At home reception

[bridetobe52012]

I am trying to decide if I want to have a at home reception/party when we get back from our cruise, but I have a few questions first.

 

1. Since we are having a reception on board do we still have a cake cutting?

 

2. What other things do we do to make it more like a reception than just a party?

 

3. Is it rude to have this? About half the people we invite were not invited to the wedding. (They were invited to the wedding if they were to sail with us, but they were not invited as non-sailing guest)

 

4. Would I invite the people who are only coming to the at home reception to my bridal shower?

[Gina130284]

Hiya, we're having a cruise wedding and then a party back home. We've hired a hotel with a nautical theme to compliment the whole wedding theme. As you say we didnt just want it to be a party, so we've done the following:

 

1) Hired a band which makes it a bit better thasn just having a DJ

2) We will be makiing a speech with thank you's

3) Although we are having a cake onboard I have asked my auntie to make a wedding cake for the party and we will be doing the 'cutting of the cake' again so everyone can see

4) First dance as we might not get to do this on board the cruise

5) Bought table decorations, such as table runners, candles and scatter diamonds.

6) A complimentary drink on arrival (caribbean cruise cocktail again to suit the overall theme).

7) Wearing my dress again and the men will wear their suits

 

Hope these tips help xx

[itsBECKYnJASON]

I was lucky enough to have my future sister in law volunteer her new VERY large home for our reception when we return. We are planning on having a cake and finger food.

I little decorations. Just a gathering really. :-)

[LilBlackDress]

My sister had 2 receptions and she had a regular local wedding, in the east coast. A majority of the west coast family and friends couldn't make the wedding so the 2nd reception was on the west coast.

 

The things they did to make it more of a reception than a party... (it was held 3 months later)

 

They put out the guest book on the entry table with wedding photos

 

They had a champagne fountain.

 

They did try and redo their vows

 

I don't remember if they wore their wedding attire of if she had a 2nd dress that was similar but without the train... (maybe it was bustled)

 

They had a cake cutting, first dance, father/daughter etc

 

I think they had a band I don't remember

 

Some people did attend both..

 

I got married on a cruise ship (second wedding for both) we were going to have the second reception for those who couldn't attend but life got in the way and it had to be postponed.

[goodtoglow]

We had an AHR 2.5 weeks after we returned from our destination wedding. 150+ people came and it was only 4 hours long, so it was actually very hard to spend time with anyone and I feel like I didn't have a chance to say hi to everyone that was there! Maybe that is normal for any wedding though?

 

Anyway, we invited those who joined us on the cruise, and had our bridal party wear their wedding day attire. We wore our outfits & I had my hair done (and I'm a makeup artist so I guess you could say I had my makeup did, even though I did it myself. LOL).

 

We self catered, but had lots of help from immediate family. We had a huge appy table near the entrance, and then a buffet with carving station (ham & roast beef) and a pasta station among other things. Our menu was a hit! We played our wedding video (including the full ceremony) and had a big dessert table complete with a cookie buffet (I made all of the cookies! I love to bake) and a chocolate fountain. I am very lucky that my Uncle is an Executive Chef & has years of banquet experience, so him + my aunt & cousins and my mom absolutely rocked it in the kitchen. I didn't have to worry about a thing (and trust me, I was STRESSED about having so many people to self-cater for. We didn't have a traditional wedding because we couldn't afford it so definitely couldn't afford to cater this!)

 

Since we already had my laptop there for the wedding video, we just played music from iTunes (the same playist we used during our reception on the cruise ship).

 

We had it in a large house development clubhouse - but trust me, it was gorgeous and HUGE! Definitely not a traditional clubhouse. We rented some tables & chairs, in addition to the couches and tables the clubhouse already had, and it was a good mix of people sitting & people walking around mingling.

 

At the front entrance, we greeted people as they came in, and had a guestbook set up as well as a table with misc. items relating to our cruise (cruise invite, as we sent the very detailed cruise invites only to those who had booked - wedding day programs - some signage from the reception - our vows).

 

We didn't do dances or a cake cutting. I don't think that made it feel any less than a wedding reception though. We did do a speech, but it was short and unrehearsed. We announced that we could be playing our video and basically thanked everyone for coming (we have a projector and screen & my father in law is a key grip so he easily rigged up a way to hang them without causing wall damage).

 

We had glassine bags & decorative twine for the cookie buffet and a sign indicating it was the favours.

 

We had 2 kegs (which went fast! they ran out about 30 minutes before we had to start cleaning up) and basically unlimited wine thanks to my Italian family who makes their own. Also non-alcoholic punch and the usual coffee and bottled water.

 

We have a friend who is a photographer who offered to take pics of the evening as our gift - although she is a newbie and I think was overwhelmed by the amount of people. Starting drinking the wine too quickly and barely took any pictures. We loved our pro photographers so much that we invited them to our AHR, and she said having them there made her nervous. Sigh. I hope to see what little she took soon though, so I can post them on here.

 

All in all, our AHR was great! We had a lot of help from our family, and after we had cleaned up, we headed to a local pub (after changing of course!) and partied the night away!

 

I would guess it cost us $2500.

[goodtoglow]

Oh, and everyone was invited to my showers (bridesmaids/friends shower, my side of the family shower, & then my husbands aunt & cousin wanted to host me a shower for their side) - because so many people weren't able to come to the actual wedding, they wanted the opportunity to be apart of another important wedding related event (ditto for our stag/stagette). It wasn't about getting gifts from anyone, we just knew they wanted to be there for as much as they could and if we didn't invite them I think they would have been upset and insulted.