help: e-party toast timing and logistics

Our engagement party is tomorrow afternoon and there is some drama about when to do the toast and how the champagne should be distributed.

Originally, we assumed that the glasses would be at the tables by each place setting, but yesterday, the banquet manager said we can't do it that way. He says that since we are having an open-seating buffet, he will not put champagne at seats till he knows exactly where people are sitting.

His suggestion is to give out the champagne as the guests enter, but I don't think this is feasible. You can't do the toast immediately; you have to wait until people have settled down. By that point, many people will be done with the champagne and have nothing left to toast with.

His other idea was to wait until people have started eating and send waiters around with the champagne. But toasting after the meal has begun seems odd to me.

I really don't want to do a seating chart, b/c I don't want it to be too weddingy. I can't see why he just can't put the glasses by the place settings. There are X number of guests and X number of placesettings, so it's not like there are going to be glasses at empty seats.

Any advice?

Thanks so much!

To be honest, we did our toast between dinner and dessert and nobody minded. Everyone was seated because they were finishing up dinner, and we took that opportunity to thank everyone for coming and say a few words to our parents and to each other. Then someone else got up, made a toast, and it was fine. I TOTALLY see your point about just having the glasses at the place settings and about the weirdness of toasting after a meal, but it worked well for us. Good luck!

I think your suggestion will work beautifully. I was hung up on the fact that people would just be starting to eat, fillingt heir plates, etc., but there is definitely a natural pause before dessert.

Thanks!