Arrival time vs ceremony time

Following.

I sent mine out to have people show up 30 min early

Tell your guests the time the ceremony starts. Don't tell them an arrival time. If your ceremony starts at 4 most people are going to make sure they are there at 3:30. Don't tell them 4 and then don't start till 4:30.

I would just go with the ceremony start time. Most people should be on time for a wedding (we hope). I went to a wedding where the bride and groom were adamant about people not coming in during the bridal procession. Guests who arrived late had to wait outside until after the bride walked down the aisle.

My ceremony started at 5:00, so that's the time I put on my invitation. I agree with PP that most people will plan to arrive 15-30 minutes ahead of time, without it being told.

I will also say that I've been to several weddings, and I can't remember a single one (including my own) that started at exactly the right time. Most start a few minutes later than planned. (I actually walked down the aisle at 5:08 instead of 5:00 on the nose - my dad was checking his watch!)

This is always a hot topic. People seem to think that all groups of people are well mannered, on time, and informed about the terrain of the venue that they are going to. This is very often not the case. On a Friday in NJ? HA HA HA. Then there is parking. Then there is finding the actual ceremony space. And going to the bathroom.

I can tell you that every single venue I work in recommends inviting a half hour ahead. They do a hospitality time which allows late comers to show up (in other words, they don't make them sit in their ceremony chairs for a half an hour.....), they usually serve wine and sparkling water, ten minutes before the ceremony, people are ushered in, and we start cocktail hour on time, exactly a half hour after we walked down the aisle.

If you invite people for the same time as the ceremony start, be prepared to start at that time, regardless of who is there or not. And if your shuttles are late, which they almost always are, you're screwed. With the invite time being the desired start time? We rarely start on time, and that time is going to come out of somewhere, usually your cocktail hour, and in the case of a morning wedding? Your late start does not mean you can simply stay later. There is probably another party after yours, and a late start will probably cost you money; band/officiant/photographer money.

This is a much better situation. People have a few minutes to say hello to each other, decompress and really be ready for your ceremony.

There is no reason to be late, not for you, not for the venue, not for your guests. This way of invites just accommodates the inevitable.

The time on our invitation was half an hour before start time (we started like 10 min early though) but we had sangria, water, and a few apps for that time.

Thank you very much.. I would hope ppl know to get there a little early but I was second guessing this. I am glad I asked and got clarification before sending them to print

Both of our families are notorious for being late (like, for family parties, we tell them 1 when it really starts at 3, because guaranteed they won't show til 3) so we will be doing what Celia said and hope that they aren't any more late than that considering it is a wedding. Lol

I will say I'm someone who is late to pretty much everything... With that said, I make darn sure I'm on time to a wedding (I lie to myself about the start time) also, weddings usually (mostly) start a few minutes late. I assume and put the ceremony time. I did recieve an invite that specified both though, said to arrive at 5:30 ceremony start time is 6pm... They were more concerned about people showing up too early (I can't remember the reason why that was a particular concern).

We put the actual start time on ours. If people are late then they miss it. I don't really care who sees the ceremony. Almost everyone I know including myself cares more about the reception. If it's important to you that people see your ceremony then have a pre wedding cocktail area set up and put 1/2 an hour earlier on the invite as Celia recommends.

After much back and forth, we put the ceremony start time on our invites. We're doing online RSVPs, so I write a note on the RSVP page that the ceremony will start PROMPTLY at the start time and guests should plan to arrive at least 15 min early. Might have been a mistake, but the invites are already printed :/

Following....I was wondering about this as well, we have 4pm on the invitation but are think oh perhaps starting the ceremony no later than 4:15pm. Since L.A traffic is a hurdle within itself....would that be considered rude not to start exactly at 4pm as stated on the invite????

Agree with PP, go with your ceremony start time. Guests will be there early anyways

Juli J I think starting at 415 wouldn't be too bad. Although if there are kids they might get restless because I'm sure people will start arriving at 330

My ceremony starts at 11:30am but my venue said to put 11:00am on my invitations. At 11:00am my venue will be serving champagne for my guests before the ceremony starts.

Oh wow, I would never put a later start time on my invitation. I would assume everyone would make it in time, but if not, I'm not all that concerned. I'd hate to have my guests sitting for 30 minutes for no reason.

We are going to put the actual time on our invitations probably. We only have the venue for 2 hours and want to make sure that we have plenty of time on the grounds for pictures, since the chapel is on a historic settlement.

@march2018bride luckily we will not have children in attendance ^_^; i just would hate for guests to be too early...we attended a wedding this past fall and the invite said 3pm but the wedding website said 2:30pm we arrived at 2:30pm and were probably the first guests there, they were still setting up and we were a little uncomfortable lol

Well, that's certainly a different point of view Erin. Why bother to even have one then? If you really don't care who is in attendance for the ceremony, um, the ONLY thing you need, just go do the cheapest, simplest thing you can do and throw a party afterwards.