Suggestions for a very casual reception?

Question

Hello. I am being married out of state and hopeing to do some sort of reception back home afterwards. My fiance and I are not very formal people. We both hate to dress up and want to do more of a "party" type thing than a formal reception.
Has anyone here done something like that? Where do you suggest we do it and what do you suggest we do at the party/reception? Dinner or just desert or just drinks!? I dunno! I hate planning too! Any suggestions would be helpful.
Also any suggestions on how you would word an invitation like that. Do you just come out and say "dress casual"?

THANKS

Answer 1

Announce a BBQ reception. That will say informal FOR you and can be alot of fun. It will take care of the food and drink for you, and if you choose a park with play equipment, that will keep the kids entertained as well. For the adults, generally conversation will be enough, but you could also bring an MP3 player and speakers of some sort and have some casual dancing. For desert have some cake or cupcakes, this will be your "wedding cake". That way should you decide to go with any of the normal "photo op" opportunities you can feed each other cake (please refrain from smashing, that tradition is best left out as it leaves many guests uncomfortable and is rarely as cute as the couple may think).

If you need further assistance or would like some free help planning it out, email me and I will do my best to help you.

Answer 2

My fiance and I will be getting married in Africa in December, in his home country, but we're going to have a much more informal engagement party in the U.S. in August to celebrate with those who won't be able to make the trans-continental journey.

The engagement party will be held in a state park, where we have rented gazebos and an ampitheater. We are planning on having a cake and some catered dishes, but we will also encourage in-town guests to bring potluck dishes. In the afternoon people can go hiking or climb an old fire tower for a spectacular view, then as evening sets in we will all congregate for live music and cake!

For our invitations for the engagement party we said something like "Please join us to celebrate the engagement of...." We did not write anything explicitly about attire on the invitation, but we provided a link to a website that will state that the event is casual/semi-formal.

We also figured that by holding the party in a state park rather than a formal reception hall, it would help enforce that more laid back feeling.

Good luck! And congratulations on saving yourselves from lots of stress in planning a fancy reception that you don't want! I like how you're going with your own tastes and not conforming!

Answer 3

We had a formal wedding and then a less formal reception, although we were still dressed up. We had it at the local Elks Club, cost $50 to rent the room for the night and $7/hr for each bartender. It was at 7pm, we had a DJ, the bar was cash (but cheap) and we had it catered for hors d'oeuvres, dessert and of course wedding cake. We were married on Valentines Day and put up our own decos the day before. Everyone danced, drank ate, it was so much fun. EVERYONE who attended said it was THE BEST reception they'd ever been too. We had about 60 people. If you prefer it to be casual you could say something on the invitation like "Please join us for a casual reception to celebrate our wedding". Good Luck.

Answer 4

Plan a cookout, let people know it's casual dress.

Have a pot-luck dinner.

Check with one of your local restaurants and see if they have a dining room area you can reserve, let them know you want casual reception party for ___ number of people. Let them do the planning. Let them know what your budget is.

Instead of a SuperBowl theme party, have a Super Wedding party. Everyone can still dress in t-shirts and jeans. You can have sub sandwiches, chips, dip, fruit tray, vegetable tray. Have some of those disposable cameras setting around, let the guests take pictures all during the party. Then the give you back the cameras and you get the pics developed!

Answer 5

There are a lot of menu options for a casual reception. In addition to having a barbeque you can have a cocktail party, dessert, hors d'oeurves, brunch, or buffet reception and still have a casual environment. To set the tone select invitations with a fun and casual theme. Here are some examples: http://somethingdifferent.singleresource.com/StaticPage.cfm?strShobaMainsomethingdifferent.singleresource.com=520562289&intStaticPageID=7997

You also should use fun and informal wording. For example:
BRIDE
and
GROOM
will be married on
DATE
LOCATION
Please join them as they continue their celebration
at a [type] party
DATE at TIME
LOCATION
ADDRESS
CITY, STATE

Answer 6

I'm doing the same thing! We are planning a backyard bbq/pool party. We are having a caterer come in and cook up tri-tip, chicken, ribs, halibut with green salad, mac salad, beans, corn, scalloped potatoes, rolls and butter. Cake for dessert along with a chocolate fountain. Floating candles in the pool and twinkle lights. Cookies with our pic on them attached to "stems" and placed in flower pots for centerpieces and favors. When you pick out the invites, choose something more casual (we have a western themed one). Put "casual dress" in the corner of the invite or have family spread the word!

Good Luck!

Answer 7

We were married by a justice of the peace last september. On our invitations we said "you are invited to and informal outdoor reception. We had our reception in our back yard. We rented a tent and the tables. We hung white lights all around the tent. Each guest had a votive candle with our names and wedding date on it which they lit when it got dark. Along with our white lights it was beautiful. We hired someone to do a pig roast for us. He roasted the pig before bringing so there was no pig to look at. He brought along potatoe salad, macaroni salad and roasted potatoes. We made backed ziti and did all our party trays ourselves. We put a table out with alcohol on it if people wanted to drink. Did a keg of beer and soda. For the kids we bought a 200.00 moon bounce at toys r us. (that is if you would have kids there) On all of our table we had a camara for our guests to take pictures. That turned out to be a great idea. We used our own cd player for music. It was one of the greatest days of my life and I wouldnt have changed anything. The guys played horseshoes, people danced and played other yard games. We had a beautiful three tier cake. The whole day was perfect but it went by to quickly. Congratulations to you and good luck. By the way We planned this all in 8 weeks.

Answer 8

TRIXIE is right, I'm a man, I'm not married. But a BBQ would be great. The amount that you would pay to have venders do it for you would be way more then it would if you went out and bought the best steak for everyone. It would be so nice to just be able to go and know you can just pig out drink, have fun, no worries. Get a tent, big ole BBQ barrel, Kegs, and let the party roll! That would be so fun!

Answer 9

everybody has the right idea. A barbecue. It is the most informal gathering. At BBQ's people just know it is casual. Good luck and congratulations.