Past Courtyard on St James Brides

PhenomenalNina

Hey CSJ Brides,

Now that you've had your wedding, do you wish your reception was longer? I'm having a day wedding, and I currently have it set for 3.5 hours of reception time. The ceremony will start at 11, and be about 20 minutes long, then they will go directly into the garden room, with about 30 minutes extra time in there since the reception will be over by 3:30. That technically does make it "four hours", but I'm just wanting to make sure we all feel we've had enough time.  Your thoughts? Thank you for your input!

Mandan5

We added an extra hour.  My ceremony was at 5:00 and lasted about 15 minutes.  I was in the garden room too.  I can't remember exactly how long the cocktail "hour" was but I know the reception ended at 10:00.  We didn't have most of the reception "events" (no bouquet/garter toss, no cake cutting, no dollar dance/anniversary dance) which left us plenty of time for dancing.  I think it could have been a little shorter and wouldn't have been a big deal.  If you do plan on having all of the traditional reception things and still want to have plenty of time for dancing it could feel a bit short. 

I would suggest putting together a list of all the things you want to include in your reception and then work with Courtyard on a timeline.  They do this all the time and were extremely helpful when it came time to make the schedule.  Once you have everything laid out it will probably help you make a decision whether your reception is long enough.

PhenomenalNina

Thank you, Mandan5. I shot Lori a quick email. I have another question for you since you had an outdoor ceremony, which I plan to have, as well. . Do you feel like your guests were melting outside? Im concerned that they're going to burn, so I wanted the ceremony to start while it's still "cool"..whatever that word means nowadays. 0_o. But I plan to supply fans, but I wanted your input on that.