Day of Schedule

MaggieM6

My fiance and I have to finalize what time our ceremony/cocktail hour/ and dinner are at. Does this look ok?

Our ceremony is outside of where our reception is so there is no travel time for our guests. It is also the same place our guests will be staying so they could always go to their rooms or walk around campus or go to the bar in the hotel.

3:00-4:00 ceremony and receiving line

6:00-7:00 cocktail hour

7:30-8:30 dinner

This gives us about 2.5 hours for pictures with the wedding party/family and for my fiancee and I. Is this too much??

Thank you! I am just driving myself crazy over the little things!

emarston1

Personally, I don't think you shoud have a gap nearly that long between the ceremony and reception since they are at the same location.  As a guest, I would be a little miffed that I had to kill 2 hours at the same venue.

I understand that sometimes gaps are inevitable but to me, they are only acceptable if you are dealing with outside factors (ie timing of religious services, etc.)  If you purposely create a gap so you can get pictures and leave all of your guests hanging for 2 hours, it seems a little rude.

Are you able to push back the ceremony time at all so it runs into cocktail hour.  Ideally you would want people to go straight from your ceremony to your cocktail hour.  Then during cocktail hour is when you would be taking pictures.

Also, where is your wedding?  You mention campus so if it's on MSU's campus (Kellogg Center?) 2.5 hours is waaaay more than enough time.  Our took maybe 1.5 hours --1.75 tops and we went everywhere on campus.

gailpete

I agree with emarston.  That is too long a gap.  If your ceremony and reception are in the Kellogg Center, the bar there isn't that large and can be a little pricey (I know from having to kill time between a ceremony and reception last summer).  Also, what about the guests that live locally, they aren't going to want to go home for a couple of hours and then go out again.  Campus is beautiful, but if I'm dressed up and in heels, I'm not going to want to spend a lot of time walking around and getting sweaty.

I would suggest you change the time of your ceremony and eliminate the gap.  I know it will make a more hectic day for you, but once you've invited guests, you really need to take their comfort into consideration when planning your day.

TeichA

I would also suggest that you consider doing some of or the bulk of pictures before the ceremony. My fiance and I are doing a "Reveal" prior to the ceremony at 1:00pm having pictures and then having our ceremony at 4:30. The ceremony will lead right into cocktail hour during which my fiance and I will have a few pictures with family and then dinner will start around 6:30. This is what we are doing to prevent gaps, but it is not for everybody. Just something to think about. Good luck!