Reception timeline?

I was wondering what people have planned as far as a timeline after the ceremony for the first dance, father/daughter dance, bouquet toss, garter toss, cake cutting...(when & where?)

Also, if you hire the DJ does he act as the MC as well? For those who didn't have a DJ what did you do for an MC?

 

Thanks

We are having a more casual, relaxed reception outdoors under a tent. I plan on just letting the band, (who also dj's and mc's) just -tell us what and when! It will be something like this:

4pm Ceremony

430-530 pictures

530-7 cocktail hour (steel drummer with an mc)

7pm dinner, toasts,

(probably cut cake at beginning of dinner, since the sun sets at about 730 here, and I want it to be light out for pictures)

8pm- (Band starts)

-First Dance

-Bridal Party Dance

- open dancing

-mother/groom, father, bride dance

open dancing

-anniversary dance (all married couples, called off by # of years they were married, last ones dancing, have been married the longest)

-open dancing

-garter/bouquet

-more dancing

 

I'm not even going to try to put times in, because I know we won't stay on track. Hope it helps!

Thanks...it helps...I just want everything to flow as smoothly as possible!

Ours is gonna go as follows

 

1pm Ceremony

2-3 pm Pictures

3-6 pm Pool time or free time

6-9 pm Dinner/cocktails

9-? Dancing at disco

We had our reception at Mammee Bay. We had dinner from 6:30-9:00. After everyone finished with their dinner, we cut the cake.
We then had dancing at the disco from 9:00-11:00. When we walked in, the DJ introduced us & we went right into our first dance. As the night went on, we did the bouqet/garter toss & had speeches.
Really, the DJ wasn't too much of an MC. When it was time for speeches, we simply went & got the mic from him.
After he announced us, that was the last time we heard him say a thing! We didn't really have a time line for when we did each thing. We knew we only had 2 hours before the disco opened to the public so we just had someone let us know when time was ticking away.
If you want some kind of specific flow to things, you can either give the DJ a time line of when you want certain things done, or appoint a friend or family member to keep the timeline & be in charge as the MC.

Oh, I also highly suggest that if you rent the disco, right before it's time for you to go in, designate someone to go in there & make sure that everything is ready. Make sure the air conditioner is on, make sure the DJ has your intro music ready & knows everyone's names that he is going to introduce.
After this is done,you can then have someone escort your guests in before you are ready to make your entrance.

Thanks guys, you're an awesome help!

'JUSTUSTWO' how was the DJ? Do you recommend him? Did you give him music to play or do they have everything there and you just gave him a list of songs to play?

Actually, there were 2 DJ's. There was the one who we had during our private time & then at 11pm, when the disco opened up to the public, another DJ came.
The DJ that we had inititally was just ok. I highly suggest bringing your own music. That way he will mix in his music with yours. He was nice & did take requests.

The other DJ that came at 11pm was great though! We had a great time with him. He played much more up to date music & really had the crowd dancing all night.
I'm not sure how they assign DJ's but again, just bring your own music & you should be good. All in all, our guests loved the disco & I'm glad that we chose to have it!

Our plans are still tentative, we have to have 40 people to do a private reception at the Iberostar which we are close to, but not quite there. If we don't get the 40, we are planning:

 

4:00 Ceremony

4:30-5:30 Pictures

5:30-7:00 Cocktail Hour w/Steel Pans Band

*we will do our 1st dance and speeches here

7:30-9:00 Dinner w/cake cutting following

9:00-? continue the party at one of the bars/disco

I had everything planned, and it worked out wonderfully, except we never got through half of our dance music b/c dinner took a little longer and our reception time was up sooner than we expected. So, be flexible with the dances and tosses, etc ... and don't hold back any of your favorite songs to play "later in the evening" ... we missed out on several 'must-have' songs b/c we did that.

Great help thanks