Reception Highlight...how do you cut it together
 

I was wondering how everyone else doing there Reception Highlight pieces. Currently I make a highlight of the reception including all the big moments (first dance, cake, bouquet toss, speeches, some dinner, lots of dancing, etc) and i basically start off with the welcoming of the bride and groom and the first dance. I then just follow the flow of activities for the night. It usually last anywhere between 10-15 minutes and depends on how much is going on at the reception. for receptions without any dancing it usually is shorter.

Is this pretty much what everyone else is doing or are there any other fun ideas out there?

Sounds close to what I do. Some things to thing about would be a nice montage at the beginning of close-ups of the hall, table settings, cake, buffet, etc. I think it's a nice way to open up the reception so that they can remember what everything looked like before everything get jumbled by the guests. I like to show everything in order, but that is a personal preference. I tend to document the day's events.

Same here. I tend to do the ceremony and reception in a documentary style and leave the artsy fartsy stuff for the highlights. I include toasts in their entirety and all the "formalities". I do add establishing shots and music as I deem appropriate.

On the actual DVD in the "extras" section I include:

full bride and groom dance
toasts
speeches
and any other lengthy happenings

But for the 10-15 minute highlight i shortend all this to the best of so the flow of the DVD isn't interrupted by the drawn out portions of the reception. For the DVD, when they play the movie it goes from pre-ceremony highlight to ceremony highlight to reception highlight. The entire ceremony and the rest of the reception pieces listed above are in the "extras" section.

I'm experimenting on my current wedding with making a "main feature" that is 20 minutes long and encompasses rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, getting ready, photoshoot, ceremony and reception. Each segment is around 2-3 minutes long, give or take.

The difficulty I had with the reception was setting dance footage to the music I had picked out. It just felt strange to have all of the dancing set to a song that the people weren't actually dancing too (especially since it was a live band). However, it worked out, and I put lots of into the special features on the DVD too.