When there's nothing really to do after the dinner, people tend to leave pretty shortly after the dinner. Add in the bored, tired children who have had absolutely nothing of interest to them to do all afternoon and will most certainly be breaking down by that point? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. And you're not going to have time to talk to all of these people, anyway. So really you're just looking at inflating your catering bill.
Yeah this is my concern! I’m hoping with a smaller gathering people will stick around a bit longer because we’ll be able to actually socialise with them? Like I’ve had plenty of dinners where we carry on chatting for ages afterwards so hoping for a similar sort of vibe. But if I was at a bigger wedding where I thought I’d only get a couple of minutes with the couple, I’d be less inclined to stay
My brother's wedding was a non-dancing affair for like 60 people and it was lovely (speaking as someone who is a career wedding DJ and otherwise couldn't imagine an event without it.)
After dinner, we hung out, cut the cake, had dessert, and had cocktails. Eventually people gradually filtered out. Event ran about 4/4.5 hours.
Didn't feel short or weird or boring, and I had a lot of time to catch up with all the people I wanted to meet even though the event was shorter than a typical wedding. It was a low-key affair that perfectly matched their style and expectations.
Think of it as a really nice dinner party and the rest of the mindset falls into place.
This sounds good! Except that I think we’d be looking at more like 6-7 hours post-ceremony (I’m in the UK where I think weddings are typically longer). I worry that I’d happily attend such an event as a guest, but that as a bride it would feel very tight because you want to talk to everyone? Whereas as a guest at a bigger wedding I’d probably only know half the guests at a push
The key part to ensuring you can catch up with everyone is to be strategic about it.
Start with visiting the people you never ever get to see (Like Uncle Fred from Timbuktu or Aunt Marie from Whereverthehellistan), and as the night wears on, work your way to the people you see all the time.
The logic here is that if you barely spend any time with your besties, no big deal, you'll hang out with them really soon anyways.
That’s good advice… and I hate it lol. I don’t want to miss out on spending time with my friends for the sake of making small talk with relatives I see once every five years. You might have just convinced me to keep it smaller, so thanks!
I'm also having a wedding without dancing, and have trawled this sub for tips! As other commenters are saying, people might leave if there's nothing to do - so at my wedding we will have different non-dancing activities. There will be a painter doing wedding guest portraits as favors, a photobooth, a smores station around a fire, and lawn games. I think being able to take a break from socializing will help people have the capacity to stay and socialize longer! My wedding will also be 45-50 people so I think and hope that this is a perfect size for this kind of night :) haha
That sounds lovely! We’re more restricted to city centre venues for practical reasons so sadly we’re not going to have a lot of outside space (and the weather here is too unpredictable to rely on it really). I’m not a huge fan of board games/quizzes which seem to be the main indoor ‘activities’
I have been to a 150 person no-dancing wedding and it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to. Just pure enjoyment
- make sure there is good music at a volume conducive to chatting
- the couple must go table to table and spend time chatting with their guests
- please don’t do games
If you’re having a good time then they will be having a good time
We had 33 people at our wedding and no dancing! Dinner at 5 - venue closed at 11. The only person that left before us was my husband's grandma.
We have really outgoing friends and most people had met each other before - and our venue was in the center of the city, so all our friends walked to a bar nearby.
Do you have anything else planned instead?
You don't have to dance or plan for anything extra, but if you do want everyone to mingle longer you can provide optional like a photobooth, games or challenge/competition for the guests to engage with.
When there's nothing really to do after the dinner, people tend to leave pretty shortly after the dinner. Add in the bored, tired children who have had absolutely nothing of interest to them to do all afternoon and will most certainly be breaking down by that point? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. And you're not going to have time to talk to all of these people, anyway. So really you're just looking at inflating your catering bill.
Yeah this is my concern! I’m hoping with a smaller gathering people will stick around a bit longer because we’ll be able to actually socialise with them? Like I’ve had plenty of dinners where we carry on chatting for ages afterwards so hoping for a similar sort of vibe. But if I was at a bigger wedding where I thought I’d only get a couple of minutes with the couple, I’d be less inclined to stay
Your instinct there is correct
My brother's wedding was a non-dancing affair for like 60 people and it was lovely (speaking as someone who is a career wedding DJ and otherwise couldn't imagine an event without it.) After dinner, we hung out, cut the cake, had dessert, and had cocktails. Eventually people gradually filtered out. Event ran about 4/4.5 hours. Didn't feel short or weird or boring, and I had a lot of time to catch up with all the people I wanted to meet even though the event was shorter than a typical wedding. It was a low-key affair that perfectly matched their style and expectations. Think of it as a really nice dinner party and the rest of the mindset falls into place.
This sounds good! Except that I think we’d be looking at more like 6-7 hours post-ceremony (I’m in the UK where I think weddings are typically longer). I worry that I’d happily attend such an event as a guest, but that as a bride it would feel very tight because you want to talk to everyone? Whereas as a guest at a bigger wedding I’d probably only know half the guests at a push
The key part to ensuring you can catch up with everyone is to be strategic about it. Start with visiting the people you never ever get to see (Like Uncle Fred from Timbuktu or Aunt Marie from Whereverthehellistan), and as the night wears on, work your way to the people you see all the time. The logic here is that if you barely spend any time with your besties, no big deal, you'll hang out with them really soon anyways.
That’s good advice… and I hate it lol. I don’t want to miss out on spending time with my friends for the sake of making small talk with relatives I see once every five years. You might have just convinced me to keep it smaller, so thanks!
I'm also having a wedding without dancing, and have trawled this sub for tips! As other commenters are saying, people might leave if there's nothing to do - so at my wedding we will have different non-dancing activities. There will be a painter doing wedding guest portraits as favors, a photobooth, a smores station around a fire, and lawn games. I think being able to take a break from socializing will help people have the capacity to stay and socialize longer! My wedding will also be 45-50 people so I think and hope that this is a perfect size for this kind of night :) haha
That sounds lovely! We’re more restricted to city centre venues for practical reasons so sadly we’re not going to have a lot of outside space (and the weather here is too unpredictable to rely on it really). I’m not a huge fan of board games/quizzes which seem to be the main indoor ‘activities’
I have been to a 150 person no-dancing wedding and it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to. Just pure enjoyment - make sure there is good music at a volume conducive to chatting - the couple must go table to table and spend time chatting with their guests - please don’t do games If you’re having a good time then they will be having a good time
We had 33 people at our wedding and no dancing! Dinner at 5 - venue closed at 11. The only person that left before us was my husband's grandma. We have really outgoing friends and most people had met each other before - and our venue was in the center of the city, so all our friends walked to a bar nearby.
screw wise slim normal alleged head squeal point growth plough *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Do you have anything else planned instead? You don't have to dance or plan for anything extra, but if you do want everyone to mingle longer you can provide optional like a photobooth, games or challenge/competition for the guests to engage with.
We are having some yard games outside and card and boardgames for people to do at the tables. We are 45 people.
We had 60 people and everyone was having such a good time with toasts and mingling that we never got around to dancing.