Best time to leave??!

Our venue allows guests to stay until midnight, my OH and I are leaving at 11.30 plus we also have a 30 minute drive to our hotel.

No way we'll be the last ones to leave after saing goodbye to everyone. It's your wedding day, you've got the rest of your lives together. Don't miss out on any of it!

Our hotel is only 1 mile away and we've already checked that the bar is open until 1am so we're all going to go back there to continue the party! x

?Everything for us is in one place. .. including the bridal suite.

Knowing us....I'll be on the dance floor until the lights come on and h2b will be propping up the bar.

Once the official wedding celebrations have finished we'll probably continue in the hotels main bar ...

We don't get out much anymore and will want to make the most of seeing people we've not seen for a long time.

It used to be traditional for the bride and groom to go away for their honeymoon during the evening reception, and they'd leave late on in the evening and the guests would wave them off? So you could do that? Definitely announce your departure!

For myself- having the whole day in a hotel where we have the bridal suite, so will be staying there and planning to be the last on the dance floor!

I think this is a lovely thing to do, and some time around 11 sounds perfect, as there'll be other guests thinking of leaving around then - just make sure people are aware before you go that you are "going away" and they'll stay to wave you off as above. We'd totally be doing this if we weren't staying at our venue, we're just postponing ours until 11am check out!

2 other things to note:

1. Make sure that the hotel you're heading off to knows you'll be a v.late check in and that you're coming from your wedding - they'll make sure there's someone on the desk and that they're nice to you!

2. Leave someone (or several someones) at the party to act as "host" so that your guests don't think they also have to leave straight away - ideally best man and/ or bridesmaids, or anyone else who is likely to lead a crowd straight back to the dancefloor!

I'll definitely be the last one on the dance floor :-D

As some of the others have said, we're all in one place so we'll be staying until the lights come up!

Thank you for the tips, I had already thought about people to keep the party going!

thanks for your comments guys xx

We're coming home after which is only a 5 min drive, we intend to be the last ones there to see everyone out

It never occurred to me to leave with the party still going on.

We had the MC announce the last song, and after that with the music turned down, everyone got into a large circle facing inwards. Hubby and I went around the circle in opposite directions thanking guests and saying our goodbyes. They then made an arch with arms and we walked underneath and out. Might seem cheesy, but we didn't actually plan it to happen like that, infact, we hadn't planned any particular exit at all!

I think you should make guests aware you are leaving and not just disappear. I wouldn't leave too early though!

Personally, i don't want to waste a single minute, I will see everybody off before I go to bed

I shall be making it my mission to be the last one still having fun!! Our evening finishes at 12 and our hotel bar is 24hrs! Hells yeh! We haven't got to travel anyway as we're staying in the same place our reception is and most of our guests are too!! :]

We will be about til the bitter end! Our party has to finish at midnight, and everyone must be gone by half past. We are staying onsite, so we and some other guests will have no travel. But I could never leave my own party early!!

We stayed til the very end, there was no way we were going to sneak off early, we were enjoying it too much! We made sure we had some time together between the wedding breakfast and evening reception starting. We ended up staying up for a while together after the party finished anyway, we were both too wired to sleep!

First time round we left about half an hour before the end. All of the guests lined up and made a long arch that we walked through; it was lovely.

No idea this time. We're staying, so I suspect we'll leave when we've had enough...

Hi Ladykake,

We have had a couple of weddings where the bride & groom left after our last song (which they both chose - circle of love style!).

Then the DJ can let the reception party animals go until 1am. Definitely announce it though and make a big deal of it, your guests would want to say goodbye!

James x

OH and I have a good chat about this and we will be staying until the very end!!

We were at a wedding at the weekend and we both love to dance and couldn't imagine leaving before everybody else!

Thanks for comments though!