Arrival time vs start time?

Are you doing cocktails before the ceremony? Why do you want your guests at the ceremony an hour before the ceremony starts?

or are you talking about the parents and wedding party that need to be there early for photos?

If the ceremony begins at five, I would either say something like "ceremony begins promptly at 5" so that guests know they have to be there before that. Another thing you could do would be to put on your wedding website and somewhere on the RSVP cards, "Cermony to begin at 5pm, please arrive 15-30 minutes early for seating" or "guests arriving after 5 will be directed to wait in the reception area." I do think though that most people know if a ceremony begins a t a specified time, they need to be there before that to take their seats. Although there are the occasional people that don't understand etiquette, of the 3 weddings I have been to recently, everyone showed up about 20-30 minutes early, with the latest people still there a few minutes before the ceremony started.

2nd Hayley C. - need a little more clarification.

I put the time the ceremony started BUT I consider seating of the families (mom's/grandparents etc) part of the ceremony. I feel like most guests know to arrive before and didn't feel the need to get them an arrival time.

Unless there's something going on prior to the ceremony, I wouldn't ask that they be there early. You would only need to state what time the ceremony is starting on the invitation. They should know to be there before the start.

No guest wants to be there an hour before without some reason..typically the early birds will get there no earlier than half an hour before the ceremony, if there is nothing else going on as others have stated.

Because you have shared in

our lives by your friendship and love we,

Bride Middle Last

and

Groom Middle Last

together with our parents

invite you to share the

beginning of our new life

together when we exchange

marriage vows

Saturday, the fourth of August

Two thousand twelve

at five o'clock in the evening

Ceremony Location

123 Street Road

City, State

***then on your website, under F.A.Q. - put

Q - What time does the ceremony start?

A - The ceremony will start precisely at 5:00 pm, please arrive at least 15 min early to be seated before the ceremony starts.

To avoid people walking in when you are about to start, I would wait to sit the parents until 5pm or 4:55....but you don't need 15 min to seat them.

Just start on time, and have REALLY good ushers that will not let anyone late in the doors until they can sneak in and not be noticed. Or, if they are late, no entry.

I have it set early because the location can be a bit tricky to get to if you haven't been there before. Even with GPS, I have family who still manage to get horribly lost. We wanted to make sure that everyone has enough wiggle room, so to speak, in case they get turned around. I'd rather the guests mingle a bit before the ceremony while people are still arriving than have to delay or be interrupted by late arrivals. And while we are not going to have cocktails before the wedding, we are planning on having a hydration station, in a very literal sense of the term. Since it may be very warm, we are taking the same precautions we do during a day on cast at the faire and setting up a table with bottled water, a container of ice water for refills, gatorade (I know, not very wedding, but it's a rennie must), and fruit platters.

Sorry, I would have clarified sooner but my neighbor needed his car jumped. Another reason that we had thought to have people arrive early is because we will be providing garb rental for those who don't want to buy their own and still want to wear it. Again, I know that's a bit odd, but I suppose it would be sort of like having a costumed Halloween wedding and providing costumes. I supposed having an arrival time isn't really necessary, I guess I'm just paranoid that people will end up getting lost, even with maps, good directions and GPS.

Making a little more sense....

Then, I would put an insert card in with your invitation telling people to give themselves a buffer. Be honest - tell them even your FAMILY that has been to the location still gets lost.

Very nice that you will have some kind of "cocktails" to entertain (drinks-food) those that Can get there on time.

Still word the invite with the Correct start time.

Add some of that wording to your FAQ page about it being a difficult location to find.

I live in Chicago and went to a SD wedding - on a farm - had to take 3 gravel roads for MILES before we got to the location. Never been there before and always thought, wow, did I miss a turn????? (street signs are pretty small) But we found it and got there on time. Knew we had No Clue where we were going and gave ourselves a buffer.

Http://vistaprint-goddess.weebly.com/sample-email.html

I suggest - TONS of FREE lawn signs from Vistaprint. Each order you can get 1 free sign, do multiple orders. Have an arrow and "___ miles until Next Turn" on the sign

Sounds fun ~ I would Love to dress up.

Again, have that on the FAQ page or in an insert so people know to arrive early if they want to change into provided outfits.

I hadn't even thought about the lawn signs! That's genius! I can ask the faire who I need to talk to about putting them up in town, since the site is on the outskirts of a tiny little town. I'm also thinking lots of balloons at the main gate to the site so that people know where to turn. We were already planning on having a security person there to kind of direct traffic. Since they do events at the faire site when the faire isn't going on, we don't want locals thinking it's some big thing they haven't seen ads for trying to crash the wedding!

We're also planning on music before the ceremony. We're having some of the faire entertainers that we are friends with there both as guests and entertainment (not uncommon with faire weddings) and may have them sing a little. If they don't, I'm sure our cast mates who will be there will start singing at some point. Working at faire is a little like being in a musical that way...