kgossman I’m sure you’ve been to a cocktail hour at a wedding before. These are a wonderful segue into the evening and give friends and family a chance to catch up if they live out of town. This also plays perfectly into your timeline to finish family photos after the ceremony or to finish bridal party photos if you’re not doing a first look. Regardless, cocktail hours (or “social hour” if you’re having a dry wedding) are a must! Here are some tips to make yours great.
Food
It’s nice to offer a few bites of food to guests before dinner is served. This is essential if you’re serving alcohol because you don’t want anyone getting too drunk. You can make food as relaxed or as fancy as you’d like here. Confirm with your caterer if they offer appetizer options or if you can bring your own. You can set bites out on an appetizer table or station, or they can be passed by servers.
Charcuterie boards or grazing tables are still a big trend right now. These can quickly add up, so if you’re going this route, make sure you have plenty of budget for it or see if you can DIY this one instead. Aldi is an excellent source for fancy cheeses and various crackers at a great price. Often times, you’ll have a cousin or Aunt volunteer to help in some way. This is a excellent thing to pass off to them to coordinate and bring items. Tell them specifics if you need to.
Make sure you offer a variety of food items during cocktail hour and during dinner. In today’s society, there are a ton of different food restrictions and diets that people are following and you want to have options for everyone. I like to include 3 items to choose from. If you’re offering hors d’oeuvres, I recommend one meat bite, one vegetarian bite, and one novelty bite. So for a southern wedding, I would do a mushroom quiche bite, a chicken and waffle bite, and a fried green tomato bite. This gives 2 options for vegetarians, 1 option for vegans, and 3 options for everyone else. If you’re going the charcuterie route, I would offer cheese and crackers, some nuts, and some fruit options.
Drinks
If you’re offering alcohol at your wedding, offer a variety so everyone has choices. Offer 2 beer choices, 3 wine choices, and you can include a couple of mixed drink options if you’d like. The price for the bar will be significantly more if you offer open bar and many venues won’t allow this anymore as things tend to get more out of hand. Be sure you check with your venue and what their rules are before you book anything or order any alcohol.
Many of my couples will offer open bar or specialty drinks during the cocktail hour and then switch to just beer and wine afterwards. This helps save on cost and manage guest behavior if you have a big drinking crowd.
Be sure to also offer non-alcoholic options for the cocktail hour also. This should include at least water. If you want to add in fruit water, tea, or lemonade you can, but make sure you have plain water as an option for those who can’t have sugar.
Glassware + Cups
If you’re opting for glassware for the bar, you can certainly do this. Make sure you communicate this to your catering staff so they have someone set aside to bus glasses. Many of my couples will do glassware for the cocktail hour and then switch to plastic during dinner to save on cost and reduce broken glass later when the dance floor gets going. It’s completely up to you. You can order custom plastic cups for your bar so they have your names, logo, or a fun saying. These also work as a favor for guests to take home and keep. Don’t forget the koozies or coasters if you want them.
Something to Do
I like to offer guests something to do during cocktail hour. If you have a more time-consuming guest book such as paint-by-number, write something out, or take a polaroid, this is a great time to set it out and remind guests to do it. You can also have a photo booth setup in the cocktail hour area for guests to enjoy and take photos with fun props. They’re more likely to have fun with this after they’ve had their first drink.
Music
Be sure to have some fun music playing for cocktail hour so guests can relax and mingle. This can be your ceremony musicians playing an extra set, a fun playlist, or a jazzy pre-set by your band. Even if you’re doing DIY music with a speaker, it’s so easy to make different playlists in Spotify and just click start.
Grand Entrance
You can do a grand entrance any way you want to. Some couples join the dining area after guests have found their tables for dinner. Others do a simpler grand entrance and then join their guests for the cocktail hour before dinner. This is a nice option if all your pictures are done before your wedding. This gives you a more relaxed atmosphere to talk to guests and thank them for coming. You can get a lot of this knocked out here so you won’t spend all evening going table-to-table during dinner to say hello.
Bridal Party
If you’re not doing a first look before your wedding, I like to pan to do family photos at the ceremony site immediately after the ceremony. This should take about 15-20 minutes depending on how many you have. Be sure to coordinate ahead of time with family who needs to be in these pictures. Then I do full bridal party photos and get these out of the way. Then your bridal party can go join the cocktail hour with friends and family while you finish up your couple portraits. If you don’t have enough time to finish your couple portraits, you can go to dinner and then dip out while everyone else is still eating to finish these. Many couples do this if your venue offers a separate location for couple portraits that isn’t right there in the main area. This is also a great time for “golden hour” or sunset photos.
