Break b/w Ceremony & CH

drdifabio

How much time is a reasonable amount of time to have between the end of the ceremony and beginning of the CH?   A few things to note: -We will likely be out of the church around 3:30pm. -We will not see each other before the ceremony, so we will need time to take pics after. -There is a 30 min drive from the Church to the reception cite, so we need to allow for travel time by all.-Our reception cite is right next to the UofM so there is a good amount to do around it (in towers should know and we will have an attractions part for those OOT). -We are providing a shuttle from the hotel to the reception site and back there at the end of the night, so I would hope people take advantage of it as safe transportation and will therefore need to go back to the hotel anyway to drop their car off.   What is the latest time we can start the CH and dinner with the ceremony ending around 3:30 (without inconveniencing our guests too much)?   TIA!

hkiesling

We didn't see eachother before either.  Our ceremony ended at 4:00 and receiving line went until about 4:20, sparkler exit until about 4:30 (by the time all the guests got in cars to leave).  There was a 15 minute drive to the reception.  Social hour at 5:00 and dinner at 6:00.  I would say that the guests were ready for food by then.  I wish we would have taken some more photos with just me and the girls and DH with the guys before hand, as we got a little crunched inbetween ceremony and reception for those (we did do a lot of shots with just DH and me because it was less people to wait for to arrive at the different locations).  That was my bad on timing things.

emilyj77

Our ceremony is at 2:00, ending by 2:45ish with the receiving line immediately following, which I'm guessing will take around 30 minutes or longer. Since our wedding is in January there won't be a big send off outside. Our cocktail hour starts at 4:30 and it probably takes 20 minutes to get the reception site. So there is a good chance that there will be some time to burn for our guests in between the ceremony and reception. Which is unavoidable, but a huge pet peeve of mine when I go to other weddings.So I'm going to have some friends of mine stand at the exits of the church and hand out a baggie of chex mix with a note attached that lists a couple places for them to grab a cocktail at locations close to our reception. I'm also going to ask our reception site (Doubletree Park Place) if they would have a drink special or a coupon that I could hand out to guests for the bar in the hotel. If they won't do that, I plan to ask some of the bars nearby if they would provide a coupon or if they have a happy hour. For those staying in the hotel, it's a good opportunity for them to check in.My main goal with the snack bags is to acknowledge the time gap and do my best to help them find a short term entertainment option prior to the cocktail hour starting.

drdifabio

Thanks ladies! Yea I think we are leaning towards a 5pm start time from the CH...maybe we could push it to 4:30pm. I love the snack and note idea! Since there is tons by our reception cite that would not be hard at all.