Restaurant Wedding

[Enasy]

Hi I am having an unusual wedding. We will only have 19 people at the wedding including my partner and I and 6 of them being children. We will be having the ceremony at the local registry office then on the a wonderful restaurant for a meal together.

What im worried about is the ceremony is at 1:20 in the afternoon (latest we could have as wedding in in December) which means we are going to be at the restaurant for a LONG time. and it falls between meal times. How am i going to keep everyone from getting bored?? its not a private room so no dj/band or anything. I had thought about nibbles on arrival at the restaurant and drinks, then order food later on but how to i keep people occupied?? kids activity bags? table games?

I keep thinking at most weddings my family arent the getting up to dance type anyway, and would spend the evening drinking, chatting. But i keep picturing the kids getting bored etc

Any ideas?
has anyone else had a restaurant reception?

 

[MrsMandy]

We had a small wedding - very similar numbers to you also with 5 children. We managed to spin out the meal for a few hours and I put together activity bags for the children.
We had 1 under 2 yr old that I got a cuddly hand puppet that his parents could entertain him with and then he could cuddle when he was tired, and a bag of chocolate buttons.
2 4\5 year olds that I found sticker/colouring books for and added some colouring pencils to and a bag of choc coins. And 2 9/10 year olds that I put together a 'photograph the things the photographer missed' activity and a disposable camera. And some choc coins! The activity bags went down a treat and kept the kids entertained while the 2 families got to chat, catch up ect.
We did have an early night though, I think that's something to expect if your just having a small wedding, particularly if its earlier in the day.
Hope you have a lovely day! Xx

 

[Enasy]

Thx for your reply, the activity bags are great ideas. And the different ones for different ages too, the children attending ours are between 1-11. Love the camera idea for the older ones.

I really wanted a later ceremony but due to it being in December the registry office said 1:20 was the latest they would do.

 

[MrsMandy]

Its strange that's the latest they'd do. Ours was in November and our ceremony was booked for 4 pm. We could have gone as late as 5pm but we had restrictions on having to have the meal served by 6pm as our meal was in a hotel and they needed ours served before they could serve the rest of the hotel guests. And we needed time for our blessing after the ceremony and photos.
Is it just they don't have any time slots later?

 

[Enasy]

They had no other bookings that day at all, but said 1:20 was the latest they would do due to how early it gets dark 😄 really disappointed, I wanted it to be dark 4/5pm would be so much better

 

[MrsMandy]

Oh that's such a shame I've not heard of that before - but even in December it doesn't get dark that early!!! Well I hope you have a wonderful day anyway xx

 

[Enasy]

im going to try and call the registry office today and get a second opinion, see if we can change the time

 

[MrsMandy]

Sounds like a plan!! Xx

 

[Enasy]

no luck oh well i am just going to have to make it work

 

[MrsMandy]

It'll still be a fantastic day as it's your wedding day!!!!! 😄
If you need any further help or suggestions just give me a pm. Xx

 

[Redhead84]

Don't underestimate the amount of time everything takes. I got married last November in a small church ceremony with a restaurant reception after... Grandparents were taking kids back to theirs about an hours drive away. We had the wedding at 11am!, and by the time we got to the restaurant it was gone 1, and we left at 5 having had a lovely time.

We younguns sans kids then went to have a good night out on the town. It was awesome and don't regret not going the "traditional" hotel reception route, it would have been strange with so few guests