Tell Me All About Your Home Reception

[Wish on a Star]

How long after your wedding did you have it?
Was it at your home or a restaurant?
Was it like a traditional reception or more casual like a drop in?
Any pictures?
Thanks

 

[Nicsnick]

My at home reception was June 26th 2009 and we got married March 23 2009 so about 3 months later.

We had it at a marriott in the ballroom. We got a great deal that included the meal, cake, centerpeices, open bar, and lines for about $80 per person.

It was a traditional reception but there was a few traditional things we did not do.

Here are a few pictures: (sorry so many)

 

[DisneyBrideToni]

We had our New Jersey reception in a hall. It was traditional. We did everything like a traditional reception (first dance, cake, garter, bouquet toss). We had about 100 people there.

We showed a video of our ceremony in Disney. Once the ceremony was done the DJ started announcing our bridal party in. It was like everyone was at the ceremony and then magically appeared at the reception.

I don't have any professional pics back yet. The one good part of this reception is that unlike the nice cake feeding in Disney, I got to smash the cake in Bobby's face which of course he did right back to me.

 

[lurkyloo]

Ours was held in DH’s hometown in the Bay Area of California. He has a huge family, and almost all of them live in Northern California, so the party was basically for them. After planning our entire wedding in about 5 months, I was completely uninterested in planning anything else, so when DH’s parents offered to host it as our wedding gift, we let them do what they wanted – which turned out to be an open house with a sort of potluck.

I wore my wedding necklace because so many people had asked to see it, but otherwise it was extremely casual – which was perfect!

The party ran from 1pm to 6pm on a Saturday about 2 months after our wedding, and we sent out combo wedding announcement/reception invites on the day after we got married (a huge etiquette no-no, but man was it convenient!).

We encouraged people to drop in whenever they wanted and stay however long they wanted, so we didn’t really have a schedule other than cutting the cake at some point. It was quite convivial and felt easy and fun rather than “let’s meet the entire fambly” scary!

We had our wedding video playing on a loop in one room, and I was surprised how many people who arrived in the middle sat through the cycle to see the whole thing.

Even guys watched it!

Even more popular were the softcover Blurb books I’d made of our wedding photos. We made one for each grandma and passed them around during the party. Tthe grandmas got their books at the end of the night and proceeded to share them with anyone who crossed their paths: bridge partners, hair dressers, the meter reader... ). People seemed to love being able to look at actual printed photos instead of the ones we had in a slideshow on DH’s laptop, and we had people ask us how to get started using Blurb.

DH’s parents made a few crockpot dishes and put out sandwich fixings, and people brought desserts. We used leftover paper goods from our engagement party, which the hostess bought in our wedding colors – awwww!

My contribution was an attempt at re-creating my parents’ wedding cake, which my aunt made them as a three-tiered version of the popular family birthday cake (a Ghirardelli milk chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting!). I watched a video about making tiered cakes on YouTube, bought a Martha Stewart cake turntable, ordered all the other supplies I’d need from a professional cake-baking website, and thought I knew all I needed to know….

This was the inspiration…

And this was the cold, harsh reality….

To add insult to injury, the dang thing actually started collapsing before the party started! We had to spackle over the Grand Canyon with extra frosting…. I guess drinking straws really aren’t a good substitute for wooden dowels when you’re making a layer cake. Fortunately, it tasted really good!

At the party, we used our special wedding cake knife for the cake-cutting and displayed pictures of our parents’ cake-cuttings and the one from our wedding.

I admit I was a little scared how the at-home reception would turn out without me micromanaging everything, but in the end it was just perfect – a fun, relaxed opportunity to get to know people and share our excitement with them. I highly recommend the idea to anyone having a destination wedding!

 

[BecBennett]

We're not married yet, but our plan is to take the people who can't make it - with good reason - out to dinner at our favourite restaurant. Nothing big, little to no planning needed.

 

[lfama]

We are having an Escape in April, so we didn't have ours yet, buuut...

My mom wanted to throw me a shower, but after consideration I thought it was kind of rude to invite a bunch of women to a shower to give me gifts and then not invite them to the wedding. Plus, DF and I already live together so I felt that made it even more tacky. So, my mom is now throwing us an at home "reception." DF and I are Catholic, so it is a must that we have a priest make it official. We plan on doing that part in May or June, so we are hoping to have a priest bless our marriage and invite everyone we would have invited had we had a proper wedding at home. Then, we're going to have a brunch at a restaurant and hopefully share photos and stories of the actual wedding. Nothing fancy at all, we'll have our iPod going and maybe we'll get a 2-tiered wedding cake. Very laid back. Just something we want to have to celebrate with the people we wish we could invite! I think people will understand that we're basically eloping and just had family. Everyone we spoke to really understands our reasoning and we always get the same reaction "I wish I would have done that!"

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

Our Disney wedding is in two weeks time but our at home reception will be on September 26th.

We decided to hold it at a local hotel only 15 minutes walk from our flat! Their prices are very reasonable and they always do a great job with wedding receptions.

We have decided to do it like a proper reception, with our 'real' first dance, speeches and another cake cutting. We are wearing our wedding outfits again, but I am having my bouquet recreated from balloons (hopefully - just waiting on confirmation from the very talented balloon artistry lady!).

The reason we chose this was because there will only be 9 of us in Florida, and DF and I both have fairly large extended families, plus lots of great friends. However, it is only in the evening, and we are having a buffet for food. We're also having a "pick'n' mix" sweet area instead of favours (see my PJ for inspiration photos).

 

[pghloveswdw512]

Our wedding is in January at WG, but we're both from Pittsburgh so having a reception soon after would mean lots of snow and not lots of fun. We're going to have it Memorial Day weekend, which means my family can travel to Pittsburgh since none of them live near us. We're going to have it at the DF's parents' house because they have a huge yard. I want to have a cornhole tournament, a volleyball net set up, and maybe horseshoes. We're going to grill hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken. We might have a cookie table for dessert since that's a big Pittsburgh wedding tradition (and a delicious one). The DF and I will wear what we wore to the wedding, and we'll have a video or a slideshow of pictures from the Disney trip.

I want it to be really laid-back and casual. It's just a celebration of the two of us, and we like to grill out and play games! I'm guessing it will be 90-100 people.

 

[Disneychix]

I had my at home reception one week after our WDW wedding. We had it at a local reception venue on a Friday evening. We did have the whole traditional reception with DJ, cake, dinner, bar. We had a table set up with framed pictures that guests took in WDW (my mother quickly put that together!) and a laptop running with a wedding video.

DH bought a suit to wear so we did not have to rent 2 tuxes. My BMs laughed as they actually got to wear the dress twice!