Venue Modification/Solution

We've managed to curtail the spacing issue, by a brilliant plan (if I do say so myself), to use the church's hall space as our "cocktail - minus the cocktails" hour space, and then use the reception space solely for the reception. This allows us to use all of the space to seat guests instead of parcellling up the venue between the cocktail hour and the sit-down reception.

Everyone involved loves this idea, and an added bonus is that it gives us an extra hour of reception time that doesn't get used up by the cocktail hour! Lovely, lovely!