5 hour ceremony and reception?

5 1/2 hours is the norm where I am. But we break and clean everything. Do you have a lot of stuff to clean? Stinks that you have to.

YEAH, that brings me to my other point. Will 1 hour be enough for my DOC to clean up?

EDIT: It will be my DOC cleaning, not me.. but I'm afraid it won't be enough time and we will have to end it even earlier.

I think 5 hours is fine, mine was 5.5.

I am not sure about an hour being enough time to clean up. That's probably a question I would ask the DOC. I guess it will depend on how many people they have working for them.

My ceremony was at 6, and the reception ended at 11:30, so I think 5 hours is plenty of time, but I agree with @Gymmie that an hour might not be enough for clean up, depending on what needs to be done.

Also, you can google what time the sun sets on any day. In NYC on your date, the sun sets at 5:30.

@gymrat Did you have a time restriction or was that the time that people started to peel out?

@bookcase I did google at it says 6:18pm but that seems late being as last year it was pitch black by 6pm.

My wedding and reception were at separate places. Our reception started at 6pm and ended at 11pm. We did not have to do cleanup other than taking our gifts and décor we wanted to keep. Which my bridal party grabbed and took home with them for the night. They all offered prior to the wedding.

Time restriction. My contract laid out the timeline: 7pm ceremony, 7:30pm cocktail hour, 8:30pm-12:30am reception.

I had a semi-inclusive venue though, so the only things to "clean up" were the things I told my DOC I wanted to take home (cardbox, bouquet, one centerpiece). The staff at the venue cleaned up at 12:31am.

I wouldn't rule out a venue just because of this. Or ceremony is at 5:30pm and I am choosing to end our reception at 11pm. I can make the call day-of to keep the party going until midnight, but honestly don't see this happening.

If you think 11pm is too early to go home, you can always hit up a bar afterward. Can your DOC bring in someone else to help tear-down go faster?

I can tell you that we are done packing the couples things up within 45 minutes and then we start to flip the room for next event. If your DOC has staff with her it should be plenty of time.

I had a similar restriction in which the event could not go past 11pm (it was a Sunday) but did not feel that it was imposing in any way. We actually had our event from 4-9pm with cleanup from 10-11. Breakdown and cleanup was completed by the caterer and DOC within a half hour. I think 5 hours is fine for a full event (ceremony and reception) and it felt like it was plenty of time. I don't think missing that extra hour would be too troublesome, but to each their own.

We have to be out by midnight as well, so we're cutting off the music at 10:30 and try to get all guests out by 11. The caterer and decorator said that it'd be enough time for them to clean up. After party starts at 11pm

I think it's enough time. We had 5 hours for the ceremony and reception, but we did choose to extend an hour, but mostly because we didn't want to end quite so early (we're having an earlier ceremony). Our venue has minimal clean up, it's really just gathering up the few decor items we bring in.

This is our timeline with ceremony/reception being held at same location/different rooms. 3:00=1st look, WP n FHs fam pics, 5:00=ceremony, 5:45=cocktail hour, 6:30 dinner n reception til 10:30. If we feel up to it, we'll invite folks to meet us at the hotel bar afterwards. ETA the venue mgr said that it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to pack up our decor...we kept it simple.

My ceremony began at 3pm, had a cocktail hour, then reception began at 430pm and ended at 1030pm.

I think that is enough time...my ceremony/reception is at one location and they have 2 hours of set up and 1 hour of cleanup after our wedding and before their evening event. Our wedding will be from 12:30p-5p although we technically paid for 10:30a-6p. Professionals will be able to tell you how long it would take them but I think an hour is plenty of time.

I think that's more than enough time. Our ceremony is at 4 and we have our reception from 5 to 10 p.m.

One hour cleanup/breakdown is the norm for professional vendors.

Our reception was 5 hours- 7-8 cocktail hour and 8-12 for dinner and dancing. It felt too short.

You only need a cocktail hour if you need to do photos or something after the ceremony. If you do photos before, go straight from ceremony to receptions and you've gained an extra hour of fun/party time.

My ceremony started at 6, ended at 6:30, dinner was served at 7:00, dancing started at 8, we exited at 10:45, the reception ended at 11, and the cleanup crew was out by 12. I thought that it worked out perfectly.