Small Wedding, Good atmosphere

Big Mouth

Looking for advice, I'm getting married this year in a very nice hotel and we're planning to have a small wedding more quality than quantity so we will have about 70 guests.

We're not huge fans of a traditional wedding (no long speeches, no "top table" etc) so the plan so far is:

Church at 4pm followed by two or three drinks in pub next door to church then everyone heads back to hotel (30mins away) for drinks reception hopefully around 7pm with the plan to have a nice sit down meal at 8-8.30pm in private room.

The problem is I'm already sweating over the atmosphere as I want everyone to have good craic and enjoy themselves taking the cost of attending the whole weekend into account, however, I'm panicking over what to do after the meal because we don't want the whole first dance and band as with 70 people you could have a very bare dance floor and the atmosphere could nose dive and also we'd feel like we would have to stay on the dance floor most of the night and neither of us want to

Obviously we want music and was thinking of maybe after the dinner going to a reserved area of the main hotel bar and having some musicians play there.

Thoughts or other suggestions??

Ballyman

Photobooth? Its ideal as a source of entertainment for those not on the dance floor. Have a look at one from yesterday here - www.Facebook.com/atlweddingphotography

Senna

Big Mouth wrote: »

Obviously we want music and was thinking of maybe after the dinner going to a reserved area of the main hotel bar and having some musicians play there.

I think this is nearly the best option if the function room is large, and if not the hotel bar, a local pub. If its a pub, organise a reserved area, some light music and maybe something like a drink on arrival. I done this for a small wedding once, we had 3 shots to give out to people as they arrived, people who were more than willing took a flaming Sambuca, a baby Guinness as a lighter option or I had shots of champagne for people who didn't want to start on "shots" too early. It just got people chatting and laughing around the bar while they waited on the rest to follow.

ponderousanon

Manila strings could be perfect

Senna wrote: »

I think this is nearly the best option if the function room is large, and if not the hotel bar, a local pub. If its a pub, organise a reserved area, some light music and maybe something like a drink on arrival. I done this for a small wedding once, we had 3 shots to give out to people as they arrived, people who were more than willing took a flaming Sambuca, a baby Guinness as a lighter option or I had shots of champagne for people who didn't want to start on "shots" too early. It just got people chatting and laughing around the bar while they waited on the rest to follow.

tatli_lokma

I dunno - a lot of moving about - church to pub, pub to hotel, dinner and then back to pub/hotel bar. IMO all that is more likely to kill the atmosphere. And if you head to the pub after the church there is a risk that you will get a group of stragglers who won't leave when you need them to and will end up rushing in at the last minute just before the meal.

I think the less 'sections' there are to the day, and the more things in the one place, the better as people relax quicker than if they are moving from billy to jack.

For a relatives birthday a few years back they had a fiddler and pianist and guitar player. It was a private room which was hired for the night, with a sit down dinner followed by the band, so not unlike a wedding in that respect. The band were really good at getting the atmosphere going, got people to sing along, and then encouraged people to do their 'party piece' but without it ending up karaoke. So maybe a band as you say would be a good idea, but I wouldn't be inclined to move people out of the private room, but instead get the band to play there.