getting married abroad...night do back home....speaches help please

Hi Cath,

If its just the two of you when you have your ceremony in Jamaica then I'd say you party back home is still your wedding reception so I'd send out invitations for an evening reception.

Speeches could be done before the buffet and the last person can then declare the buffet open ?

L x

We are doing a similiar thing so l am looking forward to reading your responses!

I think that the party should be exactly the way you and your OH want it to be especially as there are no hard and fast rules about them. My OH has been a best man twice and both times he found it hard to eat his food as the speeches were after the food. I have been to a few weddings where it was speeches then food and it seemed to work well. How about: speeches, food and then 1st dance? The 1st dance naturally kicks of the evening bit of dancing, drinking etc. Are you thinking of having a cake?

Funnily enough l received an invite today to a "wedding party" which l quite like. My friend is having a small wedding of about twenty people, going on honeymoon and then having a wedding party for everyone.

Thanks for the replys.

i think we will do speaches, food then first dance. i just need to word the invitations so eople come on time.

I dont know if we are having a cake yet, might do a cupcake tower.

im going to have centre pieces for tables and confetti.

We did a similar thing, although we had a full wedding in Australia and a blessing followed by evening part at home. We did all the speeches in Oz, so we didn't actually do them again, although FIL did a short "speech" during the blessin ceremony at the church.

I've just found our invitations for the evening part which say:

"Following their wedding in Australia, Knees and Mr Knees, together with their parents, would like to invite......to an evening party to celebrate their marriage on ....at........"

Unless you put something about the speeches, first dance etc in the invitation, I think you're going to have to rely on word of mouth to ensure people are on time because you're right, people won't turn up on time.

Our invitation said it was a "reception to celebrate the wedding of C&J". We said people could arrive from 5pm but also popped in a brief running order, and said please note, we aim to kick off with the speeches at 6". Everyone except one latecomer was there and seated in time, and before that everyone was mingling outside in the sunshine with champers and canapes.

PS our running order was:

5-6pm guests arrive and are served champagne and canapes.

5.30 we arrived in style in our decorated van

6-6.30 speeches

6.30-7 cake cutting, mingling

7pm hog roast buffet served

8pm music and dancing start

In a separate room throughout the evening we had a video of the ceremony followed by a photo montage of the wedding playing on a projector screen on loop, so anyone could wander in and out and watch if they were interested. Somehow we managed to edit that and put it together in the 48 hrs we had between getting home and the reception!

I appreciate all the replys & think I will add soething in the invite to state what time the speaches start. I think I want speaches forst, then food then first dance.

phew....thats one thing sorted lol