cash Bar? Help

I would be more concerned about people not coming back from the extremely long break. What are your guests supposed to do from 3:00 to 5:00?
If you are inviting people to your wedding, and making them wait around and find something to do for 2 hours, they shouldn’t be required to open their own wallets at an event you’re hosting for them.

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Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with Meghan. She's right.

View Quoted Comment Agree with all of this.

I have to agree with PP here, I think you should be concerned about the gap between the ceremony and the cocktail hour. I am also a little confused about why you would even be having a cocktail hour after a two hour gap. Typically, the cocktail hour is done DURING the gap between ceremony & reception in order to host/entertain your guests while you make them wait. Why don’t you have the cocktail hour immediately after the ceremony then start the reception earlier?

I agree with others.
Also, why not close the gap? It’s ok to do a cocktail hour 3:00-4:30. Then do dinner at 4:30. A little early but ok. Or, cocktail hour, first dances, then dinner.

I agree with everyone else, unless there's a decent drive from one place to the other that's a long gap

My fiancé and I don’t want to do a first look. We both want to see each other in that moment down the isle.


With that being said here is the timeline:
2-3 ceremony3-4 photos at the church30 minute drive to venue4:30-5:30 - photos at park with bridal party10 minutes back to reception 5:45 bridal party arrives before dinner starts and grand march.

Guest schedule 2-3 ceremony 3-4:30 (1.5 hours gap)30 minutes to reception 5:00pm cocktail and apps
Most guests are local like 90% of guest list. Other 10% have room blocks at our hotels that offers comp transportation to venue.
I figured guests can go home relax, or settle into the hotel.
I also recommended bars on the way to kill that hour and a half.
It’s special for my fiancé and I to have that moment and the gap is the only way we can.

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No, it's not. You can host a cocktail hour for your guests immediately after the ceremony (minus transportation time) and take your pictures during that time. That's actually why cocktail hours exist. No one wants to drive home and sit around for an hour or so in their fancy clothes waiting to drive to the reception.

Can you start your reception earlier? And as far as cash bar goes; it really isn’t good form to make your guests pay for anything at your wedding. I would suggest cutting costs elsewhere like centerpieces, decor, & attire. The number one way to save money on your wedding is trimming the guest list. I suggest doing these first and then seeing what your budget can allow after that, you may be pleasantly surprised! Your beer and wine idea is a great one too; you should save money on the hard liquor.

View Quoted Comment Exactly this! As a guest, I don’t want to get ready to go to a wedding, then go home and sit around for 1.5 hours, then get myself ready again to go stand around at a cocktail hour waiting (again...) for the wedding party to arrive.
I highly suggest letting your guests know this ahead of time. You will likely get a high decline rate, which may allow you to provide an open bar. As a guest, I wouldn’t attend a wedding with a timeline like this. This literally consumes their entire day.

View Quoted Comment This, this, this.


It’s totally ok to take pics after the ceremony. I still recommend the 3:00-4:30 cocktail hour (30 min for everyone to drive to reception, 1 hour cocktail hour for guests while you have up to 1 hour to get your photos done). Start the reception at 4:30. If that’s too early to start dinner, use a few minutes to do the wedding party entrance and first dances.

View Quoted Comment Yes! This is a much more acceptable timeline. The purpose of a cocktail hour is to host your guests while you are forcing them to wait on you. I hate to say this, but the way you have this event set up is incredible rude to your guests. You are asking them to get dressed up and drive to your ceremony, then drive back home and wait for an hour and a half, then drive another half hour to a different location, where they will wait for yet another hour for you and the wedding party to arrive; after which, they will then be forced to open their wallets at an event you are hosting. People are taking time out of their own busy lives for your event; you should make it as pleasant and convenient as possible for them. Pirate & 60s Bride gave a perfect option for an acceptable timeline that allows you to capture pictures AND properly host your guests. And I couldn’t agree more with PP’s suggestion of cutting costs elsewhere in order to foot the cost for at least beer & wine for your guests during the reception. I think sometimes when trying to plan an event people get focused on logistics and forget to look at things from their guests’ perspectives. These are people you care about- make it fun and convenient for them too!

I’ll probably get some flack for this, but to me and in my circle the gap is normal & accepted.
Maybe not ideal, but many of my friends have said 2 hours? That’s not bad at all.We have a 1:30 ceremony (full mass) which will probably go until 2:30. Cocktail “hour” starts at 4:30, we will enter at 5 (maybe earlier if we are done with photos at the reception venue) and dinner at 5:15. We will need 2- 2 1/2 hours for the photos we want.
We don’t have any drive time between church and reception (it’s about 1 mile between, if that). We are providing transportation back to hotels/to downtown area during the gap since we have probably 75% out of town guests. Also including on our website and in the OOT gift bags many options of things to do in the area. To answer your question, though, in my circle (know your crowd type of thing, could be different for you) it would not be acceptable to do a cash bar. We will likely have beer & wine only to save cost unless we have a high number of declines and can afford to upgrade within our budget.