Wedding Itinerary... Please help!

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Wedding Itinerary... Please help!

posted 11 months ago in Reception

Member

4,841 posts

Honey bee

DeathByDesign February 18, 2012 Lives in Ontario, married in Quebec

So my FI and I are trying to figure out a rough itinerary, this is what we have right now:

3:30pm : People start arriving

4:00pm : Ceremony starts

4:45pm-5:00pm : Ceremony ends

5:00pm-6:00pm : Cocktail hour of spiced apple cider, hot chocolate & maple taffy.

6:00pm : Dinner is announced

6:00pm-6:20pm : People find their seats.

6:20pm : When everyone is seated, introductions & first dance will happen.

6:30pm : Bride & Groom sit down, Band introduces themselves & starts playing. Wine & bread is served.

6:50pm : MCs introduce themselves and announce the first SPEECH (groom's parents). Prayer.

7:00pm : Band plays while soup is served & continues playing until soup is eaten.

7:15pm : SPEECH (bride’s parents) between courses.

7:20pm : food is served while the band plays. People eat.

7:35pm : SPEECH in the middle of dinner.

7:50pm : Dinner is finished up & cleaned up. Band continues to play.

8:00pm : “Cake” cutting is announced. Bride & Groom make a short thank you speech & cut the pie

8:10pm : Pie is served & eaten.

8:25pm : Last SPEECH (Best man).

8:30pm : Dinner is finished, band retires and DJ takes over so dancing starts.

Does this make sense, or are there problems with this? A few problems I can see are:

Is it okay to have a speech in the middle of dinner? We want to keep speeches short, like 5 minutes, but I know how it is and I'm sure they'll drag on a little longer than that. If I don't have a speech there, I'm not sure when else to put it, though?

I wanted to have an anniversary dance instead of a bouquet toss. When would it be best to incorporate this? I thought maybe between dinner and dessert, before our pie cutting, would that be fine? I know that a lot of the older couples may leave right after supper, so it might not work to have it during the "dancing" portion of the night... would it work maybe right after the best man's speech?

We are skipping having a wedding cake and just having a wedding sugar pie which comes with the meal package at the venue. It would make sense then that we would do our "cake cutting" between dinner and dessert, right? I know "traditionally" the cake cutting signifies the end of the night, but it doesn't make sense to cut our pie after people have eaten the pie. Thoughts?

Any other glaring problems? Think there are moments people will feel bored/hungry/anything else?

11 months ago

Member

1,291 posts

Bumble bee

AprilJo2011 April 9, 2011

3.30 to 7 seems like a long time to go without eating anything but taffy. Your guests will most likely not head to your ceremony straight from a restaurant. Can you offer some appetizers during the cocktail hour?

11 months ago

Member

931 posts

Busy bee

Wannabe-diy-bride September 17, 2011 North Dakota

I think it looks good! I think having a speech during dinner is excellent, because people aren't doing anything besides eating...it's an easy time to listen.

We are putting our anniversary dance right after our first dance and parent/child dance. But we're doing our dances after eating is done so I guess in your case I'd do the anniversary dance after eating, too, right as the "real" dancing is starting. We're doing it "backwards" so that we start with FI's grandparents (who've been married for 50 yrs) and keep adding people. Then at the end of the dance there are tons of couples on the dance floor so hopefully the DJ will keep them there :)

All weddings I go to the cake is cut prior to dessert...I've never seen it done at the end of the night. Thought I'd share!

11 months ago

Member

4,841 posts

Honey bee

DeathByDesign February 18, 2012 Lives in Ontario, married in Quebec

@AprilJo2011: The taffy is actually pretty filling and the hot chocolate is made from actual melted chocolate and milk, so also very filling. Bread will be served very shortly after they sit down, and lastly, our meal is all you can eat, so I think that being hungry before it would be a good thing, lol.

11 months ago