Wedding Duration

alixebuny

Ladies (or whoever is reading really),

a poll on how long an average wedding should go for. I'm thinkinfrom ceremony to the departure, my wedding will only last about 3 and a half hours. Plenty of time to say our vows, take photos while everone eats, do the special dances, eat a buffet style dinner, cut the cake and enjoy the DJ with some guests. Opinions?

Thanks in advance,
Alixe

dianemc10

Weddings around here usually last at least 7 - 8 hours. Or if the couple is inconsiderate (you can flame me for saying that) and have a 12pm or 1pm ceremony, the wedding might be 12 hours long or longer.

Beachy730

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wedding-duration?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:bcba368b-e110-46df-ba72-42a785247fc7Post:73547780-1448-47e9-8075-3565474cabbf">Wedding Duration</a>:
[QUOTE]Ladies (or whoever is reading really), a poll on how long an average wedding should go for. I'm thinkinfrom ceremony to the departure, my wedding will only last about 3 and a half hours. Plenty of time to say our vows, take photos while everone eats, do the special dances, eat a buffet style dinner, cut the cake and enjoy the DJ with some guests. Opinions? Thanks in advance, Alixe
Posted by alixebuny[/QUOTE]

<div>That sounds really short to me, which makes me think you'll be really rushed.  Our reception alone was 5 and a half hours.</div>

lyndausvi

most of the ones I got to are 4.5-7 hours. 

My ceremony started at 5 and the reception ended at 11pm.

My sisters was 10:30am until 5pm.

kara811

Our wedding lasted 4 1/2 hours. It was plenty of time for us, plus our guests didn't need to travel to the reception since the ceremony/reception were in the same venue. 

ETA: It was a daytime wedding. Although my parents threw an after party til the night, we all just took a couple of hours break in between. 

mica178

Ours was 9 hours.  We had a church wedding, then there was transportation time, a small gap (hosted refreshments for everyone not in pictures), then a 6 hour reception.

I think if you have the ceremony and reception in the same location, not too many guests, and don't plan on hours of dancing or a sit-down dinner, a 4-5 hour wedding is fine, 3.5 hours might be pushing it if you plan on dancing.  It's hust hard to move a large number of people from location to location and through a buffet line in much less time.

Eta: oops, I just re-did the math, and it was 8 hours, not 9.

teachermegs

Thinking back to mine, if it was only 3.5 hours, we would have missed out on a lot! We had the ceremony and reception at the same place and ours was 6 hours.

NcsuPsych

It's doable, but you could be rushed.
Our wedding started at 2:00 and ended at 6:00pm. This included ceremony, pictures, and reception. Our ceremony and reception were at the same location though.

While we didn't feel rushed, we could have definitely partied a lot longer had we had the venue until later.

We also had a smaller wedding (60 people attended) so that could have factored in too in a way.

firsttimersluck

you don't want your guests to feel rushed.
My Wedding, for an idea:
Ceremony start: 4pm
Dinner/Reception start: 5pm
Dancing 6-11?
We have the venue until 12 so we made sure to give extra leeway for those people that are reaaaallly in the mood to dance the night away :P

[Deleted User]

Our ceremony lasted for an hour. Our reception lasted for 6 hours. Most people were gone by 8pm or so, but a few of us partied until about 10 pm which is how long we had our DJ for.

Milsey32

6 hours from start to finish... and yet I already feel as though we'll be "rushed" (but I know it'll be fine...) so 3.5 seems short to me

SarahPLiz

I think your timeline is doable, but rushed. Our ceremony started at 5pm and we planned for the limo to pick us up at 10:30 but had to call him to come early because everyone left by 9:30. Ours was a very family oriented wedding though, with most of the adult guests bringing their kids, so it was past bedtime. I think. It depends on your crowd. G

peanutty2

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wedding-duration?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:bcba368b-e110-46df-ba72-42a785247fc7Post:4ad8c098-2d9e-467d-8701-4b7bcaa53ca8">Re: Wedding Duration</a>:
[QUOTE]Weddings around here usually last at least 7 - 8 hours. Or if the couple is inconsiderate (you can flame me for saying that) and have a 12pm or 1pm ceremony, the wedding might be 12 hours long or longer.
Posted by dianemc10[/QUOTE]

why is a 12 or 1pm ceremony inconsiderate?  I never heard anyone say this so I'm curious.

to answer the OP, I think 4-6 hours is typical.  I think shorter might be rushed if your planning for dancing too.  That might be better if your having more of a hanging out and mingling reception.  I guess if your having a longer gap between ceremony and reception it might take longer, but I wouldn't recommend too long of a gap between them. 

dianemc10

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wedding-duration?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:bcba368b-e110-46df-ba72-42a785247fc7Post:b1a900a7-c236-481b-82d5-e8e6b554ac12">Re: Wedding Duration</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Duration : why is a 12 or 1pm ceremony inconsiderate?  I never heard anyone say this so I'm curious. to answer the OP, I think 4-6 hours is typical.  I think shorter might be rushed if your planning for dancing too.  That might be better if your having more of a hanging out and mingling reception.  I guess if your having a longer gap between ceremony and reception it might take longer, but I wouldn't recommend too long of a gap between them. 
Posted by peanutty2[/QUOTE]

<div>
</div><div>IMO they are just a hassle (obviously unless it's an afternoon wedding.) </div><div>
</div><div>Guests have to get up early, travel, and then usually there is a long ass gap between the ceremony and dinner. I've been in a wedding before where the ceremony was at 12:30, ended at 1:30, then we spent 4 hours driving all around the city taking hundreds of photos, while the rest of the guests (mostly out of town) had to find things to do to kill the 4 1/2 hours until dinner.  </div>

alixzafiris

Hi Alixe. I'm Alix.

/that's all.

ShakeUpTampa

My time line so far:

Bridal suite on site of ceremony 12:30---have that for 2hrs but in that time also taking the all female photos...men will be out taking their all guy photos. 2:30 load into carriage and start ceremony
Probably arrive 2:40 to my walk down the aisle, ceremony about 20 minutes
3-3:30 guests can take photos on the ranch, feed the horses ect...
Reception hall will open about 4, start a cocktail hour...we are taking about an hour to hour and a half for posed photos at the ceremony site, we might miss cocktail that is fine...
Dinner about 5:30...all the other jazz until 8p then clear out..I have a lot of older folks coming and dont want an all night even since we are hosting a brunch the following day for out of town guests before we leave on our HM

So total is 5.5hrs, that includes their travel time (about 15 min from ceremony to reception) it also gives leeway for a few people to arrive ahead of them to finish off things or fill the fountain drinks

peanutty2

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_wedding-duration?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:bcba368b-e110-46df-ba72-42a785247fc7Post:70100007-b5b6-4eb3-ae6d-f17a5647ca8c">Re: Wedding Duration</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Duration : IMO they are just a hassle (obviously unless it's an afternoon wedding.)  Guests have to get up early, travel, and then usually there is a long ass gap between the ceremony and dinner. I've been in a wedding before where the ceremony was at 12:30, ended at 1:30, then we spent 4 hours driving all around the city taking hundreds of photos, while the rest of the guests (mostly out of town) had to find things to do to kill the 4 1/2 hours until dinner.  
Posted by dianemc10[/QUOTE]
yikes! that is one long gap! i think a gap that long at any time would be inconsiderate, then again i think most gaps over an hour are. what the heck are you supposed to do in between? 
i feel better now though, my ceremony is at 1, but there's no gap :) 

vexie

Our ceremony and reception are at the same venue... and we're not having a dance.

Ceremony is from 3-3:30'ish (probably closer to 40 mins)
Group photo and recieving line
cocktail hour 4-5pm
first dance and cake cutting 5:15pm
dinner ~ 5:30 or 5:45
dinner should finish around 8:00.. people can then mingle and go home

I expect it will be 5 1/2 hours total.

DramaGeek

We were about 5 hours I think.  Ceremony was at 4:30, we left somewhere around 9 and everyone had to be out by 10.  Three and a half seems really short, but if your crowd isn't the party-hardy type it might work.  I've been to some weddings with some short receptions but they were generally cake and punch rather than a meal.  I think you need to count one dinner taking an hour, so you'd basically have 1.5 hours to do toasts, spotlight dances and open the floor to guests.

Ghoti

Ours will be about the same stuff, but in a 5 hour period approx. Unless it's like a cake and punch reception, 3 1/2 hours really is too short.