Wedding Reception Order of Events: The Full Timeline

A wedding reception runs about five hours, and the order you put things in decides whether the dance floor fills or empties. Below is the running order I use, with how long each moment actually takes and what song fits it. It comes from three decades of receptions and from the song lists on this site, more than 5,000 tracks organised by moment, decade and genre. Nothing here is mandatory. Cut what does not fit your wedding, and the timing still holds.

Based on a five-hour reception. Adjust the dinner and dancing blocks first; everything else stays roughly the same length.

Two decisions move this timeline more than any other: when the first dance happens, and where the tosses go. Both are covered below.

Our Music Planning Guides.

Don’t miss any moments of your wedding to incorporate your personality.

Shop Bookstore

The arrival of guests at the reception site

Most ceremonies run 20 to 30 minutes, and guests will start arriving at the reception before you do. Everything should be set before the ceremony starts: cake table, DJ table, sign-in table, seating chart, and every table set for guests.

Also, all wedding vendors should be wearing proper attire for early arriving and late staying guests. All tables should be set up including a cake table, entertainment table, Sign-in table, food tables, and tables with chairs for all guests.

If you have a seating arrangement, all seating lists should be at the reception with everyone’s name with where they are sitting.

Special Note: The receiving line can be held at the church or at the reception hall. Final formal pictures by the photographer will be followed by the receiving line. Some halls have a standard procedure they like to follow.

Receiving lines can be as few as the wedding couple, parents, best man and maid/matron of honor, or the formal receiving line in order of mother and father of the bride, mother, and father of the groom, wedding couple, ushers and bridesmaids, special guests.

Introduction of the Wedding Party

This step is not mandatory, but it is nice for everyone to know who the wedding party is as many have not met before your wedding. Create a “Reception Planner Book” and give this to your master of ceremonies prior to your wedding.

These details, among other things, the order of entrance into the reception site with their names and titles. The order of entrance is as follows: parents of the bride, parents of the groom, ushers with bridesmaids, flower girl, and ring bearer, special guests, best man, maid/matron of honor, and the wedding couple.

In addition, review the pronunciations of the wedding party’s names with the master of ceremonies.

Introduction of Wedding Couple

This is always the last of the introductions. Everyone should stand before the wedding couple enter. In addition, a special song can be arranged with music entertainment and a special announcement made to punctuate a truly grand entrance.

Also, inform the master of ceremonies how you would like to be introduced: Mr. and Mrs. Smith or John and Jane Doe.

Newlywed’s First Dance

The first dance is for the wedding couple marking the first dance as a married couple. The dance is also commonly known as the “First Dance”. The timing of the wedding couple’s first dance can vary in the evening based on your preferences.

The first dance can be done immediately following the grand entrance with the wedding party circling the dance floor or the wedding couple dance can begin the chronological order of the formal dances with fun and dancing to follow.

Blessing

If a blessing is part of your wedding, the person who officiated is the natural choice.

This is another step that is not mandatory, but for religious couples makes a nice setting. If you invite the person who performed the marriage ceremony to the reception, I would recommend having them conduct the blessing.

If they are not able to attend, a parent or family friend is a good idea. Lastly, the master of ceremonies could give the meal blessing.

Be sure to communicate with whoever is giving the blessing in advance so they are prepared to give a personal touch.

Meal

It’s time to eat! NEWLYWEDS, be sure to stop and take a moment to eat. This may be your only chance in the day. In addition, it is customary for the wedding couple to start the food line.

Most guests know to wait until the wedding couple starts the food line. So don’t be late!

Cake Cutting

This is the traditional wedding couple making the first cut on their wedding cake. Then, they feed each other half of the piece of cake to each other.

The cutting of the cake is a ceremony intended to symbolize caring and sharing for one another. Forks may be used as they make the image very attractive for the photographer. Forks may also minimize the possibility of someone being hurt with the more playful squashing that sometimes happens.

Toasts

The toast is when the wedding couple toasts each other then interlock arms and drink. Immediately following, the best man and maid/matron of honor make a toast to the wedding couple. Be prepared for other family and friends to follow with their toasts too.

Parent Dance

These are the traditional pairings and plenty of couples do something else: one combined song, a dance with a grandparent, a stepparent tapping in halfway through, or skipping them entirely. Any of that works. The timing below is the same whichever version you choose.

Father & Daughter Dance

The Father-Daughter Dance or the Father Bride Dance is the dance between the father(s) of the bride and the bride. Brides, if you have more than one father in your life, one can tap the other on the shoulder in the middle of the dance so you can dance with both of them.

If you do not have a father, a common substitute is a father figure or even your brother would make a very nice gesture. Some couples combine the father-daughter dance with the mother and son dance into just one song to dance.

Mother & Son Dance

The Mother Groom dance is the dance between the mother(s) of the groom and the groom. Grooms, if you have more than one mother in your life, one can tap the other on the shoulder in the middle of the dance so you can dance with both of them.

If you do not have a mother, a common substitute is a mother figure or even your sister would make a very nice gesture. Some couples combine the father-daughter dance with the mother and son dance into just one song to dance.

Special Dances

There may be songs in your life that mean dear to your heart. You can ask the music entertainment to play these songs during the night or immediately following the formal dances.

An example would be if someone dear to you passed recently, you may ask the music entertainment to play “Angels Among Us” by Alabama.

Bouquet and Garter Toss

The traditional tossing of the bouquet is when the bride tosses the bridal bouquet to all single women in attendance. The woman who catches the bouquet is said to be the next one to marry.

Immediately following the bouquet tossing, a chair is set in the middle of the dance floor. The chair is for the bride to sit on and the groom to remove the bride’s garter from her leg.

The traditional tossing of the garter is when the groom tosses the bride’s garter to all the single men in attendance. The man who catches the garter is said to be the next one to marry.

Dancing and Fun

This is what you pay the music entertainment to do…get people to dance and have a good time. Give the music entertainment an idea of what type of music you enjoy but don’t give them a list of 100 songs they need to play.

However, you are allowed to set limitations on what they are not allowed to play.

What else should you know?

If you are a wedding couple, relax and have fun at the reception. This is your day! Murphy’s Law is that something will go wrong. Just take it in stride because once the wedding starts, you can’t change anything.  If you are looking for songs for each wedding event, check out a wedding ceremony and reception playlist.

Keeping wedding guests entertained has much to do with timing and having a flow between micro-moments. Guests are attending your wedding to show their support for the wedding couple.

Having a planned timeline for your wedding reception will keep them from being bored and leaving too early.

5 Decisions That Change the Whole Night

• Put the first dance right after the grand entrance. Everyone is already standing and the energy is at its peak. Doing it later means asking a seated, well-fed room to stand up and pay attention again, which is a much harder job.
• Keep the tosses before the dancing, not during it. Hold the bouquet and garter toss straight after the cake cutting. Once a floor is full, stopping the music to move furniture costs you the room, and getting that energy back takes longer than the toss did.
• Limit toasts to two people. The best man and the maid or matron of honour. The moment a third person speaks, every parent and close friend feels entitled to, and a ten-minute block becomes forty.
• Watch the dinner volume, not the dinner playlist. Dinner is when guests catch up with each other. Mid-tempo is right, but the volume matters more than the songs: loud enough to fill the silence, quiet enough that nobody raises their voice.
• Do not leave a long gap between the ceremony ending and the meal. Guests start drinking the moment they arrive. If cocktail hour runs long because of photographs, put out food and something to do. Lawn games sized up big enough to look deliberate work better than they sound.