How long should the reception be?

kcunningham22

I am thinking 4 hours is plenty of time for a reception but want to know what other people have done in the past.  We are in Vegas so if people want to continue the party after there are plenty of places to go to.  Thoughts? 

vegasgroom

I think it depends on quite a few factors:

• # of guests
• are you and your guests partiers
• time of day
• budget
• location

We had about 120 people at our wedding and other than family, most of the guests are younger and like to drink and party, so ceremony was at 4, cocktail 'hour' was about 90 minutes following ceremony, dinner served at 6, speeches after food, partying from that point on; open bar from 4 to midnight.  So we basically had an 8 hour event.

Even at midnight we probably still had about 45 people left when it was time to get booted; about half the remaining crew went to the club next door while the other half went down to gamble with us.

However, if it had been a more family oriented wedding and reception, I could easily see being done an hour after dinner lol.

Oh, our ceremony and reception were in Mix restaurant at THEHotel so guests could 'go home' just by walking to the elevator, so that helped matters.

murphanzo

we're doing 3hrs

1hr cocktail

1hr dinner

1hr dancing/cake cutting/whatever else

we are also doing an after party at a club/lounge

bigbeautifulfemme

Our reception breakdown looked like this:
Hour 1 - Dinner
Hour 2 - Toasts, cupcakes, mingling
Hour 3 - Travis Allen
Hour 4 - Double Decker to Las Vegas sign
Hour 5 - Double Decker dropped off on Fremont Street
Hour 6 - Double Decker back to hotel