4Pm vs 4:30pm ceremony? Receiving lines?? Separate venues

I can’t remember the last time when I went to a wedding with receiving line.* IMHO, they’re time consuming and dull for all concerned. If anyone notices you’re not having one, it will likely be with a sigh of relief. Just make sure you circulate and greet your guests at other points during the reception.

I’m intrigued by your coment about 4.30 being associated with good luck - I’ve never heard that before, where does it come from?

*Now that I think of it, the last receiving line I can remember was at a 2nd cousin’s wedding, some time in the mid 90s. And I’ve always experienced them occurring between the cocktail hour and the sit down meal, so not impacting photographs.

Up until Covid started, we've seen quite a few receiving lines. Not a fan of table visits, but will always vote for dismissing the rows. Contrary to belief it goes very quickly and the couple greets everyone.

Trust your photographer and their timeline unless they are brand new. What they do is work backward from the reception start time.

6pm start time. Figure 20 minutes drive with traffic to be safe, 5 minutes to dismiss rows, 15 min non religious ceremony, gives you 40 minutes total. Pad in photos before and after ceremony, with the bulk before and easily do a 4:30pm ceremony.

Receiving lines are awesome and I don't understand why people are so anti. It will not take 30 minutes to say hello and hear congrats from 60 guests. It's a very quick greeting, not a conversation with every person. Only have you and your FI in the line (they take forever when parents and bridal party, etc are involved).

Also love the idea of dismissing rows (this is what we did). It took MAYBE 20 minutes and we had almost 200 people.