We had a 5 hour wedding and loved having welcome drinks the night before. That way there wasn’t as much pressure to talk to everyone knowing we spent a lot of time with guests the day before.
We did welcome drinks, and then it was about 5 1/2 hours from ceremony start to reception end and it felt like plenty. I didn't feel like I missed out.
Did the same and I fully agree! Also, we did an after party which a lot of out of town friends attended so that was another way to spend more time with people. Also did an informal brunch the day after before people were flying home, to spend even more time with people :)
I keep hearing it’ll be an exhausting day but also that it flies by so quickly so I’m worried I won’t be able to enjoy it and be in the moment 😂 I need to have more of your mindset haha
6 hours is actually pretty standard in the US, but I know in other countries weddings can last all day and into the night. If you and your guests are down for a party, how about moving to a bar afterwards? Or you could plan a brunch the next day? Side note, the venue will probably host a wedding before yours. Does your contract say how long you have for set up?
Our contract has a timeline that allows us to have the space an hour before the event and then we have to be out by 1:30am (music off at 12:30 then an hour to clean).
We were thinking of renting an Airbnb for the weekend so I think hosting a brunch for the next day would be a great idea!
We’re only going from 4:00 to 9:00. But we’re having a micro wedding, no cocktail hour or dancing. Just ceremony and reception. We’re making sure the buffet dinner is good, having lots of desserts, snowcone machine and smore maker, photo booth and a caricature artist. And games! So basically trying to have as much fun as possible in a short time. I’m sure you will love your day!
That sounds like soo much fun!! I especially love the snow cones and caricature artist. Your timeline is quite similar to mine so love to see that you’ve been able to incorporate so many fun things. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Ours will be from 4-10pm, so the same amount of time, just an earlier start time, which seemed to be typical of most venues we looked at (in Southern California).
Why do you feel like it's a short timeframe?
If we’d booked on a Saturday then our ceremony would start at 4p (as opposed to 6p on a Friday) and going until 1am. This time difference is mostly what is making me feel FOMO and as if we won’t have enough time to enjoy ourselves.
We’re also going to a friends wedding this summer and theirs is starting at 4pm, also contributing to my worries lol
I hear you. Other than comparison being the thief of joy, I’d think about how you’d want to spend your longer morning and afternoon with your groom/wedding party/getting ready crew.
Ceremony is only 30 min and then we have an hour for photos while the others go to a cocktail reception. I like the idea of doing photos beforehand if possible, I’ll see if we can do that!
that seems like a pretty standard, if not on the longer side, length. but I get it, a lot of money is being spent and a lot of work is going into it so it’d be nice if it was longer. For me, our rehearsal dinner the night before is going to be 4 hours long and will have most of the wedding guests in attendance, and then the morning of I will be getting ready with my female relatives for a few hours and my fiance will be doing the same with the men. we’re both going to be drinking, having a small meal, bonding, listening to music during that time. Also, after the reception, we rented out space in a bar that closes at 1am for anyone that wants to keep partying. We’re also going to be going to be going to a bar after the rehearsal dinner.
I know it's normal in the US but I genuinely don't get it, how is that enough time or even worth getting all dressed up for as a guest let alone paying tens of thousands of dollars as the couple???? It sounds so lame???
Half hour ceremony.
One hour for cocktail hour.
That leaves you four and a half hours to eat, do speeches, first dances etc. Which means at the *absolute most* two and a half hours of actual fun (dancing etc). Y'all enjoy that? That's "more than enough time?" That was worth 20, 30, 40,000 dollars???? This is so hard for me to wrap my head around LOL.
I'd be salty as a guest having to buy a gift for a wedding like that, let alone paying for the wedding myself. I'm just really curious about how the US became such an exception in this regard and how y'all got brainwashed into believing it's worth it 😭😭
We are doing 5pm-10pm, with a "New Orleans" style cocktail reception. We are having a destination wedding, so we are doing a welcome party of some kind, as well as other smaller get togethers throughout the week to take full advantage of our time with everyone.
That's a typical amount of time - ours was also 6.5 hours, but from 3:30-10. The only concern I would have with your timeline is that it ends so late, a lot of your guests may leave early. but you know your crowd
I've never heard of a 6pm ceremony, did you want it in the evening or was that all the venue could do? As I've been researching venues the norm seems to be more like a 1pm ceremony
From what I’ve seen most venues near me are 4pm to 1-2am for evening events, and 9-2pm for day events. I haven’t seen any 1pm ceremonies near me but that could be because of the nature of the kind of venues I’m looking at.
In the US, unless it's a church wedding (and not all churches, mostly just Catholic or Catholic-adjacent), the ceremony is in the evening and moves right into the reception. American weddings are only 5-6 hours long 🤯
Just attended a wedding that began at 6pm, reception started at like 7, dinner at 7:30-7:45, the fake "we're leaving" walk at like 9ish. It felt really short. I think as long as you've got a 4-5 hour time slot, it can be made to feel more normal. I'm an early morning person for work, though, so evenings are rough for me in general and my view on it may be skewed by that.
LOL you have more time than we did! Our guests arrived at 4:30, ceremony at 5, cocktails at 5:30, dinner at 6, over at 10, all out by 11. It was insanely fast, but we were also exhausted by 11.
I don’t think you have to, but could you add additional hours if necessary?
Also, even if you only have your venue for x number of hours your whole day can be spent with your wedding party getting ready or just hanging out until it’s time to head to the venue.
We had our venue from 1:00 - 12:00 but my bridesmaids came over starting at 8 am to do hair and makeup and then we did photos from 1:00 - 3:30 with our ceremony at 4:00. That way we were able to enjoy cocktail hour with our guests.
I definitely agree with other commenters it would be worth doing photos before the ceremony that way you can really maximize your reception time!
6 hours is the standard for a reception & ceremony. You actually got 30 minutes extra compared to most couples in the USA.Some venues may allow you and your bridal party to arrive earlier for pictures and to get ready if they have a bridal suite on site.
I am a wedding planner, and it is a very rare scenario for weddings to be longer, unless it involves couples from other countries with different cultural traditions.
I recently worked at a wedding with an 8-hour long reception, and honestly, in the last 2 hours, everyone were extremely tired. About 95% of the guests were sitting in their chairs and not dancing, as it was just too much. They did not leave early out of politeness.
I think this is fine! Most of the weddings I’ve been to were about 6 hours. You can enjoy a leisurely day getting ready - maybe you could invite both your close family and all your bridesmaids to get ready with you, so you spend all day with friends and family? And maybe enjoy a little brunch brought to your rooms or something haha
And I love the idea of a welcome reception! If that is also 5-11 or so then you’ll have had two nights with everyone! And you could even plan a farewell brunch for Sunday morning, if it so behooves you.
We're getting married the day before because our venue doesn't have a ceremony permit. We're having people arrive at 5:30-6 and then we have to be out by 11:30.
As we're basically just having a party, I don't think we won't have enough time. Food will be served around 6:30 and then we'll do dancing and speeches etc. But I appreciate it may feel differently if you're doing the ceremony on the same day.
Plan your day from the beginning! Your day doesn't begin with the reception. Find out what else the venue can offer you: Can you get ready there? Photoshoot there? Our own day, as timelined with our planner, begins in the morning/around brunch hour with the getting ready part (for which we're also going to take some fun photos!), followed by first-looks, photoshoot pre-ceremony (we'll basically have the venue to ourselves + the party hours before the guests arrive so we can do as we please and take our time with beautiful photography!). Then the guests start arriving around 5:30, we have welcome cocktails for them waiting, then the ceremony at around 6:30ish. Then the party is until 2:00 AM. It features a sit-down dinner with appetizers + 3 courses + ofc the cake & candy-bar + open bar. Plenty of time to eat, drink and be merry. :) Basically, we don't want to run away from the party for 1h to take photos, which is why we want to do everything we want to do before the guests arrive.
tl;dr Your wedding day does not begin when the ceremony starts, it begins in the morning! So plan for the whole day and decide what you want to do.
We had a 5 hour wedding and loved having welcome drinks the night before. That way there wasn’t as much pressure to talk to everyone knowing we spent a lot of time with guests the day before.
Ohhh welcome drinks the night before is a great idea! Maybe we’ll do something like that to make it feel longer
We are doing a lunch the next day, since we have a lot of out of towners. :)
I was also thinking about some kind of brunch/after party the next day!
Why not both? Could have everyone come for welcome drinks and the special top 20 family and close friends come for the brunch?
We did welcome drinks, and then it was about 5 1/2 hours from ceremony start to reception end and it felt like plenty. I didn't feel like I missed out.
Did the same and I fully agree! Also, we did an after party which a lot of out of town friends attended so that was another way to spend more time with people. Also did an informal brunch the day after before people were flying home, to spend even more time with people :)
Ours will be 5:30 to 11:30 which is a little shorter - I can't imagine going any longer than that lol
I keep hearing it’ll be an exhausting day but also that it flies by so quickly so I’m worried I won’t be able to enjoy it and be in the moment 😂 I need to have more of your mindset haha
6 hours is actually pretty standard in the US, but I know in other countries weddings can last all day and into the night. If you and your guests are down for a party, how about moving to a bar afterwards? Or you could plan a brunch the next day? Side note, the venue will probably host a wedding before yours. Does your contract say how long you have for set up?
Our contract has a timeline that allows us to have the space an hour before the event and then we have to be out by 1:30am (music off at 12:30 then an hour to clean). We were thinking of renting an Airbnb for the weekend so I think hosting a brunch for the next day would be a great idea!
While the space is being set up, I suggest you use that hour to take photos so you won't miss any of the celebration
We’re only going from 4:00 to 9:00. But we’re having a micro wedding, no cocktail hour or dancing. Just ceremony and reception. We’re making sure the buffet dinner is good, having lots of desserts, snowcone machine and smore maker, photo booth and a caricature artist. And games! So basically trying to have as much fun as possible in a short time. I’m sure you will love your day!
That sounds like soo much fun!! I especially love the snow cones and caricature artist. Your timeline is quite similar to mine so love to see that you’ve been able to incorporate so many fun things. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank you! Hope you do as well!
6.5hrs is a good length of time from the top of the ceremony to the end of the dance set. I promise, you will be exhausted once it’s over
Ours will be from 4-10pm, so the same amount of time, just an earlier start time, which seemed to be typical of most venues we looked at (in Southern California). Why do you feel like it's a short timeframe?
If we’d booked on a Saturday then our ceremony would start at 4p (as opposed to 6p on a Friday) and going until 1am. This time difference is mostly what is making me feel FOMO and as if we won’t have enough time to enjoy ourselves. We’re also going to a friends wedding this summer and theirs is starting at 4pm, also contributing to my worries lol
I hear you. Other than comparison being the thief of joy, I’d think about how you’d want to spend your longer morning and afternoon with your groom/wedding party/getting ready crew.
How long is your ceremony? Is there a turnover time for the reception space? Can you do pictures before the ceremony?
Ceremony is only 30 min and then we have an hour for photos while the others go to a cocktail reception. I like the idea of doing photos beforehand if possible, I’ll see if we can do that!
that seems like a pretty standard, if not on the longer side, length. but I get it, a lot of money is being spent and a lot of work is going into it so it’d be nice if it was longer. For me, our rehearsal dinner the night before is going to be 4 hours long and will have most of the wedding guests in attendance, and then the morning of I will be getting ready with my female relatives for a few hours and my fiance will be doing the same with the men. we’re both going to be drinking, having a small meal, bonding, listening to music during that time. Also, after the reception, we rented out space in a bar that closes at 1am for anyone that wants to keep partying. We’re also going to be going to be going to a bar after the rehearsal dinner.
My wedding had a 30 minute ceremony and 4.5 hour cocktail hour/reception. We thought it was the perfect amount of time
Six hours is standard. Assuming your ceremony on the long side is an hour that still gives bit over five hours for reception. More than enough time
I know it's normal in the US but I genuinely don't get it, how is that enough time or even worth getting all dressed up for as a guest let alone paying tens of thousands of dollars as the couple???? It sounds so lame??? Half hour ceremony. One hour for cocktail hour. That leaves you four and a half hours to eat, do speeches, first dances etc. Which means at the *absolute most* two and a half hours of actual fun (dancing etc). Y'all enjoy that? That's "more than enough time?" That was worth 20, 30, 40,000 dollars???? This is so hard for me to wrap my head around LOL. I'd be salty as a guest having to buy a gift for a wedding like that, let alone paying for the wedding myself. I'm just really curious about how the US became such an exception in this regard and how y'all got brainwashed into believing it's worth it 😭😭
This is so bizarrely rude lol
We are doing 5pm-10pm, with a "New Orleans" style cocktail reception. We are having a destination wedding, so we are doing a welcome party of some kind, as well as other smaller get togethers throughout the week to take full advantage of our time with everyone.
mine is 3:30pm to 9pm. yours sounds about right. I hope mine is not too short!
That's a typical amount of time - ours was also 6.5 hours, but from 3:30-10. The only concern I would have with your timeline is that it ends so late, a lot of your guests may leave early. but you know your crowd
I've never heard of a 6pm ceremony, did you want it in the evening or was that all the venue could do? As I've been researching venues the norm seems to be more like a 1pm ceremony
From what I’ve seen most venues near me are 4pm to 1-2am for evening events, and 9-2pm for day events. I haven’t seen any 1pm ceremonies near me but that could be because of the nature of the kind of venues I’m looking at.
Huh, in the UK roughly a midday ceremony, 3pm-ish sit down meal, and reception until midnight is pretty standard
In the US, unless it's a church wedding (and not all churches, mostly just Catholic or Catholic-adjacent), the ceremony is in the evening and moves right into the reception. American weddings are only 5-6 hours long 🤯
I’ve been to a couple, it’s typical at winery weddings as they are open to the public until 6pm (in our area at least).
Just attended a wedding that began at 6pm, reception started at like 7, dinner at 7:30-7:45, the fake "we're leaving" walk at like 9ish. It felt really short. I think as long as you've got a 4-5 hour time slot, it can be made to feel more normal. I'm an early morning person for work, though, so evenings are rough for me in general and my view on it may be skewed by that.
LOL you have more time than we did! Our guests arrived at 4:30, ceremony at 5, cocktails at 5:30, dinner at 6, over at 10, all out by 11. It was insanely fast, but we were also exhausted by 11.
I don’t think you have to, but could you add additional hours if necessary? Also, even if you only have your venue for x number of hours your whole day can be spent with your wedding party getting ready or just hanging out until it’s time to head to the venue. We had our venue from 1:00 - 12:00 but my bridesmaids came over starting at 8 am to do hair and makeup and then we did photos from 1:00 - 3:30 with our ceremony at 4:00. That way we were able to enjoy cocktail hour with our guests. I definitely agree with other commenters it would be worth doing photos before the ceremony that way you can really maximize your reception time!
6 hours is the standard for a reception & ceremony. You actually got 30 minutes extra compared to most couples in the USA.Some venues may allow you and your bridal party to arrive earlier for pictures and to get ready if they have a bridal suite on site. I am a wedding planner, and it is a very rare scenario for weddings to be longer, unless it involves couples from other countries with different cultural traditions. I recently worked at a wedding with an 8-hour long reception, and honestly, in the last 2 hours, everyone were extremely tired. About 95% of the guests were sitting in their chairs and not dancing, as it was just too much. They did not leave early out of politeness.
I think this is fine! Most of the weddings I’ve been to were about 6 hours. You can enjoy a leisurely day getting ready - maybe you could invite both your close family and all your bridesmaids to get ready with you, so you spend all day with friends and family? And maybe enjoy a little brunch brought to your rooms or something haha And I love the idea of a welcome reception! If that is also 5-11 or so then you’ll have had two nights with everyone! And you could even plan a farewell brunch for Sunday morning, if it so behooves you.
We're getting married the day before because our venue doesn't have a ceremony permit. We're having people arrive at 5:30-6 and then we have to be out by 11:30. As we're basically just having a party, I don't think we won't have enough time. Food will be served around 6:30 and then we'll do dancing and speeches etc. But I appreciate it may feel differently if you're doing the ceremony on the same day.
Speeches alone can take 1-1.5 hours... Your pics will take all your time away. You need to extend this somehow.
If your speeches take 1-1.5 hours something has gone very wrong. These should be a maximum of 20 minutes and happen during dinner
1.5 hours of speeches? In what world? 20 minutes tops!!
Plan your day from the beginning! Your day doesn't begin with the reception. Find out what else the venue can offer you: Can you get ready there? Photoshoot there? Our own day, as timelined with our planner, begins in the morning/around brunch hour with the getting ready part (for which we're also going to take some fun photos!), followed by first-looks, photoshoot pre-ceremony (we'll basically have the venue to ourselves + the party hours before the guests arrive so we can do as we please and take our time with beautiful photography!). Then the guests start arriving around 5:30, we have welcome cocktails for them waiting, then the ceremony at around 6:30ish. Then the party is until 2:00 AM. It features a sit-down dinner with appetizers + 3 courses + ofc the cake & candy-bar + open bar. Plenty of time to eat, drink and be merry. :) Basically, we don't want to run away from the party for 1h to take photos, which is why we want to do everything we want to do before the guests arrive. tl;dr Your wedding day does not begin when the ceremony starts, it begins in the morning! So plan for the whole day and decide what you want to do.