My wedding timeline, ceremony AND seating arrangement questions!

behappy67

My invitations say 1pm sharp. And, I mean 1pm sharp. My family and his will already be there early for pictures. So, I'm not waiting if someone comes late. It's a wedding, people should realize they need to be there 15 minutes early.

So, my time line looks like this

1:00pm-1:20pm My dad welcomes guests, ceremony starts (no processional, no BM/GM, just Bride&groom and wedding officiant. Ceremony happens. Our officiant will say something about Grooms dad giving a blessing over our marriage & the food.  Grooms dad will pray

1:20pm. Lunch will officially start after prayer is finished.

We need to leave by 3:00pm per our venues rules.  is 1:20pm-3 enough time for guests to eat lunch?

We're serving a plated lunch of Salad, Rolls, Chicken with potatoes and veggies, and a cake dessert.

We aren't having a wedding cake (a desert was included in the pricing already), doing cake cutting,boquet toss etc. We aren't leaving for our honeymoon right away either. I honestly planned on staying till the very end and saying goodbye to guests. Most of our guests are from out of town, so we will probably plan something to do with everyone right after (not sure what yet tho). Any ideas??

Also, the dinner is seated, plated etc. Is it wrong to have assigned seating for only SOME guests. We have families with a lot of children coming. If they arrive after other people and every table has 1-2 people at it, the family wouldn't be able to sit together. Is a little skewer with the flowers (or something similar) saying "Jones family" acceptable? Also, his parents are divorced and want to sit far away from each other, so we'd be assigning those tables as well.

Maybe I should just assign everyone...

I don't want music or a processional. So, I'm worried about just 'randomly starting'. I was going to have my dad/mom welcome everyone, as most attending are on my side. Then, fiance and I would get up from where we are seated at the front.. or, does that sound silly?

Ugh. So many things to decide. But, at least I've decided on the most important thing-my husband!

(Getting married May 3rd!).

MobKaz

eahuber said:

My invitations say 1pm sharp. And, I mean 1pm sharp. My family and his will already be there early for pictures. So, I'm not waiting if someone comes late. It's a wedding, people should realize they need to be there 15 minutes early.

So, my time line looks like this

1:00pm-1:20pm My dad welcomes guests, ceremony starts (no processional, no BM/GM, just Bride&groom and wedding officiant. Ceremony happens. Our officiant will say something about Grooms dad giving a blessing over our marriage & the food.  Grooms dad will pray

1:20pm. Lunch will officially start after prayer is finished.

We need to leave by 3:00pm per our venues rules.  is 1:20pm-3 enough time for guests to eat lunch?

We're serving a plated lunch of Salad, Rolls, Chicken with potatoes and veggies, and a cake dessert.

We aren't having a wedding cake (a desert was included in the pricing already), doing cake cutting,boquet toss etc. We aren't leaving for our honeymoon right away either. I honestly planned on staying till the very end and saying goodbye to guests. Most of our guests are from out of town, so we will probably plan something to do with everyone right after (not sure what yet tho). Any ideas??

Also, the dinner is seated, plated etc. Is it wrong to have assigned seating for only SOME guests. We have families with a lot of children coming. If they arrive after other people and every table has 1-2 people at it, the family wouldn't be able to sit together. Is a little skewer with the flowers (or something similar) saying "Jones family" acceptable? Also, his parents are divorced and want to sit far away from each other, so we'd be assigning those tables as well.

Maybe I should just assign everyone...

I don't want music or a processional. So, I'm worried about just 'randomly starting'. I was going to have my dad/mom welcome everyone, as most attending are on my side. Then, fiance and I would get up from where we are seated at the front.. or, does that sound silly?

Ugh. So many things to decide. But, at least I've decided on the most important thing-my husband!

(Getting married May 3rd!).

Please tell me you are joking that you actually included the word, "sharp" on your invitation.

If the invitation says that the ceremony begins at 1:00 PM, then that is when it should actually begin.  If dad wants to welcome guests for 20 minutes, then he needs to start at 12:40.  I would not be happy to arrive in a timely manner (12:45) for a 1:00 PM ceremony, only to find it didn't really start until 1:20.  

If your reception will only last 90 minutes, I cannot imagine you would want to leave any sooner than that.  If you are planning on having something after the luncheon, you might want to make guests aware of that prior to the wedding day.  That is not a typical scenario.  I would have made plans to leave immediately following the luncheon.  

Assigning family tables should not be difficult or time consuming.

behappy67

My invitation does not actually say 'sharp"  My dad certainty wouldn't be spending 20 minutes welcoming guests. He'd welcome them for a minute-2 and introduce the officiant, and we'd go from there.

JoanE2012

eahuber said:

My invitations say 1pm sharp. And, I mean 1pm sharp. My family and his will already be there early for pictures. So, I'm not waiting if someone comes late. It's a wedding, people should realize they need to be there 15 minutes early.

So, my time line looks like this

1:00pm-1:20pm My dad welcomes guests, ceremony starts (no processional, no BM/GM, just Bride&groom and wedding officiant. Ceremony happens. Our officiant will say something about Grooms dad giving a blessing over our marriage & the food.  Grooms dad will pray

1:20pm. Lunch will officially start after prayer is finished.

We need to leave by 3:00pm per our venues rules.  is 1:20pm-3 enough time for guests to eat lunch?

We're serving a plated lunch of Salad, Rolls, Chicken with potatoes and veggies, and a cake dessert.

We aren't having a wedding cake (a desert was included in the pricing already), doing cake cutting,boquet toss etc. We aren't leaving for our honeymoon right away either. I honestly planned on staying till the very end and saying goodbye to guests. Most of our guests are from out of town, so we will probably plan something to do with everyone right after (not sure what yet tho). Any ideas??

Also, the dinner is seated, plated etc. Is it wrong to have assigned seating for only SOME guests. We have families with a lot of children coming. If they arrive after other people and every table has 1-2 people at it, the family wouldn't be able to sit together. Is a little skewer with the flowers (or something similar) saying "Jones family" acceptable? Also, his parents are divorced and want to sit far away from each other, so we'd be assigning those tables as well.

Maybe I should just assign everyone...

I don't want music or a processional. So, I'm worried about just 'randomly starting'. I was going to have my dad/mom welcome everyone, as most attending are on my side. Then, fiance and I would get up from where we are seated at the front.. or, does that sound silly?

Ugh. So many things to decide. But, at least I've decided on the most important thing-my husband!

(Getting married May 3rd!).

If you're worried about randomly starting, why not have some kind of processional music as you enter.  I've never seen the bride already sitting at the front before the ceremony got started so I would think it's strange, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I would assign tables for everyone.  It makes it easier for your guests.

If you are going to host something after the reception, let guests know ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.  An hour and a half for lunch sounds fine since you're not having any other things going on during that time.