The Wedding Package comes with our signature planning collaboration. Our approach shares trends of what we often see; & the unique things we've seen previous clients do. We'll share our opinions of best practices for timeline flow based on certain elements or qualities in a reception that are important to you. A timeline often creates itself, organically, based on our discovery based style of interview.

We contract with many brides that plan their own weddings. A recurring theme among those is that they want to know, "what is the norm," or "what do other brides do there?" (referring to a specific point in the event or timeline). During our consultation, we will share our experiences of not just the norm or "the road most traveled," but also unique moments that previous clients may have had. All of this is part of our philosophy of educating you of your options, then receiving your feedback of what appeals to you.
Of course, we also welcome your own input of what you envision or if you already have a predetermined vision of the event flow.

If you're lucky enough to have a Wedding Planner/Coordinator, we can take their planning & timeline information & replicate those notes into our forms. Despite their immeasurable value, about half of our clients don't hire a dedicated professional to help them here. In those cases we can take a greater leadership role in the authoring & execution of the timeline on your wedding day.

During the collaboration period before your event, we'll review everything about the timing, activities, and acknowledgments that you wish to take place. Together, we'll customize a timeline that can be shared with your other vendors in the common interest of a smooth flowing event.

Below is a real timeline with the names changed in respect to clients identity....

I'd like to share a scenario so you get an idea how a "typical reception" might "flow" timing wise.

The intention is to not suggest "we know it all," but instead let those about-to-be-married, know what they MIGHT expect since many or to not know what to expect having never been married before.
We also encourage your own unique variances, so please let us know how we can make your wedding day as uniquely special as it should be.

The average reception lasts 3.5 - 4.5 hours.

The typical reception begins prior to or just as guests are arriving. The dj is playing "Mingling Music," or some might call it Dining / Cocktail music, heavily influenced by love themed jazz classics by artists such as Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Bennett, Holiday, Armstrong, Porter, Coltrane, and other timeless and tasteful classics throughout the meal & post meal mingling time. This is not the recreated elevator "MUZACK" junk (intentionally mis-spelled), but instead the original songs.

While most choose a classic jazz format for dinner, we can also provide variances such as: folky/indie/Americana, contemporary/soft rock, Latin gypsy guitar, country, classical or many others.

Wedding Party often arrives a little before the Bride & Groom, who are usually the last to leave post-ceremony-pictures session. Bride & Groom often arrive about 25 or up to 45 minutes into the reception, unless the ceremony & reception locations are close in proximity to each other.

DJ announces Grand Entrance of Bride & Groom who briefly 'work the room' and about 10-15 minutes afterward the families of the Bride & Groom & wedding party usually leads a buffet line, or receive first service for a sit down served meal.

Most clients choose to enter, eat / mingle & then open up the dancing after dinner; only about 1 out of every 5 choose to enter & go straight into the first dance prior to the meal.
We encourage you to choose whichever is most important to you.

Meal & mingling time takes on average 50-75 minutes, this varies depending on type of meal, number of guests, timeliness of catering, and many other factors. Bride & Groom often finish before the guests as they are served first, and often 'work-the-room' visiting table-by-table while all the guests are still finishing dinner & there may even still be a buffet line of guests dwindling while the Bride & Groom begin to mingle around the room.
Over 95% of our clients choose this flow to individually visit with guests instead of doing a formal "receiving line."

During our interview we'll ask you questions which would reveal whether doing the cake & toast moment would be better at the end of the meal or after we get the dancing started. More often than not, it occurs as a "break in the action" 30-45 minutes after the first dance.

When the Bride & Groom are comfortable to move forward, they "break-in" the dance floor with their first dance & parent dances normally follow. After these key dances, most of the rest of the timeline is open dancing except for other scheduled activities planned along the "back-half" of the timeline.

We see a Bouquet Toss at about 85-90% & a Garter Removal & Toss moment at about 70-80% of our weddings. This usually occurs sometime in the last 30-45 minutes of the event.

The Bride & Groom often make their grand exit, sometime in the last 15-20 scheduled minutes, so that there are still enough guests around to "send them off." Some stage an exit for photos & come back in to party longer.

Throughout the reception we are your primary event host for your guests & we will manage the timeline, activities, games and necessary, & announcements you wish in a professional & tasteful manner.

Beyond that, we try to evenly space out other requested traditional & nontraditional reception activities.

We'll also discuss music particulars, what you like & also want to know what you DON'T like so we don't accidentally play them. We welcome your play-lists (that often arrive as Word Doc's, text files, or spreadsheets) & we also offer a unique music style rating system to discover the styles of music you want played.

At a wedding we recognize that because of the diverse demographic spectrum of guests in both age & personal music taste, a "radio-friendly" & predominantly "radio-familiar" music format trends better for a more successful dance floor. The music also tends to get younger as the night gets later catering to those who still have the dancing stamina to keep going.

With all the activities & key dances that usually take place during a wedding reception, there is normally only enough time to program for about 35-50 songs after the first dance. With that in mind, we find it very easy to communicate with our client to discuss & narrow down to what the appropriate mix of music will be for you & your friends & family.

Our music discussion also includes a unique music genre rating system where we get our client to rate many different genre's on a rating scale system to not only discover what you like vs. what you don't like, but also HOW MUCH you may prefer any genre over another.

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