You’re not obligated to entertain your guests during this time. Sometimes the gap between ceremony and reception is just inevitable. I get it. What I would say, though, is you’re not obligated to entertain your guests during this time. So I’m going to lay out three options for three different budgets. If there are funds for you to maybe organize something, I would suggest maybe using this gap as an opportunity for your guests to visit a place that the two of you love in the city.

So, for example, you could arrange a bus or do a city tour that takes everyone to your favorite museum in the city. If maybe you have a little bit less, you could do something like transit Mission Everyone over to a different area for something like lawn games and lemonade. If you’re trying to think of an option that’s really budget friendly, doesn’t really cost a lot.

It’s 100% okay to put on your wedding website and remind people that here’s a list of our favorite spots along with how long it takes to get there and let people kind of go off on their own. A lot of our couples, after they get married, they tell us that most of their guests during that break, they actually looked at the list of their couples favorite places and just went and grabbed lunch or went and grabbed a drink or a snack or they went to cocktail hour.

So if you have a big gap between ceremony and reception, I don’t think that it’s necessarily a responsibility to find something for a group of adults to do. That being said though, if you’re going to have a ceremony in one location and a reception in another and there’s going to be like 4 hours or 5 hours or whatever in between, I would try to be conscientious of what things that are available for them to figure out. Right. So like if you hopefully this is in somewhere that is urban enough where they can go and find themselves some lunch, maybe go back to the hotel that they’re staying at or an airbnb or something along those lines where they can still entertain themselves and there is an opportunity for them to give themselves something to do. If there’s not like if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and um and like your reception is at the same place, then maybe it might be nice to get some cornhole boards or yard games or something that they can go back to wherever and do. But at the end of the day, it’s not super important. Everybody’s adults, they will figure it out and.

This is so not your responsibility. So I really wouldn’t overthink it. I think everyone’s an adult. They can find ways to fill their time. It’s what, 3 hours? Go take a nap. Maybe they’re going to change or change their hair or put on more makeup in between. So there’s things for them to do. And if you do want to offer up some options, your wedding website is a good place to just put it out there and say, like, hey, if you’re looking for something to do between the ceremony and reception I mean, I know you said it’s rural, but you can even be like, this is a great walking path that we love. Or like, this is the 1 bar in town that has amazing wings and you can catch whatever game is on, but I totally wouldn’t overthink it. I think everyone’s going to be fine with it. So don’t stress, don’t spend any more money, and enjoy your day.

Oh, yes, there’s a lot of room to have fun with this. Diana here from Jubilee events your New England, New York and North Carolina wedding planner. In the past, when we’ve had big splits between the ceremony and reception, we want guests to keep the momentum and get excited for what’s to come instead of petering out in that little in between time between the ceremony reception. We know not every location has the opportunity to offer something like a local bar or a sightseeing activity for your guests to go to if they do. Supporting a local business is always a fun way to be able to give guests the opportunity to explore your wedding location and keep the fun going as a group, getting to know one another more, getting to make relationships with each other, and getting ready to keep the party going. Some areas, especially in a little more rural areas, may not have the opportunity to host something like this, especially if you have a large group. In the past, something we’ve done that people absolutely love is rented an ice cream truck. Especially now when nostalgia and 90s life and 2000s life is coming back in as popular again, which, truth be told, I don’t think it ever went out of style for some of us. People love things like this. Ice cream trucks just hits all of those fun kid fantasies time frames that we all go back to, and it’s such a treat. Especially when we know that weddings are held on warmer summer days. You cannot go wrong.