I heard that the average wedding reception lasted 4 or 5 hours. Is that including the cocktail hour, or not? I was wondering if we were looking at 5 or 6 hours, including cocktail.
Here are a couple of timelines I'm considering. Our ceremony and reception locations are just a few steps away from each other, so no one will be getting lost or stuck in traffic.
10:30/11:00 First glance/Pictures
12:30 freshen up
1:00-1:30 ceremony
1:30-2:30 cocktail hour (bar opens at 1:30)
2:30 reception starts
(bar closes at 5:30 and starts serving bottled water)
6:30 reception ends
If we do this timeline, do we need to extend the time the bar is open? If the bar closes at 5:30, is that pretty much ending the reception? We actually have a coffee bar in addition to the regular bar, and it has a few different alcohols like bailey's, kulua, and godiva liquers, so it's not like everyone would be cut off right away.
Here is the other timeline:
10:30/11:00 First glance/Pictures
12:30 freshen up
1:00-1:30 ceremony
1:30-2:00 cocktail (half-)hour (bar opens at 1:30)
2:00 reception starts
(bar closes at 5:30 and starts serving bottled water)
6:00 reception ends
In this timeline, the cocktail hour is actually a half hour, which we thought we were going to be fine with since the ceremony and reception are in the same venue, but then I started thinking that I wanted a longer cocktail hour to take pictures. I don't want to get my dress dirty by going outside before the ceremony...but outside pictures are important to us, so now we want more time during the cocktail hour.
Basically, I guess it comes down to ...is it ok to close the main bar an entire hour before you want the reception to end? Or do you see any other problems associated with these timelines that I haven't talk about?