It takes about a half hour to move one-hundred of your wedding guests through a traditional receiving line for a typical Columbus wedding celebration. That’s assuming your line includes the couple and their parents only. Add in the rest of your wedding party and it’ll take forever!
Receiving lines matter. It’s your opportunity to greet your guests and thank them for attending your wedding celebration.
If your guest list is large, you may want to modernize the traditional receiving line to open up more time for celebrating and less time standing around in line.
You should explore a couple of smart alternative approaches we’re seeing more of. One idea is ridiculously simple. Instead of processing out of the church or venue at the conclusion of your ceremony, the couple dismisses guests row-by-row.
This affords you the opportunity to connect with everyone in a rather efficient manner. Guests don’t want to linger, since they know you have rows of other guests chomping at the bit to greet you. And, guests can sit and relax until you get to their row, which is especially nice for older guests.
If parents want to be in the receiving line, this idea won’t work. On the other hand, parents can make it a point to make the rounds during the cocktail hour or before dinner to connect with friends and family they would have greeted in the receiving line.
This leads to another contemporary alternative to the traditional receiving line. Some couples forgo the receiving line completely and make it a point to systematically ‘work the crowd’ during the cocktail hour, or immediately before dinner, which works especially well if you’re going with a buffet line.
These approaches can open up more time to celebrate, and wedding celebrations really come alive when the entertainment is customized to your tastes. Guess what? That’s what we do! Check us out without obligation.
