What do you do with all the guests the day after the Big Event?

[minko]

We're not off on honeymoon. DP is suggesting everyone comes back to our - quite small - house for a bbq. I am horrified! Our fridge isn't big enough for food for 20-30 people, never mind where they'd all sit/stand!

Is takeway pizzas an OK option? Surely no one expects much?

You don't have to do anything, i'm sure they wouldn't be expecting it. Way not stay in a hotel and start early

What a weird idea!! No one expects the bride and groom to be entertaining them the day after.
I agree, would book into a nice hotel and enjoy being Mr & Mrs for a night or two

Will you be in a hotel? If so you'll probably all be having brekkie together anyway and then everyone goes home.

If you want to prolong the festivities a bit more you could all go out for a big lunch somewhere? Find somewhere close to the wedding venue thats easy to find.

If you ring the place beforehand and tell them its the day after your wedding and your bringing 25 guests you might a group discount.

Everyone can pay a set amount(arrange with the restaurant/pub that you're going to how much is suitable, everyone can do their own drinks). It's another chance for everyone to say how lovely you looked and what a great day yesterday was before they all they get in their cars and go home, their own homes and most definitely not yours!

We are all in a hotel overnight together after the wedding. DP seems to think we have to entertain everyone afterwards. I'd prefer to leave it and adlib depending on everyone's mood the next day.

We do have to get back to collect our DCs from the grandparent though.

We had brekkie with guests and have been to wedding where we did this too and it was nice, but let's be honest after the day you will just want to be on your own.

Brekkie here only as well - then we left them to it. I think we'd done enough entertaining for one weekend !

Thank you. That's what I thought. I'm gonna be knackered! Not to mention hungover all being well. And you can't go from being princess one day to chief caterer the next...

Minko - if your friends have travelled to attend the wedding, I think it is nice to do something the next day. But NOTHING that involves effort! We all went down for a lovely pub lunch by the sea. it was particularly great for those people who'd come from far away but who we hadn't had a chance to see at the wedding. DH had lots of chit chat with some of his old uni friends in particular which he remembers very fondly.

We told people we'd be in the pub for lunch the next day, and a few friends came back to our flat to drink and open presents, but most people just went home anyway.

We weren't all staying in the same hotel so made it known that we would be in a (large) local coffee shop at 10ish the following morning - some people had to dash off or had only come up for the day of the wedding but lots of people turned up. Some also organised their own pub lunches etc afterwards among themselves.
We did stay in the hotel and have breakfast in bed before putting in an appearance though!

The bride and groom are definitely NOT expected to entertain as normally they would have left on honeymoon.

We had a BBQ but just for the guests that had travelled a long distance to be with us. That meant we were able to spend more time chatting with local guests on the day and longer with the travellers the next day.

We then went back to our hotel for an intimate dinner for the two of us and then went off on honeymoon the next day.

It was lovely with people swapping stories about the wedding and looking at pictures on people's cameras.

Like Ohbling I was able to catch up with old college friends and make plans for a reunion the following year.

OMG absolutely no way should you be thinking of hosting anything the day after your wedding. Brekkie in the hotel then off to respective homes. My dad did take about 25 family members on the London Eye the next day but it had only just opened so was a novelty and we're near enough to do that.

it was nice going punting with a very old friend and my inlaws the day after. But don't arrange anything difficult- and definitely not at 10am! The pub lunch/cafe is a good idea if you really want to do something. it's certainly hard to have much of a conversation with most people at weddings, at both my weddings i seemed to exchange about half a sentence with everybody and have lengthy talks with people I barely knew.

BTW it wasn't much effort to put it together - it was very much burgers and sausages in baps rather than anything posh. Various friends and relatives took it in turn to man the bbq so no-one got stuck cooking all the time. We used disposable plates etc so all the rubbish just got lobbed in binbags at the end.

Everyone says how quickly your wedding goes and this did mean that the celebrations did go on that bit longer and we were much more relaxed the day after. Plus the guests really appreciated it - especially as the ceremony venue was very small and many had travelled for over 3 hours to be there for the evening reception.

If you decide not to see everyone the next day, you could send them a few suggestions for things they might like to see or do locally.