The ceremony is over, you are now hopefully arriving at your reception just ahead of your guest so that  you can greet them as they arrive.

Greetings
Some couples like the idea of greeting there guest as the arrive where as others feel that it is a bit to formal and greeting 100 plus guest can be a bit time consuming. However should you decide to greet your guest here is a general order for the line.

	The Brides Mother
	The Grooms Father
	The Grooms Mother
	The Brides Father
	The Bride
	The Groom
	The Chief Bridesmaid
	The Best Man

The logic behind separating the parents in such away is that they can introduce the guest to the other parent. For example: Uncle John (Grooms side) can be introduced to the Brides mother by the Grooms father , then by the Grooms mother to the Brides Father and so on.

You can also have as short a line as you wish.

Seating Arrangements
Have a chat with the venue to see how they normally lay out for a wedding, they will know what works best for that particular room and style of table. The usual lay out is a Top table then a selection of Guest tables, a cake table and a Gift table for those guest that bought there gifts along.

Top Table
Gifts Table

The Top Table is usually a long rectangular table which give the best view of the wedding party, the guest tables if possible should be round, this will help your guest to feel more comfortable. The guest table are arranged so that direct family members are seated close to the top table with other family and friends further away. If you do not have round tables for the guests the formal seating arrangement are that a husband sits across from his wife and it is customary to alternate male and female guests. Always try to leave children with there parents and seat groups of people that know each other together this will make them feel at ease, you may like to group them by there age groups.

The Top Table
This should be straight forward however relationships are never straight forward, what happens if one of the parents are divorced, remarried, both parents hate each other....the list goes on. Here are a few examples of the seating arrangements you can have.

Traditional seating plan

As for the guests, place cards should be used to make sure everyone is where they should be, the place cards should be in keeping with the invitation sent out.

Some may not wish to be as  formal as this and decide to have a stand up buffet, with the wedding party  moving around, greeting the guest as the reception goes on, this is ideal if space is limited or if you decided to have a marquee, remember to have some chairs and tables for some of the less fit guest.