Receiving line: when? Why? Alternatives?

Absolutely no reason to do one.

Receiving lines are an old tradition - usually when the couple walks back down the aisle after the ceremony they stand at the end and greet all of their guests as the guests get up to leave. I have found they are frowned upon lately because people don't like standing in line to wait to talk to you for ten seconds.

A good alternative is to go around to each table during the reception. I've also heard (on this forum) of a couple who went straight to the bar and greeted all of their guests as they got a drink at the start of the reception.

I think most people do one out of tradition, but the only good thing I can see about it is that you would see everyone that came to your wedding personally. Being the non huggy, super awkward person I am, there is no way in hell I would do one.

Thank you all! This has really helped. I'm definitely an awkward person and would feel unfortunately waiting for all 100+ guests to greet me. I'll most likely go to each table and make my rounds.

A lot of people from my church do this (as described by GrumpyCatRebecca) and their reasoning is that they don't invite everyone to both the ceremony and the reception. The whole church is invited to the ceremony so they thank them at the church, since they won't be at the reception. FH and I are completely against inviting people to only the ceremony and not the reception as well, so we plan to go from table to table and make sure everyone is greeted and thanked for being there.

I've never thought of a receiving line honestly I had plans to just visit each guest table during dinner

As PP have said, I think it is a little outdated now and going around to each table during appetizers and thanking them for coming is better. That's what we did and had photos taken with each table.

I had a church friend get married earlier this year (I knew her because she worked at the church) and she invited many church friends/people to just the ceremony. This didn't bother me because I didn't know any of her family and that reception would have been super awkward. I really had wished she had done a receiving line so I could have congratulated her in person but as soon as the ceremony was over they started taking photos.

I find at most venue's it's hard to do this because they want you out of there ASAP. At the church I'm getting married at we have 30 minutes after the ceremony for photos so there is no time for one. I haven't decided how I'll make sure to great everyone. I'll probably do like others go around to the tables.

If there are certain people at the wedding important to you you'll find a way to talk to them. I've been to plenty of weddings where I barely had time to talk to the bride/groom. Heck a lot of weddings the time I got to talk/congratulate them was when we were leaving and saying goodbye.

We are skipping the receiving line and will go table to table

We didn't do a receiving line. We decided to walk around to each table and take photos with our guests after thanking them.

My daughter just got married last saturday and we did one. We only included the parents and bride and groom. I wanted to do one because I wanted to thank each person for coming. I knew I wouldn't be able to thank everyone during the reception since we were the ones paying for it. Also I'm glad we did because my daughter and her husband were going table to table but was interrupted by the dj to start the special dances. So in all, I'm glad we did a line.

We aren't doing one we are going table to table

I'm not doing s receiving line. We'll be walking around and visiting each table during dinner.

The only thing to remember is depending on the size of your wedding, the table to table thing can take well over an hour up to 2 if you have chatty family or friends. Make sure you have someone on point to kind of usher you along... Otherwise you've spent entire reception going table to table and haven't enjoyed any of your own wedding. Wedding planner or one of our bridesmaid who can interject if you get stuck. My friend literally said it took her 3 hours, she didn't get to eat anything or see half of her wedding. And she despite all that still got yelled at by her mom cause by the time she got to the table, her aunt was in the bathroom and she forgot to circle back afterwards.

We unofficially did one, it wasn't planned but as we left the ceremony to go do pictures we were in the venue and talking and then a bunch of our guests started hugging us/shaking our hands and we thanked them for coming so it turned into a receiving line.

Totally unnecessary but do make sure to speak to each of your guests and thank them for coming. Going around the tables is a great way to do this.

I was at a wedding where each table was called to the sweetheart table to congratulate the couple and take a photo with them. It felt a bit like a high school graduation, getting called up, shaking hands and hugging and then having a photo taken and then being sent back to sit down and wait for all the tables to have gone.

We are doing a receiving line. I prefer them over the table visits. To me you have a greater chance of missing someone during the table visits plus it never fails I put food in my mouth and someone comes over to talk, plus I want to eat my delicious food. We are doing fh and I only. Eta we will be doing it at the end of the ceremony. I have seen the bride and groom come back and release rows but that was horrible to me since it was not left to the guest if they wanted to congratulate the bride and groom and some people just don't ever want to do it.

We are going to go around and visit with each guest during cocktail hour.

I went to three weddings this year and none of them had a receiving line. 1 of them also didn't do the table rounds at dinner, which I think is pretty rude but whatever. We're planning on going to the tables at dinner.

We won't be doing a receiving line. Instead, we will eat first and go around to each table once we're done to greet and thank everyone. My parents suggested that instead of leaving favors at each place setting, we should bring the favors around with us while we go to each table, that way we have a visual indication of which tables we've visited (helpful if we get interrupted) and we can have an excuse to keep moving on to the next table. I haven't decided if we're actually going to do that as I don't fancy the idea of lugging around boxes of favors, but it's an idea.