Time between wedding ceremony and reception?

emilylutz99 · May 2010

We are struggling with trying to decide the timeline of our wedding. We are going traditional in the fact that we will not see each other before the wedding but will do all of the pictures we can beforehand. After the ceremony we will do the pictures together, with family and wedding party..... after that we would like to go and take some pictures outside around town. Is 2 hours too long of a wait inbetween the wedding and reception? We are getting married in a Catholic church so there is a timeline as to how late the wedding can be, and we also don't want to start the reception to late. I know that it's not ideal to have a huge gap between the two, but is starting the wedding at 2 or 2:30 and having the reception start at 5-5:30 too long in between? We are not having the full mass so the actual ceremony will be about 30-45 minutes with no receiving line, we will greet our guests at the reception. Thanks so much for the help!

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · May 2010

Yeah, too long. You shouldn't need more than an hour for pictures, especially if you do some before. And your guests should be able to go straight to a cocktail hour to get food and drinks, rather than waiting around with nothing to do until you are ready to get around to hosting them.

brookelynpaisley · May 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_time-between-wedding-ceremony-reception?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:f0da016e-5f60-4130-8050-520254eb9038Post:5ff5ac7f-0ee2-4bd8-8a63-2fc5b86fd991">Re: Time between wedding ceremony and reception?</a>:
[QUOTE]Yeah, too long. You shouldn't need more than an hour for pictures, especially if you do some before. And your guests should be able to go straight to a cocktail hour to get food and drinks, rather than waiting around with nothing to do until you are ready to get around to hosting them.
Posted by msmerymac[/QUOTE]

Agreed. Gaps are annoying. 1 hour, max.

Mrs.B6302007 · May 2010

Ditto that 1 hour should be it. Host a cocktail hour for your guests while you finish up pics.

banana468 · May 2010

That's way too long.

One hour gap max. If you get married at 2 and it's a Nuptial Mass, that's an hour. Add a receiving line for 20-30 minutes depending on your guest list and factor travel time. That's when your reception should start.

That may mean you miss some of the cocktail hour while you take photos but you should never leave your guests hanging because you place a larger priority on photography.

[Deleted User] · May 2010

Too long. We are having a cocktail/hor'dourve hour while we finish up pics at the church so our guests don't have to stand around and twidle their thumbs. I think that is rude personally.

baystateapple · May 2010

We're allowing 30 minutes between the end of the ceremony and the start of the cocktail hour (the reception hall is 100 feet from the church). We'll be using the cocktail hour for pictures if we have to, but we're doing a receiving line after the wedding.

I've been to a few weddings that had hours of gap time between the wedding and the reception. It's not fun.

SparrowSong · May 2010

I almost think 2 hours is worse than a long gap, like 5 hours. With 2 hours there isn't enough time for guests to do anything really, other than stay nearby and be bored. I hate long gaps too, but at least then guests could maybe go do a little sight-seeing excursion (if they are from out-of-town) or go home and chill for bit (if they're local). 2 hours is too long for a reasonable cocktail/apps hour. People would be done and over it about one hour into the actual reception.

smore154 · May 2010

I'm in the same boat- and honestly my sentiment is who cares- honestly, it's your wedding and it's hard to work aroudn the timeline for the Catholic church. We've all been to weddings where we have to wait, and while it sucks- it's what has to happen. Our's will be at 1:30pm and because the wedding is in March we worked it out with our venue to start drinks at 4pm when the cocktail hour (food) will start at 4:30. We figure with having a full mass and receiving line, people will start leaving the church around 2:45pm-3:00pm. If it makes them feel better to show up with only an hour inbetween fine- the party won't really start until 5:30pm. And that's better than most weddings I've been to with 3-4 hour gaps to fill.

banana468 · May 2010

Smore, your outlook is really improper.

Think of the guests first...your vision second.

Myroni03 · May 2010

If there are photos that need to be taken "around town" steal away some time at the reception. We are doing an hour cocktail time but then we will steal away some time for extra photos during the reception... so we can get sunset pics and some other artsy ones.

smore154 · May 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_time-between-wedding-ceremony-reception?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:f0da016e-5f60-4130-8050-520254eb9038Post:16649122-3b28-491e-9a2c-67f482c1c851">Re: Time between wedding ceremony and reception?</a>:
[QUOTE]Smore, your outlook is really improper. Think of the guests first...your vision second.
Posted by banana468[/QUOTE]

I don't mean to sound improper. All I wanted to say was it is really hard for you to work around some churches schedules and try to please everyone. In the end, you just do the best that you can- and I'm sorry- if my guests have to wait around for an hour and half- rather than the hour that everyone is suggesting- they are just going to have to wait. It's the best solution we could find to the venue and church, and I'm sure others are running into that- or the giant gap inbetween which everyone hates.

mRosenberg · May 2010

I mean, its your day right?

Time between wedding ceremony and reception?

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