Party Room After the Reception???

[robbie3982]

I''d never heard of this before FI''s family started asking if we were having one. I''ve been to a few weddings and never seen this. Has anyone else heard of it?

 

[laine]

I went to a wedding recently that had this. It was essentially a hotel room with no beds (I think the hotel threw it in free since they had a block of rooms there). The left over alcohol from the wedding was brought there, and some of the younger friends of the couple hung out. It was really informal, and not that many people showed up, since it was kinda late. It seems a little unnecessary to me. Usually when we want to hang out after weddings, we just all agree to go back to someone's hotel room (or where ever).

Maybe if you were having an afternoon wedding, I could see having a planned "after-party" but in general, I would think this is an unnecessary expense.

I have seen informal cocktail parties after the rehearsal dinner, or party rooms after the ceremony but before the reception. These are nice, especially for out of town guests who might otherwise be bored or not have anything to do.

 

[tiffanytwisted]

I have read about this recently in some bridal magazines. It seems to be the new trend, to have an "after party" after the reception.

 

[ladykemma]

Date: 12/5/2006 5:50:49 PM
Author: tiffanytwisted
I have read about this recently in some bridal magazines. It seems to be the new trend, to have an ''after party'' after the reception.

why on earth....? i get exhausted just thinking abut it.

 

[Kit]

I''ve been to many weddings at this point, and yes it''s pretty common. I would say it can be a fun idea with two caveats:

1) if you''re getting married in the late afternoon/evening by the time the ceremony is over people may be pretty tired and want to go to bed
2) if your social crowd is on the "older" side (like many of your friends are 28+) they may not have the stamina to continue to party

I''ve seen where brides and grooms feel compelled to stop by the after party instead of going straight to their suite...personally I am not going to do this becuase I know that we''ll be exhausted and ready for some quiet time together.

Some people''s families have an endless party kind of culture where they cannot imagine just going to bed after the reception is over...if this is the case with your FIs family, I would just recommend setting some boundaries with them so you don''t find yourself at the afterparty until the wee hours!

 

[ChargerGrrl]

DH and I KNEW that our two groups of friends would mesh well and that an after-party would most likely happen.

We talked about it briefly- should we make ourselves "available" after the reception? In the end, we decided not to. Our reception ended at 10:30p, and by the time everyone cleared out and we made our exit, it was close to 11p. The bus thingy that we secured to shuttle the "partiers" from the homebase hotel and to our wedding site and back ended up making a pit stop at a supermarket for refreshments, and they had a heck of a time in the "bridal suite" at the homebase hotel. We elected to stay somewhere else, as we didn''t want to be found! It was the right choice for us.

It''s certainly a nice idea, but not really necessary in my opinion.

 

[RoseAngel04]

I've heard it mentioned but never experienced it. We are having an afternoon wedding and will not be partying with the guests after the reception is over...it will be a party for two only!!

 

[TravelingGal]

Since we had such a small wedding/reception, we decided to have a party at a local bar. We didn''t start that until 9, but our wedding finished up at about 5. If I had to do it over again, I would have just nixed the afterparty. It was great for folks that couldn''t come to the wedding, but everyone partied so hard at our wedding, that many guests crashed for night at about 6 pm and didn''t make the second party! (I didn''t expect THAT to happen).

Even if you have a laid back wedding, as ours was, you will be tired. I''d say skip the afterparty.

 

[labbielove]

I''ve heard of this too, and have been to a few, but usually it was impromptu and without the bride & groom. that is, as an OOT guest, if I was in a hotel with a bunch of friends and or the relatives,and the reception ended early enough we may all get together somewhere afterwards.

Personally, I don''t see any obligation on your part to provide this. I''ve heard of a hospitality suite being provided to oot guests between the ceremony & reception if there''s a huge lag.

We may plan a late brunch the sunday afterwards to say goodbye to our family that''s traveling, but other than that i want some time to enjoy my new husband for gosh sakes!

 

[jcrow]

we had an after wedding party, but, it wasn''t something we coordinated or attended. it probably happened b/c most of the guests (98%) were from out of town and our wedding ended at 6 pm. they ended up going to a house for the partying. it''s the same house & people that hosted our cocktail party the thursday before the wedding. anyway, they brought the left over food from the reception and some centerpieces and gathered together afterwards. of course, they asked if they could take those things and asked if we wanted to join everyone. in the end, i''m glad we didn''t go. i fell apart after we left the reception. we got to the hotel and literally my body fell apart. there''s no way we''d have made that party, although i''m sure it would have been a great time.

 

[robbie3982]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Our reception will be ending around 10:30 or 11 so I definitely don''t want to go anywhere after. I know I''ll be exhausted and I''d like to spend at least a little alone time with my FH on our wedding night. I''m glad to hear that this isn''t something that we''re supposed to provide though. I was thinking the reception should be enough, but I didn''t want to seem cheap if it''s something that we''re supposed to be providing. FI''s family will probably get together and continue the party since they are a serious party family, but I don''t think my family would. Who knows though.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Our friends had an after party at the hotel. DH and I stayed at a different hotel so we didn''t attend.

 

[flopkins]

There are a couple weddings DH and I attended that did this, one had it at their hotel after the wedding, the wedding ended early though, maybe 3PM and the party was at 10 so everyone had time to relax in between. This couple had TONS of OOT ppl they hadn''t seen in forever, so they really wanted more time to hangout w/their friends. They partied all night until their HM flight the next morning (crazy!!) They had all the leftover cake there, and bought a bunch of chinese takeout. They had a suite at the hotel, cleared out a lot of the furniture, had a friend DJ, and it was lots of fun.

Another couple also had a lot of OOT folks, and we all met up at a local bar after the wedding... it ended maybe 9PM and we met up around 11 or midnight to give ppl time to change and stuff... but anyhoo they were a big party crowd and they drank wayyyy into the night.

DH and I didn''t do this. I kinda wanted to, but DH really wanted to have some alone time, and we decided that if we were going to do it, it would be last minute spontaneousness... and I''m so glad he convinced me not to plan anything, bc I was dead on exhausted by the end of the night... our reception ended at 10, and although i think I woulda been fine if we had partied another hour, I was pretty much done by the time we got to the hotel... it was sooooo nice to just soak in the hot tub and relax.