- Oh Ya
- 9 years ago
- Wedding: October 2012
We are having the ceremony at the same place as reception – what time in late afternoon should we have ceremony? We wnat the recpetion to start at 5pm but we want to take pictures…All ideas are welcome.
We are having the ceremony at the same place as reception – what time in late afternoon should we have ceremony? We wnat the recpetion to start at 5pm but we want to take pictures…All ideas are welcome.
It depends on how long your ceremony is and how long you want to allow for photos between the ceremony and the reception. Most weddings I’ve attended have started at around 2 or 3pm.
Our ceremony and reception are at the same location as well. We’re having the ceremony at 4 and figuring it will wrap up by 4:45 at the latest (assuming we don’t actually start at 4 on the dot). I want the reception to start at 6pm. Guests will attend a cocktail hour immediately following the ceremony while we take pictures.
So since you want to start your reception at 5, maybe have your ceremony at 3? It really does depend a lot on how long your ceremony is going to be and what your guests will be doing while you take your photos.
I had my wedding at 2pm and had to be out of the church/reception area by 4-ish. It was HARD, but it can be done!
Our ceremony and reception is going to be at the same place too. See how long the venue allows you to have your time for. My venue allows 4 hrs for the ceremony and reception and an hr and a half before for setup and an hr after for take down. So we are starting the ceremony at 6p, I like the idea of the sun setting, taking pics from 6:30p to 7p, and reception starting at 7p and ending at 10p.
My Venue we have it the evening before for setup and rehearsal, and all day the day of the wedding from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Since setup and tear-down is entirely my family, I wanted to make sure there would be enough time after the wedding to get everything packed up without them being too rushed, especially because I’d like to hopefully resell a lot of items used after the wedding.
My afternoon ceremony will start at (roughly) 4 p.m. and last about 15-25 minutes, I’m hoping to get most of the family pictures and such out of the way beforehand, and to get just-married pictures done while guests are eating (buffet-style). Reception festivities (First dance, speeches, etc) begin at 5 with cake cutting and bouquet toss at 6-6:30. I’m thinking things will naturally wrap themselves up by 8 (or before) which gives plenty of time for teardown and cleanup.
Have the wedding start at 4pm (should be about 30min or less for ceremony)
Cocktail hour will start from 4:30-5:30 (hopefully shorter) This is apart of the reception, but allows guests to mingle with a little food and drink while the bride and groom have some pictures done.
It doesn’t have to last an hour either. If you get done sooner, the cocktail hour won’t need to be a whole hour long.
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