Can anyone help me

[summerwedding]

Getting married end of July. Registry office and bit of a party after. Not a massive budget either.
We've booked the venue and hopefully having a marquee. It's not going to be very formal, no top table or speeches but I do want a first dance and to cut the cake.
I just need some help with order of the day.
Ceremony is at 3pm.
When should we serve the food ? It will be a buffet style.
What kind of things do we need for the kids ? There is a park at the venue luckily so I'm hoping that will provide some entertainment.
What time do we invite evening guests from?
Struggling with reception music and what time would the disco start?
Do we have the first dance after cake cut and before the disco starts ?
So confusing ! Only been to one wedding in my adult life and can't even we much of it 😳 any help I'd be so grateful !

Hello!

Ceremony 3pm
Photos & canapés (if you're providing any) 3.30-4.30
4.30 - 6 buffet
6-7 speeches
7 evening guests arrive
8pm cake cutting and first dance
9pm more food if you're providing

x

Thank you that really helps! Forgot to mention we're not having speeches !

When the buffet is on should we have some music in the background?

Some people can get confused by times to arrive as they either arrive really early or at the time the ceremony starts. On my invites i put an arrival time and the ceremony time so people knew the window they had.

Are you having more food for evening guests? If not then don’t wait until late for your main food to try and cover both sets of guests, your day guests will be starving. But also make it clear on the evening invite that they won’t get fed…

If one lot of food only I’d go with something like “please join us for cake and dancing from 19:30”.
Many won’t arrive until 20:00 and it’s late enough they’ll have eaten first.

Day timings I would say…

Arrive for 14:30 (some will start to arrive around 14:15)
Ceremony at 15:00

Timings:
Ceremony @ 15:00
Canapés / drinks @15:30-16:15
Guests called to buffet area / seating (if different)
Buffet @16:30-18:00
Evening guests @19:30
Cake cutting @20:00

Does your venue have Spotify? I would have background music on during the good as it adds to the atmosphere. It’s the kind of thing you don’t notice unless it’s not there

@MimiSunshine I need to clear with the venue first if we can have some chips or something for the evening guests. Would that be sufficient do you think? It's actually a curry place so maybe some samosas etc too ?

We're not having a seating plan (is this going to be a nightmare?) I just want it informal and relaxed ! How will this work with the buffet, I was thinking it's just Gona be a big spread rather than having to call tables up.

We're having someone with a laptop play the music for disco so I'm thinking I'd just make a playlist for background music for the buffet and a separate one for the disco.

Really unsure what time to start the buffet. Don't want it too early but of course the kids will need feeding at a reasonable hour aswell. Honestly all this is so confusing and it's not even a massive fancy do

Re: seating plan, how many guests? 24 might be OK without a seating plan, for example, but not 120.

@Echobelly including evening guests approx 80

Sounds fine, except the lack of seating plan. It’s not relaxing if you can’t sit next to people you know. It’s only doable if you have lots more seats than people. Just do a plan.

I think a seating plan is probably a good idea then. We had to do one for 180, but 80 would be much easier!

My main tip for weddings is just please god don't let anyone go too long without food or drink

2 things, 1, food can’t ever really be too early, although your wedding ceremony isn’t until 3pm many guest may not have time for lunch so will be hungry by 16:30.

2, Also have a seating plan. Guests expect it, I went to a wedding with a buffet meal and no seating plan, no one knew where to sit themselves or if they were intruding on family then a group of friends started dragging chairs over to sit as one massive group and so half the room was empty with then just poor randoms sat on tables alone.

Chips in the evening would be fine with me, you could just put on the invite ‘arrive for 19:30, cake cutting & 1st dance 20:00, chip butties served later.’

Hi everyone ! I've had a think and I agree do need some kind of order so I'm going to have a table plan, not assigning seats but tables, that'll be okay won't it ?

Also, how on earth do you decided to invite ?? I've got cousins who I never really see and thinking can I invite their parents but not them ? I can't really can I, stressing me out. Numbers are limited to approx 90 guests so makes it harder

I hope you can invite aunts and uncles without inviting cousins as that’s what I’m doing 😂, but then I think it depends on your numbers. The bigger the wedding the more likely they’ll be annoyed to be excluded.

I invited aunts and uncles but not cousins. Some of my cousins invited cousins to their evening reception only. There’s more than 30 cousins (including husbands/wives) and then about 20 kids just on my side so we had to draw a line.

To entertain kids, I had little goodie bags with a small pack of sweets, a chocolate, crayons, pencil and eraser. I made colouring books too (just printed pictures I found on line and threaded the pages together very simply).