Wedding Reception Forum

Wedding Timing

I wasn't entirely sure which forum to post this in.  My ceremony and reception will be held at the same place on a Saturday evening.  Normally, they book evening events from 7:00pm to 1:00am.  Since the hall is owned by my fiance's family, though, they said they would work with us as long as no one else booked the same day.  Well, looks like another event booked in the afternoon.  So, now I am very concerned that our guests will be annoyed and / or not stay the entire reception.  Here is how the timing looks:

7pm - Arrival / light snack
7:30pm - Ceremony
8pm - Cocktail Hour
9pm - Reception begins
9:30pm - Dinner is served

I realize that 9:30 is absurdly late for dinner. What can I do about this though?  Have people been to later weddings?  Should I be this worried about my guests not having a good time or leaving way too early?  I should note that children are not coming to our wedding and the majority of our guests will be staying in a hotel (which we will have a shuttle for). 

Re: Wedding Timing

  • I would be absolutely dying if I was expected to eat dinner at 9:30 pm.  
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  • Maybe upon arrival have a bit more than a "light snack"? Perhaps provide the guests with a few hors d'oeuvres before the ceremony, and then at the 8 pm cocktail hour have heavier hors d'oeuvres and a few carving stations or whatnot. Then at the reception, you can probably get away with having a "late-night" station and a fun dessert bar or so? 

    If it says on the invite that the ceremony is at 7:30 and the reception is at 9, most people would realize that hey should at least have a snack beforehand... :)
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I wasn't entirely sure which forum to post this in.  My ceremony and reception will be held at the same place on a Saturday evening.  Normally, they book evening events from 7:00pm to 1:00am.  Since the hall is owned by my fiance's family, though, they said they would work with us as long as no one else booked the same day.  Well, looks like another event booked in the afternoon.  So, now I am very concerned that our guests will be annoyed and / or not stay the entire reception.  Here is how the timing looks:

    7pm - Arrival / light snack
    7:30pm - Ceremony
    8pm - Cocktail Hour
    9pm - Reception begins
    9:30pm - Dinner is served

    I realize that 9:30 is absurdly late for dinner. What can I do about this though?  Have people been to later weddings?  Should I be this worried about my guests not having a good time or leaving way too early?  I should note that children are not coming to our wedding and the majority of our guests will be staying in a hotel (which we will have a shuttle for). 
    Can you start the ceremony at 7pm?  If not, I'd honestly skip the cocktail hour and go right into the reception.  If you have the venue until 1am, it would be the perfect opportunity to do a late night snack.
  • Unfortunately, our ceremony and reception are in the same room.  Without the cocktail hour in between, there would be no time to "flip" the space.  Some of the things I am considering, including moving up the ceremony if the venue can accommodate us are:

    - Serving the salad immediately when guests enter (so they can eat while we do dances / speeches)

    - Serving dinner / salad together so they don't have to wait until after the salad course to eat a meal

    - Renting heaters so we can do the ceremony outdoors and have the reception space ready so we can skip cocktail hour and perhaps switch to a buffet dinner with all of our planned stations plus the main dishes 


  • If I got invited to a 7:30pm wedding I would eat dinner beforehand, and expect there to be appetizers or a dessert bar of some sort at the reception. 930 is way too late to eat a meal IMO. 
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