Does our wedding need more entertainment?

[yesthatsme1988]

My Mum's not around and most of my gf's are busy marrieds and I don't want to bother them with trivial stuff, so hoping MN can help!

We are having an evening wedding in winter time (civil ceremony all in one venue - small stately home / country hotel type venue) and I'm worried in case the party part needs more entertainment or "stuff".

Timings so far:

5pm get married
5.30 - 6.30pm drinks reception with Christmassy swing band
6.30pm - 9pm 3 course dinner, speeches, port & cheese
9-12 DJ

Formal photos are all being done before so no need to use the drinks reception time for that.

For 9-12pm, there is a lounge bar, and another lounge room with a fireplace as well as the room with dance floor and DJ. So I imagine guests will choose to dance or sit and chat. Most guests will be young - aged 20-40 - and only a small handful of older relatives. No young children.

My question is, does the last 3 hours seem a bit dull / long and is there anything else you think we should include such as activities / entertainment for that part of the evening? We did think about squeezing in another live band as well but thought it might be too much of a stretch (financially and timings wise).

People have suggested a photo booth but I'm not sure, and we can't afford fireworks although that would have been great. There will be a signing book for people to do - not that exciting - but not sure if we need anything else so it doesn't fizzle out....! Btw I suggested casino table in one of the lounge rooms but DP wasn't keen.

I don’t think you need anything, although those silly photo booths with props etc seem to go down well if you wanted a little something.

Gosh. I've got the same as you and mine starts at 1pm...

Sounds lovely as it is IMO. Great there is a nice place to sit and chat without having to shout over the music, more weddings should think of that.
If you really, really want to you could put out a few silly games, packs of cards, twister, dominos, pik-a-Stiv, trivia quiz sheets (wedding related maybe), maybe a collage of photos for people to look at (you as kids, holidays, relatives when younger, especially including your guests). So simple and cheap.
But really, I think your wedding sounds lovely as it is.

It's for adults not kids - they don't need magicians and acrobats! I find wedding are great for catching up with people, meeting new people and having a nice blethe/drink.

Absolutely fine - it will fly by!

Spent a fortune on a band at my wedding to exH. After the first dance no one danced to them at all, as soon as disco went on the dance floor was filled. Stick to what you’ve got.

I’d be fine with that as I’d be happy just chatting and getting drunk after the meal then dancing like an idiot :) I see nothing particularly fun about those photo booths though. Adults shouldn’t need anything particular for entertainment, they’re not kids. As long as they are with friends that should be enough!

Sounds great - not sure how drunk your guest will get but it might be worth setting the cheese and biscuits out so that people can help themselves throughout the later hours in the evening so if they get a bit hungry they can have some food? I went to a wedding that did this and it went down well as people weren’t really hungry after a 3 course meal for a cheese course too. Otherwise defo don’t need any further entertainment!

No it sounds fine. Nicely timed actually. My friend had a very entertainment-heavy wedding and it was very tiring. We were shunted here and there to partake of different activities and there was no time to sit and chat or go and freshen up in our rooms (we all stayed at the venue) or enjoy a few beverages at the bar - it really was exhausting.

Sounds great! So nice to see an evening wedding not some drawn out all-day affair, always such a bore or forcing people to participate in activities.

I went to a wedding recently with lots of extra fun activities ( quizzes, giant sized game pieces etc) that may have been charming in themselves but diverted from what people actually wanted to do which was catch up with old friends, chat to new people, have a quiet sit and drink or have a dance. You’ve got plenty going on, especially for a late wedding.

Okay, thank you of the reassurance everyone. Yes, the idea was to have a more condensed event as I personally can't stand too much standing around.

Thanks Matilda1981 - that's a good idea about the cheese - I might ask the venue to bring down all the cheese and wine leftover and set up on a table in the lounge so people can nibble. There will be a free bar for those 3 hours anyway so hopefully guests will be happy.

**for

When DD had her 21st with DHs 60th, we had a cheese cake for late night nibbles. It was a huge cheddar, topped with a smaller round cheese and a smaller one on top of that. It was decorated with grapes and round small goats cheeses. It looked fantastic and we didn’t have a birthday cake. We did a cheese tasting at our local cheese deli to select the cheeses and look at pictures of what they could do.

We were still going at 3.30 am though!

Are you having any photos of guests? It seems a little bit rushed for informal photos and people will want to take them. Or get the photographer to do informal ones during the drinks reception. I don’t think you have time to squeeze much more in!

Thanks Bubbles. Yes we are having a cheese and port bit after the dinner, in a breakout room where people can mill around and stretch legs after dinner and this will have a sort of cheese stack "cake" thingy...! Another pp suggested we keep this out so people can nibble later on if they get hungry, although there's not much time to get hungry really. We do have the option to extend the licence until 1am or 2am if we choose....

Formal photos are being done before the ceremony, and then the photographer will just take informal ones as the evening progresses. Not that fussed about having lots of formal ones of guests tbh.