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Wedding Reception

How Long Should Your Reception last and What You Can do Without

With wedding season here, we thought we’d address 2 topics that have been huge conversation pieces with our brides and grooms during our sales consultations and creative planning meetings. The first is “How Long Should Your Reception last”. This is based on two things: your attendance count and the meal type (buffet or plated). With large guest counts, this typically means large families and wedding parties. Photos can take a bit longer, there are more toasts, and dinner will take longer regardless of meal type. The ideal wedding reception ends with a packed dance floor and the bride/groom having to decide whether or not to go a little longer. Some guidelines would be for 50-150 people, a 3-4 hour time frame is generally perfect. For every 50-100 people over, add an hour. So if you had between 200-250, you’re looking at a 4-5 hour time frame. If you have a plated dinner as opposed to a buffet, add 30 minutes for each additional course to the times listed above. The extra 30 minutes accounts for taking orders and the extra course delivery/clean-up. Anything less than a 3 hour event for 50+ attendees would feel rushed so give yourself at least that amount of time.

How Long Should Your Reception last

We also get couples asking us what they can take out of the formalities to have more time for dancing because they have a real party crowd. Let this be your rule of thumb: there are no rules. In this day and age, you can do whatever you want so don’t feel restricted by tradition or what everyone else is doing. That said, here’s a few suggestions:

*Grand Entrance: Just introduce the couple of honor. This can shave anywhere between 5-10 minutes from the beginning of the reception.

*Formality Dances: Combine 2 or all 3. Obviously, you want each person to feel special and get those important photos. We’ve had a dance start with just the bride/groom and then we ask the parents to join them about half way through. Going this route, you take 9 minutes worth of dances and get it down to 2-3 minutes. If you want to have the first dance with just your spouse, another way is to combine just the parents dances. Start with the father/daughter and then ask the groom and his mom to join halfway in.

*Move Toasts To The Rehearsal Dinner: Generally most rehearsal dinners don’t have time limits and everyone can be given a platform to speak. Toasts these days can go anywhere from 10-20 minutes so this is a great way to recoup some time.

*No Cake Cut: This has really started to trend with going away altogether in lieu of tiered cupcakes or donuts or a dessert station and just having the DJ/MC announce when it’s open. This is a 5-10 minute formality time saver.

*No Tosses: Another trend starting to develop is no garter removal/toss. We’re seeing this less and less. If you remove the bouquet toss as well, you’re looking at a pick-up of at least 10-15 minutes. If you want to give away the bouquet, think about having the DJ/MC honor the longest married couple and give it to them. It’s a cool moment that can be created during dinner with no time taken away from dancing.

If you incorporate these tips, you’re looking at giving you and your guests anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour of extra dance time. Want more ideas? Don’t hesitate in contacting us. We’d be glad to help.

Venue Spotlight: Rutherford’s 465 (Regatta Bay) – Destin, FL

We’re highlighting another venue today in Destin, FL called “Rutherford’s 465“. It is located inside the Regatta Bay community. This is a property owned and ran by Legendary  Inc.

This is a great venue for those that are not looking for a beach atmosphere but still want that serene and peaceful vibe. Guest count wise, you can comfortably accommodate up to 200 people here but you can also configure the room to feel full with 30-40 guests. The modular ability of this venue is limitless.

To start, there is plenty of parking. You would think this would be an obvious feature, but not in this tourist town. Parking is scarce at most venues but not here. This is a crucial feature that too many people with large guest counts overlook when they decide on a venue.

Ceremonies can be done here on the adjacent lawn to the left of the venue. This little nook has a very garden’esque look to it with the foliage and well-manicured lawns. It’s very quiet as well at this venue so you’re sure to have an uninterrupted ceremony.

Regatta Bay

The walk from the ceremony site to the reception location is only about 40-50 yards. There’s a back deck that is used for cocktail hour which boasts a 2 level deck. A live musician (which you can also book through us as this particular couple did) can set-up and serenade guests as hors’ d’oeuvres are passed and cocktail drinks are served.

Rutherfords 465 Wedding Musician

Dinner is usually inside. The room can be divided into 3 sections. If you have a small guest count, you can close off one of the sections. Another option is to use one of the 3 sections for a buffet spread. The wedding cake is almost always set-up inside so the elements don’t get to it.

Rutherfords 465 Wedding Cake B-Boy Productions

Most couples who book this venue for their wedding in the nice weather months (Spring and Fall) will then utilize the lowest level deck outside to bring guests down to dance once the dinner portion has concluded. The set-up looks amazing at night. The dance floor area is extremely large for dancing.

Rutherfords 465 Wedding Reception Deck DJ Set-up

Rutherfords 465 Wedding Reception DJ B-Boy Productions DJ

We’ve put together a video tour for you as well so you can get a simulated “walk thru” of the facility. The staff is amazing to work with. The food/catering is exquisite. This is one of the Emerald Coast’s premiere venues to consider for any type of private event function.

Venue Spotlight: Bayview Room at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort – Sandestin, FL

Every now and then, we like to take a moment and put the focus on a particular venue. This week we wanted to introduce you to the Bayview Room at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Sandestin, FL. It’s located near the Linkside Conference Center within the Resort.

Bayview Room at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort Wedding DJ Sunset

One of the first things about the Bayview Room that you will appreciate is the privacy aspect. It’s not located in the touristy Baytowne section of the resort. The Linkside section is very secluded. It will feel like you have the whole place to yourself which is nice when having a private wedding or corporate function.

It’s really important that when you and your guests enter the security gate at the resort that you ask them to direct you to the Linkside Conference Center rather than saying the Bayview Room. The security guards sometimes get that confused and will send you around to Baytowne and you’ll have a 10-15 minute detour until you get yourself back to where you need to be.

The room is perfect for a guest count of 60-75 people. You could technically squeeze in around 100 if it was dinning only and you didn’t use a dance floor.

Sandestin Wedding DJ Dance Crowd B-Boy Productions

To us, the biggest selling point is the ability to have the outside cocktail hour and ceremony location on the terrace adjacent to the reception room. The view of the Choctawhatchee bay is quite serene and peaceful. This is ideal for those that want a beautiful view but not necessarily be at the beach or in sand.  Speaking of the outside terrace, there is power available if you wanted to hire a musician to play for the wedding ceremony and/or cocktail hour.  Additionally, it’s partially covered so a cocktail hour could still occur even if there is rain present.  Speaking of rain, they have plenty of “plan B” rain options should it happen.  A lot of venue spaces can’t offer that!

Sandestin Ceremony Bubbles Wedding

Another advantage to booking the Bayview Room is you have access Sandestin Conference Services. They can do an excellent job of uplighting the room with any color to match the décor you’ve chosen for your event and they can even do a customized gobo/monogram light on the dance floor in addition to providing many other a/v services.

Sandestin Wedding Monogram Bayview Room

We put together a tour of the venue on video. With it being a smaller room, there aren’t that many configurations that can be done so this a great sampling to observe on a more visual level. It’s one of our favorite event venue spaces so we hope you’ll consider it for your event!