Okay I'm asking this on this board because I think a gap between the ceremony and reception is more common in my area, everyone else on the other boards thinks that it's a horrible thing to do. I've never been to a wedding that didn't have a gap, guests usually just go out and get drinks on their own or visit with eachother or go back to their hotels and relax for a bit.
We booked our officiant the other day and because she already had a wedding on the same day, we had to pin down a time for our wedding. So I did up an timeline of the entire day and this is what I came up with:
1:00 | Ceremony starts |
1:30 | Receiving line |
2:00 | Pictures start |
5:00 | Guests start arriving for cocktail hour |
5:30 | Head back to Hotel for Reception |
6:10 | Grand entrance into Reception |
6:20 | Dinner starts / Slideshow starts |
7:00 | Speeches |
7:45 | First Dance |
7:50 | Father / Daughter Dance |
7:55 | Mother / Son Dance |
8:00 | Cut cake |
8:10 | Dance floor open, party begins |
9:00 | Boquet / garter toss |
My thought was that if there has to be a gap (the venue requires at least 2 hours because our ceremony and reception are in the same room), then I should make it big enough that people can actually have time to go do something...so I thought 3 hours was fair...
Any suggestions? If I'm going to change the time of the ceremony, I'd have to do it soon...
Thanks!