hey guys thanks for watching weddings by
kled have you ever wondered what happens
at a wedding reception or where to begin
planning it
well on today's wedding planning 101
we're going to talk about
just that the reception
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oh
so planning the reception this is a
pretty important part of the entire
wedding planning process
because the reception is where you and
your guests are going to spend the
majority of their time
so before we can actually get into the
ins and outs of planning the reception
and all the details
you have to decide what kind of
reception you're gonna have so we're
gonna break down the three most common
types of receptions
and i'm gonna help you decide which one
is best for you
and why
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so there's three kinds of receptions the
first one is a sit-down dinner
this is very traditional the second kind
is a buffet dinner
and the third kind is food stations so
those are the three main kinds there's
other kinds of receptions there's
breakfast receptions and late night
receptions
but we're going to talk about the three
most common ones so the sit down dinner
this is probably the most formal
and most traditional type of wedding
reception
it is based around the dinner service
so the timing of it has to flow
really well and this goes for all
receptions i mean
the start of the reception really really
matters
because the food has to get served in a
timely manner
you want the food to be served hot so
this all goes back to when you're
planning your picture taking
and this all goes back to having the
perfect wedding day timeline
now we talk about the timeline
specifically in other episodes
but i'm just going to say that that's
important in all the types of receptions
so leading up to the sit down dinner
reception
this is something you want to consider
your guests now are your guests
people that are going to be comfortable
sitting at a table
with others and i highly suggest having
a seating chart
and deciding beforehand where everyone's
going to sit
you've heard me talk about this before
this is the most orderly
and timely way to do it i highly
recommend putting that seating chart out
at the cocktail hour don't just put it
outside of the ballroom
because then before they come in they're
going to form a big line and there's
going to be this big bottleneck and
that's going to take another 15 minutes
so when you put that seating chart out
at the cocktail hour it gives guests an
opportunity
to see where they're sitting see who
they're sitting with and it's a
conversation starter be like hey
i'm at 13 where are you or we're
together at table seven
and then when they're walking into the
ballroom they already know where they're
going to be seated
so if you feel like your guests are
comfortable with a formal
sit-down dinner type of scenario where
they're going to be sitting with other
people
at a table that you pick for them and
they're going to be served
by a server now i really like to see a
pre-set
entree or starter when we do a wedding
reception
and that way it speeds things up a
little bit because it's one
less clearing that your catering staff
has to do
say there's a salad or you can't do a
hot soup because it'll get cold but
maybe a
room temperature soup or some type of
pasta or antipasto
just to start with so when they first
get seeded
and after your blessing or your toast or
whatnot they can dig in to that first
course
catering can be in the background
getting the second course staged and
ready
and then that first course is removed
and you're on to your second course if
it's a super formal dinner you might be
doing a palette cleanser
which is where you have like a sorbet or
something in between courses
cleansing your palate for the next
course to come i know that's super
bougie
but it's really cool and in between the
courses
at a sit-down dinner i like to do things
like toasts for instance
because you have everyone in the room
captive and it also
helps the timeline for later in the
evening so when the actual dinner is
finished
you can get on to the first dances the
family dances and all the other
festivities that happen
in the wedding now for a sit-down dinner
it's
really important that your caterers have
enough servers
to handle all the tables i like to see
one server for every two tables if you
have about eight guests at every table
that is really really important question
to ask your caterer
so that you can make sure your guests
get served in a timely manner
a sit-down dinner should take about 90
minutes
no more than two hours if it takes more
than two hours
you're getting far into the reception
and it's taking up too much time
because you want to have a good at least
hour and a half for dancing time
towards the end typically to sit down
dinner we're not getting up and dancing
during the receptions
in certain cultures we do
but i don't like to see people on the
dance floor while the dinner's getting
cold
so it's good to just get that meal over
with and on to the next thing at the
reception
so the second kind of reception that is
actually quite common
is the buffet dinner now the buffet
dinner
is where you have your guests i like to
see them
with a seating chart at specific seats
because in this type of reception
everyone still has to have a seat
because it's like a sit down dinner you
just get it yourself
now here are some of my opinions around
a buffet dinner
if the room is really big like right now
i'm kind of in the middle of a setup at
my venue the penthouse
and we have a pretty long room here so
when we do a buffet dinner at the
penthouse i like to see
two identical buffet stations on each
side of the room
now if it's a really big venue or a
really large group three or four
identical stations why
because when table one is finished and
table 26
is just getting their food that's no
bueno so if we have more stations around
the room
that completely mirror one another that
way we can be calling
two three or four tables at once to go
up to the buffet because the worst thing
about a buffet if it's not done right
is here again when table 26 is sitting
there with their mouth watering watching
table three
or four and they're all finished so it's
really important to make sure
that your planner or whoever's
designated or your catering staff
is calling tables to go up in a timely
manner
and in a way so that when they get up to
go to the buffet table there's not
a really really long line and another
thing that can prevent that
is having them go to the buffet on both
sides of the table
and helping themselves or having the
server stand behind the
buffet table because that can really
facilitate the service
of the food a good well-done buffet
dinner shouldn't take more than
about 90 minutes here again just like a
sit-down dinner
so we can get on to the fun of the
reception
now the third type of reception is the
station's reception and i think this
kind can be a lot of fun
but there's definitely a strategy around
setting up this type of reception
people love this type of reception in
theory i have a lot of couples that come
to me and say
we want to have everybody moving we
don't want to have 100
seating we want to have everybody having
a good time
so let me just give you a little
disclaimer on that
before you decide you want to have that
type of reception you really have to
know your guests
are your guests gonna come and be okay
with that and some groups some cultures
are okay with going to an event and not
having a seat
some people like to have a landing pad
some people like to have a place
to put their purse to put their coat so
you really want to think about
are your guests going to be comfortable
with that type of reception now if they
are
it can be a lot of fun but i don't think
everybody really understands
how this type of reception works number
one if you're having a station's
reception
you don't need a cocktail hour to me a
cocktail hour says that we are moving
into something else
we're having cocktails and we're gonna
move into something else and we're gonna
sit down and have a meal so that's not
happening at a station's reception a
station's reception
you can have the food come out at
different times during the evening you
can start out with lighter foods
um but there's no going in from one
space to another you come into the space
there's no big reveal
you come into the space and everything's
already set up that's something to think
about as well
you don't need a cocktail hour and a lot
of people do that and it just confuses
guests
another thing you really want to
consider during a stations type
reception
is to make sure that your food stations
are strategically placed around the room
i like to call it divide and conquer
so that if there's one big buffet area
people are just going to line up
people naturally line up so to keep
people from lining up
place your stations all around your
venue and have some of them be round you
can have some satellite stations
so that people can approach them from
all sides you want to do everything you
can not to form a line
now your catering staff and your
planning staff can actually
intercept when they see people start
forming lines and say hey
the pasta station's over there or
there's a build your own taco station
over there
no need to form lines and then another
thing with the station's reception
is keeping that upbeat vibration of the
evening now that's the reason people
want to do this style reception they say
they don't want people glued to chairs
during the course of the evening
well then don't give them chairs don't
give them a tablescape
with lots of round tables and seats
around them because when guests see that
type of thing
they're going to think this is my seat
for the evening and this is where i'm
going to eat
you want to have different styles of
seating you want to have
i like to have like communal tables and
soft seating
and furniture and different nooks and
crannies so
this is a really fun way to do a
reception but it takes
a lot of planning there's an art to it
and i really recommend having a planner
or a caterer who is
well schooled in this type of reception
okay so now that you know about the
three most common types of receptions
you need to sit down talk about this
decide what are our guests going to be
most comfortable with is it the sit down
the buffet
or the station's reception so once
you've decided that
then you can start thinking about the
details you can't even really do the
decor
or talk about the decor until you know
what style reception you're gonna have
so what else happens at a wedding
reception now we just kind of touched on
the actual
dining and the food now you can go super
traditional and you can do
all the things that brides do like you
can have your bouquet toss
and you can have your first dance and
you can have your family dances
some people do games some people do
toasts
so those are all the kind of things that
you want to talk to your planner about
but i think that when you're writing
your timeline or your planners writing
your timeline
you want to make sure that the dinner
and the dining
takes place in a really timely manner
more importantly with the sit down
dinner in the buffet
so you can get onto all those other fun
things with the station's reception you
can kind of incorporate them in
throughout the evening
but with the buffet and the sit-down
dinner you want to make sure that
everybody is fed
so that they can get their butts out of
those seats and they can start their
dancing
and start doing all the other
festivities so i hope that gives you a
little insight into the three most
common types of receptions
and hopefully it'll help you choose
which one is best for
you now i want you to watch my video on
the ceremony and breaking that down
because that'll give you a lot of
insight into that portion of your
wedding planning
you guys thanks so much for watching
weddings by kled
thanks for allowing me a little break
today in the middle of my setup of this
reception at the penthouse this evening
please subscribe as always and go to my
website carolinelaraca.com
for more information on wedding planning
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you