2 hour, 15 minute gap between ceremony & reception (2 locations)

knottie9533454b92756f19

We're having our wedding ceremony at my family's parish at 2 pm, and with the priest we have, I'm expecting a 45 min ceremony (I wish it was shorter but boy is he slow). Our reception begins at 5 at another venue. Google maps is saying on a Saturday that it could take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to get there. 2 pm was the absolute latest time I could get for the Church (I've been a member of the church since I was born, so switching ceremony locations is an absolute deal breaker). I was making a FAQ for the guests and I feel like I probably should put something about that big gap in between venue times but I have no clue what to put. Any ideas?

banana468

What are you hosting for them in that gap?

Can you host a receiving line to occupy at least 15 minutes at the church?  Then work with your reception venue to either move up the time to 3:30 start if possible or see if your parish hall will allow for you to host light refreshments before the main reception.  

Guests need to be hosted from the time your ceremony begins until your reception ends so your task now is to determine what hit can do to shrink the gap to be only transit time to the reception venue.

climbingsingle

knottie9533454b92756f19 said:

We're having our wedding ceremony at my family's parish at 2 pm, and with the priest we have, I'm expecting a 45 min ceremony (I wish it was shorter but boy is he slow). Our reception begins at 5 at another venue. Google maps is saying on a Saturday that it could take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to get there. 2 pm was the absolute latest time I could get for the Church (I've been a member of the church since I was born, so switching ceremony locations is an absolute deal breaker). I was making a FAQ for the guests and I feel like I probably should put something about that big gap in between venue times but I have no clue what to put. Any ideas?

You shouldn't be having this large of a gap. You need to move up your reception start time. 

MyNameIsNot

The 2:00 church thing is actually pretty common, since most catholic churches have mass on Saturday evening. You really need to change your reception to start earlier. If that doesn't work with the venue, then the solution is to find another venue. Worst case, you'll need to host something else in the interim, but that's not ideal.

It's really not cool to expect people to wait around for two hours for you to get around to hosting them.  

levioosa

What banana said. You need to move up your reception time. 

maine7mob

One of the worst weddings I ever attended had the service in mid-morning, and the reception in the evening. And we had traveled for the ceremony, as people often do. SO we spent the day at a.....shopping mall. Yeah, in our wedding clothes.

Don't do this. Either move up the reception or do as one couple I know did, have a cookies and punch type thing with a receiving line at the church for an hour and a half, then go to the reception venue. It wasn't perfect, but it did bridge the gap. But it is much better not to have to do something like this.

MobKaz

knottie9533454b92756f19 said:

We're having our wedding ceremony at my family's parish at 2 pm, and with the priest we have, I'm expecting a 45 min ceremony (I wish it was shorter but boy is he slow). Our reception begins at 5 at another venue. Google maps is saying on a Saturday that it could take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to get there. 2 pm was the absolute latest time I could get for the Church (I've been a member of the church since I was born, so switching ceremony locations is an absolute deal breaker). I was making a FAQ for the guests and I feel like I probably should put something about that big gap in between venue times but I have no clue what to put. Any ideas?
"

You put down where and how you will host the guests during this downtime. 

A 45 minute nuptial Mass seems fairly short from my experience.  You should hope that it actually extends a bit longer. 

You need to find a convenient space in which to provide your guests a place to sit and enjoy light beverages during that gap.  Convenient means guests either remain at the church and enjoy some time and refreshments in the church gathering space or you arrange for these same amenities at the reception venue. 

A gap is not a "Catholic" thing or a church thing.  A gap is a host issue and it needs to be remedied.  There should be no gap at all.  A known "big gap" needs to be resolved.