Cocktail Wedding Receptions

Cocktail wedding receptions are a great alternative for those brides and grooms who do not have the budget to handle a large formal sit down dinner. Of course, with cocktail receptions, you should note that the timing will be different than a sit down dinner. The cocktail hours could affect when you should hold your wedding ceremony.

When you have a cocktail party reception for your wedding, the typical time frame is from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. That means you would need to time your wedding ceremony between 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The advantages of cocktail wedding receptions are several. They are:

1. Because this reception is in the early evening, you can dictate whether or not it will be casual or formal. What to wear to a cocktail reception is typically what you would normally wear anyway.
2. Because cocktail wedding receptions are typically just appetizers, drinks and wedding cake, the cost per guest is a lot lower. That is great for the budget!

There are a number of cocktail reception ideas that can be tailored to your wedding. Of course, you are going to have the most creativity shine through with the choice of appetizers. The drinks come in a close second.

For instance, cocktail wedding receptions could follow a loose theme. For instance, if you have a Mexican heritage, you could serve mini empanadas filled with cheese or meat. Drinks could be mojitos and margaritas. The décor could reflect this Latin-flavored theme as well with the use of serapes as table covers and even a Mexican wedding piñata!

During cocktail wedding receptions, the appetizers could be passed around on trays with the help of waiters. Or, you could set up a buffet style line so that guests could help themselves. Either scenario is acceptable. In order to determine the best choice for you, ask your facility or caterer who is providing the wait staff and food, how much each scenario would cost. The buffet would mean less waiters, bringing down the cost.

Another way to save some money on cocktail wedding receptions is to use someone’s home as the reception site. You can save the cost of a facility rental and just have to hire the caterer and wait staff. And of course, you do not want to underestimate the guest count when it comes to ordering food and drink. Most caterers will usually pad the count by ten to twenty for those unexpected guests that show up. However, if the figures are skewed, those allowances are gone.