My D has the sparkly ones for the reception.
My D is now officially engaged. I have gained so much insight already from looking at your page. Thank you.
I was wondering about an engagement party. What are your thoughts?
Talk to me about receiving lines.
We are blending our British traditions with Southern ( groom). In the UK we have a formal receiving line where each guest is introduced. We are skipping the name announcement part ( to speed up) But, I am still concerned the process is going to take up too much time. We will have around 170 guests.
I know receiving lines are out of vogue, but it’s kinda important to me and I would like to include. Anyone have any creative ideas to speed it up? We are serving a plated dinner followed by speeches and I don’t want the speakers to feel rushed.
@downtoearth, congratulations! In my opinion, engagement parties are up to the families involved. My S and DIL were the guests of honor at two parties…one in LA where she grew up and her mom still has many friends and one where we live. I think the MOB and I wanted these parties because we knew we would be very limited in the number of guests we could invite to the wedding. Although etiquette would dictate that we not invite anyone to the engagement party that would not be invited to the wedding, we threw that one out the window because the parties included all the friends we knew we would not be able to have at the wedding - for them, these parties were the wedding. And no one was offended in the least. Ours had almost 100 people in my backyard. It was casual, but very fun.
@Sally22…the MOB also wanted a receiving line at the wedding, and the couple was really opposed, so they compromised. The B & G positioned themselves at the entrance to the reception venue (cocktails were outside and the dinner inside) and greeted people as they entered for dinner. There were no formal introductions and it didn’t seem to slow things down much at all. Good luck!
congrats @downtoearth. I’ve hosted 2 engagement parties since the now married sons live across country. PM me if you want more info. One was at a restaurant, one was in my home.
As for shoes, I brought these to wear when I wanted to get out of my dressy sandals https://www.dsw.com/en/us/product/yellow-box-dorthy-wedge-sandal/318871?cm_mmc=CSE--GPS--G_Shopping_Sandals-_-New_Sandals&cadevice=c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_trMofaS3AIVmIvICh0uawvfEAQYBSABEgIqgPD_BwE
Jym626, I bought those exact shoes a year ago, when my sciatic was bad. I wore with a very dressy beaded black dress. I figured no one would notice the bottom of the shoes, just the bling on top. So comfortable. Unfortunately, Macy’s stopped carrying that line.
I have a very simple but cute pair of silver grey ballet flats that I’ve worn to at least five weddings…including my daughter’s (for the dancing only…I had strap sandals the rest of the time). These little ballet flats are very comfortable, and travel well. They are coming to another wedding in September. Honestly, when they wear out, I hope I can find something similar to replace them.
But…here is a question…that September wedding is an evening event. I have a gorgeous silk cranberry dress with a small amount of beading…I planned to wear that. BUT I found out last week that the ceremony will be on the beach…and really this dress is not something to wear on the beach. I’m thinking I need something different. I do have a black and white silk sundress style Loft dress that I could wear with a wrap or jacket.
Your thoughts!
And engagement party…do whatever you want. Some folks have them and some folks don’t. We didn’t.
I hosted D1’s engagement party at a beer brewery venue. I didn’t do anything except to bring flowers to decorate the place. We had around 50+ people.
Groom’s aunt hosted a shower close to their home and I hosted one in NYC.
Thank you all so much . I think those shoes are great. I have awful feet. so they look like heaven to me. The dress seems like a good idea.
I was talking to my husband about the receiving line and we had one when we were married but then they phased out. I thought they would be a great idea , especially with a large wedding. My D wants a large wedding which is fine but I am concerned that her day will be taken up by talking to everyone instead of dancing etc… I just want her to enjoy her day , as you know it goes by so quickly. I wonder when they stopped doing them?
I think we will do some kind of engagement party just not sure when But something informal.
We had multiple events - wine tour (many young people and immediate family showed up), welcome party the night before, wedding, and breakfast next day. The couple had opportunities to spend time with the guests. I think that’s the trend now, the wedding is not a one day event because so many guests travel to attend. The upside is it gives the bride/groom to spend more time with their guests.
As far as speeches, D1 only asked 3 people to speak at the reception (her father, maid of honor, best man) and they were limited to 5 minutes. Their speeches were vetted out by D1’s best friend so no one went rogue. The groom’s father spoke at the welcome party. Father/daughter dance, the first dance were also very short. All of that left a lot of time for people to dance/party.
The downside is the cost.
Right. In our case, the grooms family hosted a rehearsal dinner for the bridal party and a few friends and relatives who were there Friday.
Saturday evening, we hosted a welcome party for all of the out of town guests. It was really nice, and did give us the chance to talk to folks.
Wedding was Sunday.
Monday we had a farewell breakfast…and again…lots of time to actually talk to people.
We did have time to talk to folks at the wedding as well. No receiving line.
We hosted an engagement luncheon for DS #1 and wife here, at a restaurant. And we hosted the Friday night “rehearsal dinner” (it was a welcome party dinner for all invited guests). Friends threw a shower for both DILs the weekends of the engagement party. For DS#2 we hosted an engagement brunch here at our home, the rehearsal dinner (casual) and welcome party (also casual) for all invited wedding guests (and close to 100 showed up), as well as the rest of the weekend events.
D1 set up Google photo ahead of the wedding. She then emailed all guests to ask them to take pictures and videos through out the weekend and load them up to the site in real time to share. We got some great candid shots. Some guests also shared their own outings on the site. It was fun to see all of those pictures.
That’s a great idea!
For the receiving line…
I was in a wedding that had one. We did it right outside the church as everyone came out. IIRC, there were 3 bridesmaids/groomsmen, the parents of the couple, and the bride/groom. They didn’t include the siblings of the couple who had different parts in the wedding. If I were to do it, I’d drop the bridesmaids/groomsmen as most of us only knew the bride’s friends or the groom’s, but not both, and I really didn’t know many at all (I’d gone to high school in this town, but my family didn’t socialize with the same groups as the bride’s family). Everyone who skipped the line, and I know there were a lot, had plenty of time to socialize at the reception.
My daughter’s friend and her husband just stood under a decorated arch and everyone could come up and say hello at the reception. They are Mormon so no one actually went to the wedding. The parents didn’t stand with them.
Shoes found!
https://m.zappos.com/p/touch-ups-lena-silver/product/9044109/color/632
Now on to jewelry and a purse!
"For the receiving line…
I was in a wedding that had one. We did it right outside the church as everyone came out."
That’s what we did at our own wedding years ago - husband and I, both sets of parents, the priest. Not sure if it included attendants or not, I think not.
Does that not happen with church weddings anymore?
We couldn’t do receiving line after ceremony for D’s because there was another wedding shortly after! We needed to move on and allow the next couple their magical time…
We had a receiving line at our church wedding years ago, but we did not do one at D’s wedding. The vestibule area was too small, and “outside” was the main drag in Detroit (not conducive to a receiving line). D decided not to do one at the venue, as some choose to do, because she felt that it was the obligation of the bride & groom to go around & visit each and every guest personally during the reception.