who are you having in your receiving lines if you are having one?

You can do anything from just the two of you to you two, parents, bestman and head bridesmaid. But the more people the longer it will take. With 8 people you probably need to leave 30 mins for the receiving line but with just 2 of you 10-15 mins is plenty.

We are only having the two of us - I think it would take forever otherwise

hth

We are having us, both sets of parents, MOH & bestman, our toastmaster says it will take 20 minutes as he wil keep people moving!?

We have 72 guests if that helps.

H2B and I are just going to greet everyone at the entrance to the room where the wedding breakfast is served.

The last wedding I went to with a receiving line had Bride, Groom and their parents plus all the bridesmaids and the best man - it took forever to go through everyone and I think they were all a bit fed up with all the handshaking!!!

What's a receiving line? When do you have it? Is it for the evening reception?

?

A receiving line is normally done on the way into the wedding breakfast. It involves key people (who depends on personal choice but as mentioned above could be as many as bride and groom, both sets of parents, bridesmaids and bestman) standing in a line at the entrance to the dining room. All guests then filter past them and are 'greeted' - usually a hand shake and a few words.

Nowadays a receiving line is often dispensed with.... I think we see it at about 50% of wedding we photograph. Having a toastmaster can help with a receiving line because they help to keep people moving along the line quickly so it doesn't take too long.

If it is just the case that you as a couple want to greet your guests, I often think a good time to do this is between courses. The top table with the B&G on will usually get served first so will finish eating first. At our wedding when we had finished our starters (and also after our main) H and I got up and wander round the tables saying hi to everyone.

I think if we have one it will be me and h2b, if we have everyone it will be most of guests - line will be longer than people to be greeted, lol.

We had these people in this order:

Father of Bride

Mother of Groom

Mother of Bride

Father of Groom

Groom

Bride

We switched our parents so each of them could introduce the guest to the other... it worked really well. My CBM was ushering people into the line at the back, our Best Man was opposite to me guiding people into the main room once we'd finished talking and the ushers were in the main room assiting guests where they needed it.

Claire xx

We will ahve myself, my H2B and our daughter who will be 9 x

We didn't have one and didn't need it as we'd already greeted every single guest during photos & drinks. Instead I asked my BIL to announce the top table in, in order from sisters, best men, MoG, MoB and us so all our other guests knew who was who.

I personally hate receiving lines as a> they can be false and b> sometimes means the B&G don't mix much with guests before dinner which I personally feel is a shame. We still had plenty of couple photos but also made time to spend with our guests.

For the evening, we hung out in the venue's reception (exclusive use) greeting all our guests as they arrived for about an hour.

We had a receiving line which consisted of

Bridesmaids x3, Best Man, H2b's Parents, My Parents me and H

We are due to have one, but didn't think about the time it may take to pass through. One to ponder?

E

As said, the longer the line the longer it takes to process the guests through. This may eat in to time put aside for the photography. Give these timings consideration....