Ceremony Start Time

brittanyl8605

I'm debating between 5 or 6pm for the ceremony to start. We've already reserved everything for 5 but wanted the party to go until at least midnight so it seems like 6 might be a better choice if we can change the start time with our vendors. What do y'all think? Have you ever been to a wedding that starts at 5 and the reception lasted until 11 or 12?

mahoganieyes

I plan for our wedding to start at 5:15. Ceremony last 15-20 mins. Cocktails hour starts at 6:15-7:15p. Dinner at 7:15-8:15p and first dance, cake cutting, dancing and more from there till midnight.

YasJas2011

We are starting at 5:30 with the cocktail hour starting at 6:00-7:00pm and 7:00-11:30 for the reception.

hatroopes

This is our tentative timeline:

12pm - Bride/groom start getting ready

4pm - ceremony

5pm - cocktail hour/Pictures with Bride & Groom

6pm - midnight - reception

Midnight - 2am - after party

Our officiant is my former pastor and has been known to get a little long-winded, plus I wanted my current pastor to say a few words, so I'm hoping the ceremony doesn't go over an hour. It's going to be a long-day, but you only get married once right? lol

Most weddings I go to usually start around 5, but I wanted an after-party, so I wanted to get started a little earlier.

sadou02

I think thats a good time if you want it to end that late.  One of my BM's tried to get me to have my reception end that late but my reception will be ending at 10:30 the latest.  FI and I both said that we want our time and don't want to be extremely exhausted once the day is over and gone.

kiyamurph

I had the exact same issue in the beginning and decided on this timeline:

5:30pm - ceremony start
6-7pm - cocktail hour
7:15-8:15pm - dinner, cake, first dance
8:15-midnight - dancing

I thought about starting the ceremony at 6pm but for some reason that half hour made a big difference.  I went to a wedding on NYE that started at 6pm and ended at 1:30am and FI and I left at 1am.  Even when we left people were still dancing because they had a great DJ.  The time just flew by and I think the same will go for your wedding day.  It'll be over before you know it!  I think you'll be fine with starting at 5pm.

happe2gether

So far our timeline is looking like this:

4:00-4:15 start of ceremony
5:00 - 6:00 cocktail hour/wedding party pictures
6:00 - 11:00 reception

msktn95

Since our wedding is November we decided to start at 3:00.  If the weather is nice we plan to have the ceremony outside.
Our Timeline
Ceremony- 3:00
Cocktails-3:45-4:45
Dinner-5:00-6:30
Reception/Party 6:30- until....  Its going to be an all day affair, but we only get married once.

You should stick with 5:00

A&M_Abyss

This is for my Friday night wedding

6:00 invite time
6:30 actual start time
7:00-8:00 cocktail hour
8:00-12:00 reception and dancing

M1ssJ

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_african-american-weddings_ceremony-start-time?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:400Discussion:b84720a1-5833-41df-bfee-d88403712737Post:820a43e3-1eb9-40e0-82a1-fdc86a96f38d">Re: Ceremony Start Time</a>:
[QUOTE]This is for my Friday night wedding 6:00 invite time 6:30 actual start time 7:00-8:00 cocktail hour 8:00-12:00 reception and dancing
Posted by A&M_Abyss[/QUOTE]

Haha- invite time and actual start time!

BlutifulScorpion

I would think 6:00 would be perfectly fine. However, if you plan to take photos, host a full cocktail hour, and then include all the "traditional" elements of a wedding reception (bouquet toss, garter toss, dances, toasts, etc.) I'm sure that 5:00 will be perfectly fine.

We are having this thing done and over in 4 hours.... 4PM to 8PM and we're making our exit. However, we're getting married on a Thursday and almost everyone will have work/school the next day.