MemberHi girls,
If we have a 5:30pm start time for our reception, do I put 5o’clock on the invitations? This is probably a silly question, but I just want to make sure before I order my invitations. Thanks!
MemberI wouldn’t unless you want everyone there technically 45 minutes early. That is assuming most people will come 10 or 15 mins early.
In my Fiance family about 50% of them are ALWAYS late. I told my Future Father-In-Law I was going to lock the ceremony site doors if he isn’t there on time! I was joking but with his lateness would love to do it to not have him come in as I’m walking down the aisle!
MemberI put 6:30 on my invitations, and meant 6:30 start time. We had zero guests show up late. (We actually had the doors of the venue closed during the ceremony so people couldn’t get in the main entrance and had to be escorted through a side entrance by the wedding coordinator if they were late.) I’m always early to events, and I get really annoyed when I find out the ceremony is actually half an hour later than the invitation actually said.
MemberThis is never a popular idea on WB. It is incredibly rude to keep your polite, on-time guests waiting for 30 minutes, and I would be pissed at you if I were a guest.
MemberNo, you put 5:30. Why would you put an earlier time if it doesn’t start at that time?
Memberi agree that you should put the time it actually starts on invite. Perhaphs if you have a wedding website, you can put on it that guests are welcome to arrive as early as 5pm. Thats what we did on our website.
Member
Member@TehRese: you know your guests, 30 mins is a bit much I’d say put 5:15 bcz I know my family will be late but my friends would be early
Member@TehRese: We did. However, we wanted to aim to start more towards 5:15 if we could. (which we did). I personally always assume a wedding is going to start 15-30 minutes late.
Also depends on where your ceremony is – if it’s a high traffic area with parking difficulty, etc. people WILL be late. So, better to try and have them get there earlier.
MemberI put 1:15 as the start time on my invites. The wedding will start at 1:30. I didn’t realize that it was such a bad thing to do. We’ll have snacks and cider set out in the room adjacent to the patio where ceremony will be held so I guess ppl can just mingle for a bit!
Member@TehRese: i put 6:30 on mine and i want to start at 6:30.
if you put a 1/2 hour early, you have people that will think that is the start time and show up 30 minutes before that. you don’t want those people getting there at 4:30 only to find out it is really starting at 5:30.
you will always have people running late. spread the word to people who you know to run late to be there 15-30 minutes early. tell them you are starting promptly at 5:30.
MemberWe listed the start time as 5:45pm on our invitations, but the ceremony actually starts. We have some friends who are notoriously late for everything, so I wanted to avoid them trying to charge in when things are already underway if at all possible.
MemberThank you for all of your suggestions. I’ve seen a lot of people put an earlier start time on their invitations and I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a norm!
Member@TehRese: I have to go against the grain on this one. My ceremony started at 5:30pm but I put 5:00pm on our invitations. I’m so glad we did because a good friend said there was no one at the church at 5:00 … everyone started trickling in between 5:10-5:20.
The only reason I decided to put a half hour earlier on the invitation is because a few months back my husband and I were running late to a wedding. In the car I was thinking crap we’re running late and most likely going to miss the bride walking down the aisle (my favorite part)! We got there 10 minutes late and didn’t miss a thing, the ceremony started 15-20 minutes later. I wasn’t annoyed waiting … you sit and talk to guests around you … the time goes by pretty quickly so it’s not as bad as it may seem.
MemberFI’s family is AAAAAALLLLLLLLWAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYSSSSSSS LATE. I’m worried about this too. A friend of mine put 30 mins earlier on her invitation too. I have mixed feelings about it :/
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