catholic processional, receiving line - questions!

catholic processional, receiving line - questions!

I'm having my ceremony in the Milleridge cottage and was wondering if anyone could provide advice on how the 'general' procession goes? I realized I don't even know what the order is! My biggest concern right now is that I realized since we're getting married in the cottage, we don't have the usual travel time between the church and reception hall. Therefore, as soon as we walk out of the atrium, our cocktail hour pretty much begins. We had planned on taking our pictures during the cocktail hour but realized that our receiving line could take 1/2 an hour. We're not sure what to do about this. Then we only have a 1/2 hour for a cocktail hour for our guests, and it leaves us only 1/2 hr to take pictures. Does anyone have any suggestions??? We won't see each other before the ceremony so that's not an option. My only thought is, what is an alternative to the receiving line??? Thank you all in advance for any advice!

catholic processional, receiving line - questions!

Think about just greeting everyone in the cocktail room. As you would during the reception. Then you don't need to do it twice. Just walk around and thank them. People don't really need to see everyone (ie your parents, his parents etc.) I wish I could skip it, but I'm using a church.

If you need info on the traditional line, marthastewart.com under weddings 101.

Good Luck!

catholic processional, receiving line - questions!

Im having the ceremony and reception at the same place, and just figured seeing each other before made sense. I think it will also settle my nerves and I won't be bawling down the aisle. I have a 1/2 hour hospitality which serves drinks and fruit to arriving guests and then the ceremony - Im going to try to push for an earlier start to the ceremony and pushing for it to be really fast (non-religious/civil - so just the walk in - i do i do - rings and walk out - 20 mins) and hopefully a reception line in the time remaining (only the 2 of us, my parents and his mom - 20-30 mins? hopefully) Then we will have to take some pictures with the extended families during the cocktail hour-- Do you have any time to work with? Are you going to have communion, etc, involved with a Catholic ceremony, would it upset you if you skipped part of the ceremony or the receiving line...you could also just have you and your FH doing the receiving line.

From what I hear Brides and grooms don't eat the dinner anyway, so you could go around to each table at dinner and meet and greet...

Misconceptions & Hearsay

1. The receiving line goes quicker than you may think, people don`t tend to stop and chat. Just a greeting, congrats and 'you look beautiful/handsome' My mother is a chatter but I made sure she knew that this was just to greet. It`s not a bad thing. Your guests don`t want to line up for a 1/2 hour either waiting while 2 people talk. Yes, at the reception you can go around and chat. I didn`t think we`d have time (although I knew we couldn`t NOT do it) but it all went along swimmingly.
2. Both me & my hub got to eat at the wedding. Granted not like a guest but we had our meal. And so did many other B&G`s I`ve encountered.
3. My photog said something very 'profound' to me 3 days before the wedding. He said 'don`t forget you`re not a guest' and I realized how true it was. I was never a bride before so while I KNEW I was not a guest, I couldn`t fathom what it was like even if other marrieds shared their experience. Don`t worry so much about it. You will still have plenty of time to have fun. Don`t be so anxious for it to be quick, especially with the ceremony. While the reception - the party - is great, the ceremony is the most amazing part. I was not nervous at my wedding at all and was very present but the ceremony part was like a beautiful, fuzzy dream because here we were, becoming husband & wife which still blows me away.

Then party it up, enjoy the spotlight and celebrate and you will see that it's will all work out.

Misconceptions & Hearsay

well - its good to know that I'll actually be able to eat the food Im paying for - thats a reason I want to be there for the cocktail hour - I like that better than the real meal...

I am an athiest as is my FH, so I don't have any special parts of the ceremony I must do...I want it to be simple...most weddings I have been to have been 20-30 min ceremonies, so if I take out the religious aspects, I figured mine will be a little shorter.

I'm glad that the receiving line doesn't take that long...I was hearing 45 minutes, so I was getting a little nervous. Plus for me, hopefully everyone wants to get into the cocktail room right away.

Our plan of action...

We're also having our ceremony and reception in the same place - plus, we're seeing each other before the ceremony for pics.

So, we're going to make our recessional from our ceremony room (which has to be converted to our reception room within an hour) and move to the cocktail hour room where we'll have a *brief* receiving line as our guests enter the cocktail hour w/ just me and FI and our moms.

After we meet ~n~ greet, we're taking 10 minutes to ourselves to digest our ceremony and then we'll join the cocktail hour!

Our plan of action...

I think there's a lot of factors and my fear is that we'll go into it saying, we'll keep the receiving line to 10 minutes tops, but then people will just slowly move along and we'll end up being there for 30 minutes. I asked my reception hall and they said it really does depend, and you can't predict whether you're guests will be 15-minutes to run through, or 30-minutes. We're having a 20-minute ceremony but we do not really have any time to play with so I think we'll just skip the receiving line do the pictures, then come in if we have time during the cocktail hour to say hello. :) Thanks to all of you for your advice... 17 more days!