Very small wedding timeline?

Knottie36752204

Hello

I need help with a general timeline for a very small wedding. Im in the midst of talking to officiants (Wedding isn't until june 2015) but they are all requesting times. So I I thought id brainstorm a timeline now. 

We only have 12 guests, it is being held in a small town about 20 minutes from us. The ceremony will take place in the rose garden of a hotel, our reception is about a 3 minute drive from that hotel to another for dinner. We are not doing dancing or cocktail hour or anything special, we are keeping it intimate and simple. Does anyone have an idea for a timeline for this? 

Basically, the ceremony, then pictures, then our guests will join us for a plated dinner in a private room at the other hotel, with of course the cake cutting and some drinks afterwards. I just don't know what to suggest to guests to do in-between ceremony and dinner? What time should I start the ceremony? How long does a small ceremony usually last?

Thanks!

artbyallie

Between ceremony and dinner, your guests must be hosted. This is what cocktail hour is for, while you take pictures. You don't literally have to serve alcohol if you don't want to, but there should be drinks and light food available at the reception venue starting immediately after your ceremony ends.

Your other option would be to do first look pictures and get all photography out of the way before the ceremony, so that dinner can be served on arrival at the reception.

"Small" doesn't tell me anything about the length of your ceremony. It could be anywhere from five minutes to an hour or more depending on the style, though I will take a guess you are not having a Catholic mass. Ours was maybe 15-20 minutes.

For your timeline, pick when dinner is going to be and work backwards and forwards. For example, let's say you're going to eat at 7. We'll do this example with cocktail hour, so that will begin (roughly) at 6. You can have your ceremony at 5:30 to keep your cocktail hour under an hour and a half in length as long as it starts however long before 6 your guests will be able to get to the venue.

RebeccaFlower

I assume with a small guest list you're going to want some pictures as a group? I think it would be fabulous if you had a drink station (just a bucket with ice and some waters/lemonade/whatever) for people to have during pictures if you want different combinations of people. 

Then send them to the reception where there should be more drinks and some sort of refreshment, even just cheese and crackers until you get there. I think with such a small wedding you shouldn't keep them waiting longer than 45 minutes. 

If I were you I would do...

4:00-4:20 Ceremony

4:20-4:40 Group pictures 

4:40-5:00 Guests to reception, B&G pictures

5:00-5:15 B&G travel to reception, enter 

5:15 Welcome/thank you toast by B&G

5:30 Dinner served

When is your wedding taking place? Will you have ample sunlight later? You could always push this timeline back an hour.

JennyColada

artbyallie said:

For your timeline, pick when dinner is going to be and work backwards and forwards. For example, let's say you're going to eat at 7. We'll do this example with cocktail hour, so that will begin (roughly) at 6. You can have your ceremony at 5:30 to keep your cocktail hour under an hour and a half in length as long as it starts however long before 6 your guests will be able to get to the venue.

I agree with this!

We are having an intimate wedding (4 guests, 7 people totally at reception).

Our timeline is as follows:
3-3:30 first look pictures
3:30pm cocktails and pre-ceremony apps in the garden
4-~4:20 ceremony
~4:20-5 pictures
5-5:05 travel to reception site (down the street, just like you)
5:05-??? Dinner and drinks (no dancing either)

We estimate that our dinner will last ~3 hours. It's a multiple-course plated meal, so yours may vary. I am making an iPod playlist for some songs to play.

Knottie36752204

Thank you all! 

Got me brainstorming some ideas. I appreciate the feedback