincessBride07]

Thank you so much!
That was our plan too... no reveal.
The added time afterwards was a good idea.
I should ask my photographer if he is willing to do that if necessary.
You are a sanity saver... thank you so much!!!

your welcome. If you have any other questions feel free to pm me anytime.

*sorry for the slight hijacking of this thread*