What entertainment at our wedding?

[juicychops]

we will be leaving the wedding ceremony place at about 3.30-4pm. we didn't want to do the whole sit down formal dinner thing so we was thinking of alternatives. We are thinking about maybe going to a restaurant for a meal but there are 40 of us which will work out very expensive for me and dp. the alternative we was thinking of is going straight to the reception hall and having a sit down buffet. But what kind of entertainment can we have for 3 hours until the disco starts at 7pm? we cant really start the disco at 4pm cos there will only be 40 of us and it will prob be a bit dull.
any ideas? did anyone else have an alternative to a sit down formal meal?

another alternative is a wedding breakfast which is a lot cheaper, and like you say it works along the lines of a normal traditional meal except it's a buffet, so you would still have your head table, so you would probably find by the time you have eaten, given out gifts to bridesmaids etc and then done the speeches it will be time for the evening guests to arrive and therefore you won't need any further entertainment on until the evening?

Sit down buffet is fine - people will chat & gossip and then as Janbo says there are the speeches, cake cutting etc. You won't need entertainment. There's also the "welcome drink" and mingling to take up some time.

I don't think you'd need entertainment. If you leave the ceremony at 4pm, have photos?, get to reception place, welcome drink and mingle for an hour, buffet, speeches, cake, etc - it'll fill 3 hours quite easily, I would think.

If you're really worried you could always have a nice slide show set up, just in case you need to fill half-an-hour?

string quartet?

yeah it'll take about 3 hours for speeches, eating, cake etc.

you could hire a lone guitarist for "mood" music though (cheaper than a string quartet!)

we had a pub quiz at our wedding ... the magician who we had hired to mingle with guests did it -- hugely successful - everyone thought it was a great idea...

we had a jazz trio for when we arrived at the venue. Any music that you like is great - people will just chat and have a drink - like any party really!

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Are you having pictures after ceremony, by the time every one gets to venue and has a drink and you get pictures done you won't be ready until 4:30- 4:35, speeches then buffet meal, then cake cutting. Just get the venue to play background music. This would seem normal times to me. As others have said everyone will mingle and chat. If you really want something get some young classical music students who will probably accept a smaller fee to provide some nice background music.

At our blessing (very similar to normal wedding TBH) we had an informal buffet (not sit down). We had our service at 34pm, and then people were free to make their own way to the hotel for th receptin from there. Bar was open as we arrived, but no other entertainment was put on at that time. In one room, from about 6:30-8pm we had a classical guitarist, playing before and during buffet was served. Then from about 7ish there was a band and a disco, who alternated with each other, in the back room. Bar remained open throughout in back room and seperate bar area

TBH, the time between guests arriving at hotel and the buffet/entertainment starting seemed to pass quite qucikly. By time they'd got a drink, signed guest book, looked at our wedding album (got married 2 weeks previously on safari in Kenya) and had a chat with each other, it was all kicking off entertainment wise.

mancmum... the magician (or any type of mingling entertainer) is a fabulous idea. What a great way to amuse people and encourage people to get together. It sounds like a nice thing for people who might not know many other guests too.