Events After the Ceremony

Hey Everyone,

I am planning my wedding for April 2012 at the Suites. My idea is to do a ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner at Calabash, and then Bonfire/DJ on the beach. My question is - is a cocktail hour really necessary???? I am thinking it doesn't make sense to pay extra for food and drinks at an all inclusive resort, but on the other hand what do my guest do between the ceremony and the time dinner starts. Also I read a lot of brides have cocktail hour right on the beach after the ceremony....I dont want to have cocktail hour on the beach and the bonfire on the beach as well...what are you thoughts???? what are your after the ceremony events?????

We are getting married at 4pm and anticipate the ceremony being done around 430 pm.  After that we are provided with a free champagne toasts.  I wouldn't call it a cocktail hour.  We could pay extra to have food, but we chose not to as dinner will be at 6pm.  We will be gone for an hour or so taking pictures by ourselves and we havent honestly really planned anything for our guests.  I feel that they can use the hour to go back to their room to freshen up, or to go have a drink at one of the bars, or to just relax before dinner and the party gets started!!

 

Originally Posted by malikmakhi 

Hey Everyone,

 

I am planning my wedding for April 2012 at the Suites. My idea is to do a ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner at Calabash, and then Bonfire/DJ on the beach. My question is - is a cocktail hour really necessary???? I am thinking it doesn't make sense to pay extra for food and drinks at an all inclusive resort, but on the other hand what do my guest do between the ceremony and the time dinner starts. Also I read a lot of brides have cocktail hour right on the beach after the ceremony....I dont want to have cocktail hour on the beach and the bonfire on the beach as well...what are you thoughts???? what are your after the ceremony events?????

I completely agree with JayKay and we are doing something very similar.

I am def. doing a cocktail hour right afterwards.  I don't want any gaps.  I know that when I go to weddings, it is such a pet peeve of mine to have gap time - I just want to party/celebrate the wedding.  Maybe you should ask your friends what they think.  

Btw, you could always chose to do the cocktail hour somewhere besides the beach.  I believe the champagne toast is def. on the beach, but then you could do the cocktail hour inside the building.  Matt and I are going to hire a musician to entertain our guests while we are taking photos.  I mean they are flying all the way to Jamaica for us - we might as well keep them entertained! 

Have any of you thought of just picking a spot for everyone to go to after?   I'm going for a visit in May and I'll be checking out the bars (and hours) to see if this is possible.

My idea is to put the itinerary of the wedding day in the OOT bags.

Basically:

Wedding 4:30--> champagne toast immediately following --> Cocktails at ____ bar  at 5:30 --> Reception 7:00 (or however it ends up finalizing).  So my guests will know where to be at certain times.

The hotel has to provide service to the guests anyway... and it may not be "private" but if 50 of my family & friends show up to the same place, I'm sure the bar will be pretty full and most guests will go somewhere else.

I definitely agree!  I don't like gaps at weddings either when I am a guest because I never know what to do with myself!  And I think it'd be best to keep the group together.. I think hiring a musician or using the same band you have for the ceremony is great.  Even if you do an open bar for an hour I think it's only another $7 or $10 a guest.... which isn't very expensive.
 

Originally Posted by CourtandMatt 

I am def. doing a cocktail hour right afterwards.  I don't want any gaps.  I know that when I go to weddings, it is such a pet peeve of mine to have gap time - I just want to party/celebrate the wedding.  Maybe you should ask your friends what they think.  

 

Btw, you could always chose to do the cocktail hour somewhere besides the beach.  I believe the champagne toast is def. on the beach, but then you could do the cocktail hour inside the building.  Matt and I are going to hire a musician to entertain our guests while we are taking photos.  I mean they are flying all the way to Jamaica for us - we might as well keep them entertained!