Let us explain a private dinner to those who don’t know. Instead of having dinner with all of your guests at the reception, you have dinner with just you and your spouse (and the bridal party if you wish). Having a private dinner allows you to spend time with the extra special people. People like your bridesmaids and groomsmen (and your new spouse of course!) before the big party starts. Here’s three benefits to having a private dinner.

Gives You Time to Process

Having time to process without a ton of people around is vital to avoid wedding day burnout. With a private dinner you can unwind and enter the reception ready to celebrate and hang out with your guests. You don’t want to greet people grumpy and burnt out. Especially people who traveled just to see you tie the knot!

Lets You Eat!

Scheduling a private dinner allows the new couple to actually sit down and eat! Seriously though, this can be an issue, especially for new brides. The feeling of obligation to your guests can be crushing sometimes! Eating dinner with just your special person (and maybe just your bridal party/closest friends) allows you to just sit down and eat! Eating dinner during the reception usually means more interruptions to greet guests or hug family than it does actual eating!

Your Guests Get to Eat too

If you think this private dinner gig is only good for the newlyweds, let us teach you a thing or two! A private dinner allows the meal planned for the guests to go ahead, even if the bridal party gets behind on the after-ceremony photos. Trust us when we say photos can take a while especially if you didn’t do a first look or if the ceremony went long for some reason, you don’t want to keep hungry guests waiting! Let them eat while you finish up, and then get some grub yourself!

We hope these reception tips from a couple of wedding photographers were helpful! If you need someone to help capture your special day, then checkout our website!

Happy Planning!
Nicole & Ryan

If you liked this post, please check out these others from my blog:
MAKING A WEDDING DAY TIMELINE | TIPS FROM WEDDING
ADDING BUFFER IN YOUR TIMELINE
STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES