What happens at a wedding reception?

I think ours was pretty standard - my DOC/DJ helped a ton!

Ceremony - 5:30 pm

Cocktail hour/pictures: 5:45/6-6:45

6:45 - everyone goes to find their seats

7:00 - entrance, first dance

7:15 - toasts

7:30 - start dinner - buffet - table visits

8:30ish - parent dances, then dance floor opens

9:30ish - cake

10ish-bouquet/garter

10:30 - end

We gave our DJ freedom to throw the cake and bouquet stuff in there as he thought best, as opposed to saying it MUST happen at X time. He said that can really kill a dance floor and he'd rather wait for a natural lull before doing those things. So those times are not exact. Your DJ if you have one should probably have some good ideas as well. Ours was super helpful and worked so well with our DOC to make everything happen.

Here is ours! Hope it helps!

5:45 PM - First Look @ Reception

6:00 PM - Doors Open

6:15 PM - Bride & Groom Entrance

6:20 PM - First Dance

6:30 PM - Dinner

6:45 PM - Speeches Begin (we are doing our speeches during dinner)

8:00 PM - Father/Daughter Dance

8:05 PM - Mother/Son Dance

8:10 PM - Photobooth & Cigar Bar Open

9:00 PM - Cake Cutting

9:30 PM - Garter Toss & Bouquet Toss

9:45 PM - Shoe Game

11:00 PM - Late Snack

1:00 AM - Last Call

The time of our ceremony has not been confirmed yet. But this is out tentative reception timeline:

05:30P Cocktail Hour

07:00P Guests seated for reception

07:30P Bridal party entrance

07:45P First Dance

08:00P Blessing by Officiant

08:15P Dinner

09:15P Toasts

09:30P Cake cutting and grooms speech

09:45P Dancing

12:00A Taco Bar and Last call

01:00A Reception ends

I think I will let the DJ handle that. My plan is ceremony at 3 and by 3:30 I want to be married and ready to have fun.

Ours was..

6:30 Ceremony

7:30-8:00 Pictures

8:00-9:00 Cocktail hour

9:00-9:20 Guest find their seats

9:20 Bridal party entrance

9:35-9:45 First dance/Father Daughter/Step father.

9:45-10:45 Dinner

11:45 Cake cutting/Garter toss/Bouquet Toss

12:00-1:00 Crazy hour/last hour of party

Our will be (tentatively):

6:00 cocktail hour

6:50 wedding party entrance/introduction

6:55 cake cutting

7:00 prayer and then dinner

7:50/8ish cake buffet opens

8:30 first dance/father daughter dance/mother son dance/anniversary dance

8:45 some dancing

9:00 bouquet toss/garter toss (if we decide to do it)

Talk to you DJ but here goes.

4:30 Grand Entrance

4:40 Toasts/prayer

4:50-5:50 dinner

6:00 First Dance

6:05 Father Daughter Dance

6:10 Mother Son Dance

6:25 Cake cutting

6:45 Anniversary Dance

7:00 bouquet toss/garter stuff

7:00-close open dancing

I could be the minority here but I am going with a more festival theme...

2pm I am having a light lunch, cocktails and lawn games for all of my guests (bridal party included)

3pm I leave and get hair and makeup done

4pm bridal party begins hair and makeup

5pm My partner and I have our first look and do some photos

630 ceremony - outdoors

7pm cocktails

8pm dinner

830 first dance, toasts

845 party

11 late night food trucks

12 roasting marshmallows over a fire

I cant say that I have ever seen people excited to see a couple cut a cake or toss a bouquet so Im skipping that but thats my personal preference.

Yeah like everyone else says...the DJ can really help a lot with that. If he doesn't..ask the caterers. They've seen hundreds of weddings and can tell you how they normally go.

That said...you have TONS of time. I was planning so much that I didn't need to do yet and your wedding is the Sunday after mine!

Just focus on what needs to be done now, and save this stuff for later, otherwise you might get overwhelmed.