*Time Gap* Question...

abbycobb812

Ok, I know time gaps between the wedding and reception are lame, rude, annoying, etc, and I do agree with that.

So how do you get pictures after the ceremony without having any sort of gap? I don't even want a crazy amount of pictures, though we were thinking about stopping at the beach that's right on the way to the reception. We'll do family and everything else without both bride and groom together before the ceremony, but we'll still have some to do after the ceremony. (I do realize one option would be to get over the whole "Groom can't see the bride" thing and get everything done pre-ceremony.)

So how long of a gap is too long to make people wait without planning something for them to do? And, more of a technical question, does the gap end when dinner is served, when the bride and groom arrive, when they can get into the reception hall...?

Answers/comments/suggestions/rants??

gottahavashorti

As long as there are some sort of food and drink available, I'd consider the gap to be the time between the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the cocktail hour, minus any travel time between ceremony and reception venues.

Just hold a cocktail hour until you arrive.  Light refreshments are fine.  An hour is a good amount of time, 1.5 hours is on the long side.

MyNameIsNot

This is the whole point of cocktail hour.  You do the pics you can before, have the ceremony, then you take 45-hour to take your pics and have a moment.  During that, your guests are either in the reception room or in a separate room in the space and get drinks, some kind of apps, and socialize.  If you are having a bar, it would start as soon as people get there.  Food can be as simple as cheese/veggie trays or as elaborate as you can imagine.  When you get there, they usuallly start directing people to their seats, cocktail hour ends and the reception officially begins.

trix1223

ditto my friend stage.  At DDs wedding in July, their guests moved from receiving line into the reception venue.  (They were married at the same place).  They had a cocktail hour inside while she and her DH, their families, and their WP were having pictures taken.

When you finish your ceremony, your guests head to reception venue which will be open for them.  They'll have appetizers and drinks while you are having photos taken.  When you arrive, they'll do the introductions, and your reception will kick off.

The cocktail hour is not necessarily (or usually) for the bride, groom, and WP.  It's for the guests to be taken care of while you're otherwise engaged.

aerinpegadrak

Cocktail hour is totally fine for pictures, as long as you have plenty of food and try to keep it as close to an hour as humanly possible.  If the cocktail hour is in a separate room, it ends when everyone moves on to the reception, otherwise it ends when the bride and groom make their arrival.  If you're getting a chunk of your pictures out of the way beforehand, then you should be able to finish everything else well within that hour.

If the beach isn't too far away from the reception (like, walking distance), you could maybe do some pictures there during or after the reception.  My friend's wedding this summer had a beautiful outdoor lawn overlooking the river, and about an hour into the reception, the couple and WP slipped away for about 20 minutes or so to take some fun shots.  I think very few of the guests even noticed that we were gone, and those shots looked much more natural and relaxed than any of the pre-reception shots.