Wedding Reception Forum

1 hour break

I am worried about having a 1 hour break between my ceremony and wedding. The ceremony is 2.30-3 and the reception will start at 4 pm and cocktail hour will go until about 5.30 and then straight into dinner. Our two locations are about 15 minutes walking from each other. We are in downtown San Francisco, so assuming its not raining people can take their time in walking. I am assuming that the wedding may start late, people will be outside debating cab v. walking etc etc. so that the hour will not seem so long.
I cannot change my ceremony time. My thought is to tell people 4 pm for the reception, but if people show up early our venue will start serving them at least drinks.
Is this totally terrible? I know that people get extremely upset on these boards regarding wait times, but some of it is inevitable when you have Catholic church restrictions. It is also customary in San Francisco for the receptions to go to at least 10 pm if not midnight. Since we are having dinner around 6 pm we are also probably going to have to serve a snack later on (which is another very popular thing to do), so I am very hestitant to serve dinner much earlier than 6 since then a snack would be pretty much be expected with the alcohol and dancing.

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Re: 1 hour break

  • I just got back from San Francisco and I don't know that I'd want to spend an hour walking around in heels.  Is there anyway to start the cocktail hour even a half hour earlier?
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    AKA GoodLuckBear14
  • I don't think a 1 hour break is really unreasonable... but that's just me.
  • I don't think it's unreasonable.  People will need time to get out of the church and get to the reception.  People will probably stand around and talk to other people outside of the church before heading to the reception.  It's not like your venue is going to make your guests wait outside until 4 p.m.
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  • I wouldn't plan your whole day based around what time you want things to end by.  For one thing, not everyone will stick around to the bitter end, especially if they've been with you most of the day already.  For another, you can always move on to a different location for an afterparty if there are people still wanting to party.

    An hour long break plus an hour and a half cocktail hour really isn't being considerate to your guests.  People don't like having their time wasted.  In your situation, I'd probably start the cocktail hour at 3:30, start the reception at 5:00pm with spotlight dances and toasts, then serve dinner at 5:30.  An overly long cocktail hour is definitely the lesser of two evils here.
    This is a neglected planning bio.
    This is a belated married bio, with no reviews yet because I'm lazy.

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    Sometimes I feel like people think that brides are delicate little flower princesses who get all dressed up and pretty for one special moment of their dreams, when really they're just normal people who just happen to be getting married. Things shouldn't have to be sugar-coated for grown-ass women. -mstar284
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