Small Wedding - what itinerary?

We're also having a small wedding...about 14-16 of us total. We're getting married in St. John USVI and having the ceremony on the beach, followed by dinner at one of the local restaurants. No typical reception with dancing because of the small group and the nature of who our guests are. Although we will use our iPod for background music and we're also having fire dancers!

Our wedding is the the Gran Real Cancun. We will have about 35 guests. The wedding is at 4pm and the private reception is at 6pm. We are not doing the cocktail hour since we are at an AI & the charge is way too high when we can already eat and drink for free!

 

The resort WC wants us to do the champagne toast/cake immediately following the ceremony. So, the order of events would be:

 

4pm - Ceremony

4:30 - Champagne Toast / Cake Cutting / Eat Cake

4:45 - Pictures

6pm - Private Reception (first dances then full dinner & reception)

 

Does the above look ok?? A couple benefits I see are that 1) doing the cake cutting & toasts during the daylight will probably allow better lighting/photos; 2) since we aren't having a cocktail hour, people can mingle/eat/drink while we are doing some group pictures; 3) We will have less "activities" to do once the clock starts ticking for the 3 hour reception; 4) The cake will probably get eaten since folks might actually want a little snack around 4:30 whereas by 7:30pm people might be stuffed from dinner (which includes dessert).

 

Only problem is that they aren't giving us any tables or anything so I guess we just stand around and eat cake and drink champagne? Or maybe we can just sit in the chairs from the ceremony?

 

I am really struggling with the logistics of this one!

mydidsmomtx (where in dfw? i'm in allen!) the logistics are what I'm thinking about too! Our "free package" comes with a cake and champagne and so maybe we have the ceremony, take the group photos (again, with only 6 people, that won't take long!) send our guests to wherever the cake is going to be set up then join them after we have our photos taken.

Yeah! I finally found someone in our same boat with this champagne toast dilemma Our package, too, comes with a free champagne toast & cake for the guests. Our WC says that doing it right after the ceremony gives everyone something to do while the pics are being taken. It is a little "non-tradional" to do this outside the reception, but the idea is actually growing on me.

Since we have 35 people, we will probably do the toast/cake first, then while the guests are mingling, we can do our group pics, etc. As the group pics are done, the guests can leave and meet up at the reception.

My only problem is that I am trying to envision standing up trying to eat cake and drink champagne?! I wish they would give us some of those tall tables, but they will only do that for cocktail hours.

Since you only have 6 people, you could easily do the group pics first then do the champagne toast/cake.

If we wait until the reception to do the champagne & cake, most of it will go to waste anyway.

Keep me posted on what you decide to do or if you have any other ideas!

PS We live on Cedar Creek Lake (Mabank/Gun Barrel City area)

We are having a small wedding too, about 10-20 people. We are doing the ceremony at 5:30pm, then pictures from 6 to 7pm, and at 7pm we will have the reception. We aren’t doing a cocktail hour, but its Aruba and I think people can find something to do for less than an hour at an AI resort (and its too expensive). The reception is on a private terrace at the resort. We are going to have our ipods playing and do a first dance, father/daughter dance and mother/groom dance. I think after dinner, cake adn toasts we might go to one of the clubs and dance all night. We might have the dinner at one of the restaurants if we have 10-12 people. I think that having a huge terrace for only 10 people might be a little weird. So once I get my RSVPs back I’ll be able to finally make some decisions.

We’re doing what Janelly100 is doing. We should have about 10 people, so we are getting married at noon, pictures and such till about 1:30pm or later, afternoon siesta, and then reserved dinner at one of the restaurant. I like the idea of small gifts at everyone’s plates, so I’m stealing that one!

 

I love what you did Nicole! Sounds like tons of fun.

 

I like August2010bride's plan also.

 

It's nice to see everyones plan. We are trying to stay on a strict budget and utilize as much free items as the resort will give us.

Oh man this worries me too!!

 

I think it sounds similar to you guys what im planning.. just hope it works out as planned and everyone joins in!

I'm with you CeeCee76 - those "free" resort items cost us plenty already!

Our wedding will probably be small as well... so if it is, we are just going to do dinner at one of the restaurants. I think most resorts will accommodate smaller groups, and some places will put you in a semi-private area. I think its completely ridiculous for AI resorts to charge all this extra money for a dinner when you technically already pay for it.

were also having a small wedding about 20 ppl. Our wedding is at 4pm so I want to just have dinner at one of the restuarnts on site hopefully around 6 or 6:30. Our package also includes the cake and champenge so maybe like a couple of you we will just have it then so guest will have something to do why we take a few photos. Then everyone is free after dinner. Its funny I was thinking about since they have a piano bar that maybe well get him to play a song for us and then we can do our first dance in the lobby (it was just a lot lol). Were not having a reception just dinner.