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"Lots of you said you were annoyed when ...Silver Ticket Invitation from Fine Stationery.com. The bride and groom had a GIANT chunk of down time between the wedding ceremony and reception, and left their guests with nothing to do. Sometimes the giant chunk of downtime is unavoidable: Your childhood church can only host your ceremony at 11 a.m. and your favorite venue can&amp;amp;#8217;t start your reception &amp;amp;#8217;til 3 p.m. If that&amp;amp;#8217;s the situation you find yourself in, I recommend you ... Let your guests know on the invites. Most invites list the ceremony time and simply say, &amp;amp;#8220;Reception to follow.&amp;amp;#8221; (Or something like that.) If your reception won&amp;amp;#8217;t immediately follow, I&amp;amp;#8217;d specify, &amp;amp;#8220;Reception to follow at 3 p.m.&amp;amp;#8221; If people have a huge issue with the downtime, they can always RSVP no. Provide an &amp;amp;#8220;activity.&amp;amp;#8221; I think downtime is extra-frustrating when everyone&amp;amp;#8217;s dressed up for a wedding and then they&amp;amp;#8217;re stuck hanging out at a nearby Hooters. No one wants to get wing sauce on her fancy dress, right? If there&amp;amp;#8217;s a park or a relative&amp;amp;#8217;s house nearby, provide some lawn games (croquet, bocce), buckets of soda, water, and beer, and light snacks, and everyone can have fun without you. Just include a line on the program that says, &amp;amp;#8220;The bride and groom invite you to spend the afternoon in at Aunt Susan&amp;amp;#8217;s before the reception.&amp;amp;#8221; Suggest places they can hang out. If you don&amp;amp;#8217;t want to host one more event, at least let people know where they can grab a drink. Include an insert in the programs with a list of your favorite local bars and restaurants. Or let them know if there&amp;amp;#8217;s a river cruise or free concert nearby. I think if the bride and groom acknowledge the giant chunk of downtime and let their guests know they&amp;amp;#8217;re taking their needs into consideration, the guests will be a lot less bejiggity by the time the reception rolls around. Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride and groom gave guests some great options during the downtime? Or have you always had to wait around? More miscellaneous wedding stuff: * I Do or I Don&amp;amp;#8217;t: Theme Showers * Do You Care What Color You Mom and Future Mother-in-Law Wear to Your Wedding? * I Love This: Super-Pretty DIY Centerpiece! More Ways to Get Glamour Take Our Survey and You Could Win an iTunes Gift Card! Hey Glamour fans, we need your advice. We want to know what&amp;amp;#8217;s important to you when it comes to Glamour and all things digital&amp;amp;#8212;what do you like most? What do you want to see more of? How and where do you want to read all that fun stuff? Please TAKE OUR SURVEY. As a special thank-you for sharing, you will be entered to win one of 45 iTunes gift cards for taking the survey! See RULES for details. Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Download Glamour Magazine for your iPad! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage Photo: Courtesy of FineStationery.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2011/03/how-to-keep-your-guests-happy>