11 am wedding

While I can totally understand your sentimental attachment to a specific place, that is a gap that will make your guests insane. Either do a very private ceremony (as in your immediate families) and then a party, or follow your ceremony with a reception at noon or 1:00, depending on where it is going to be. You really can't ask your guests to block out what will end up being close to 12 hours on your date.

Have you considered a lunch or brunch reception?

Forget the long gap, unless you're prepared to see a low attendance at either the ceremony or the reception. Also out of town guests will have to arrive a day earlier, and pay for an extra night for their hotel, to attend a morning ceremony, and an evening reception.

And then there's the getting ready part. We started at 8:30 AM, for a 2:30 PM first look. It was me, 5 bridal party ladies, 1 F/G, my mom and my grandmother. Your ladies would have to start-out very early, in the morning.

We have an 11 am ceremony, but ours will be followed immediately by a brunch reception. I don't recommend having a long gap at all. Are you open to having a daytime wedding? A friend of mine had a Friday wedding at 2 pm and a reception at 7 pm...needless to say, many people (myself included) skipped the ceremony.

I agree - an 11am wedding and a gap until dinner is way too long. While it's been done before, and it's what you really want - think of the inconvenience to your guests. It's your special "day," not there's. For example, if they need babysitters, they'll need it twice; by monopolizing two times of their day, they may not get stuff done that they wanted if the wedding was only once, etc. You might also have some either not come to the reception (because once they're home, they may not want to get dressed up again) or not come to the ceremony (because ceremonies are short and they may just want to get dressed up once and sleep in).

I think that if you want to have the wedding you dream of, you'll have to make an accommodation in either the date or the place. What you could do, if you're open, is have it the weekend after your anniversary - and you two can celebrate your anniversary with your last date as "single" people - so your dating started and ended on the same day.

Edited for grammar. Oops.

I like Ashley's & MzRosalu's suggestion for a brunch wedding. I love brunch so I would be excited to attend.

That is a ridiculous gap. Don't do it. You don't have to get married on a special date. ANY date that you choose will become special because it's your wedding anniversary. Dating anniversaries no longer even matter once you get married.

As others have said, change the date or change the venue. Only you can decide what you are more attached to - the date or the venue

Instead of your dating anniversary, what about your engagement anniversary as a wedding date?

Thanks for all of the help everyone! I decided to push the wedding back to August so I could have the time I wanted. Mostly because I am noy exactly a dream to deal with in the wee hours of the morning (: