Catholic Wedding issues!

Our ceremony is going to be from 3:00-3:30 (I know Catholic ceremonies are usually longer, so yours could definitely be earlier) and then our guests will be at cocktail hour while we take pictures. After that we'll have our introduction and first dance and by then it'll be 5 and we'll start dinner

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I will keep the different order in mind! Thanks!

Also catholic and our ceremony is starting at 2:00pm. Normally it is an hour long, so it'll be done by 3:00pm, then we have half an hour for photos at the church. After that the bridal party will be traveling half an hour to a park to take photos while our guests can go to the hotel to check-in which is also about half an hour away. Our reception/cocktail hour starts at 5:30pm, which I think in between is enough time for transportation and taking photos for us. Our venue has a nice lobby so guests can get there early and take photos and mingle. I've been to a few weddings where there is idle time in between the reception and ceremony.

No...I was a BM in a catholic wedding and the reception was in a hotel. In fact recently I went to a Greek Orthodox wedding and the ceremony was at 11 but they had an afternoon reception. People can go back to the hotel or what have you and relax until the reception starts. Church weddings run on a different schedule. Some weddings do have a few hours in between and just tell the guests in advance so they can prepare. Like Amber said, you should plan a cocktail hour where they can hang because you will probably be taking pictures.

I've heard of this, and heard it referred to as the "Catholic Gap" because the ceremony is early, then there is a larger gap so the reception can be at a normal time. We've only been to one wedding like this and about half the guests skipped the ceremony and only went to the reception.

We had our ceremony at 2:30. No mass so it was 25 min
The drive to the reception was about 30 min. So cocktail hr started around3:45. We got announced into the reception a little after 5. We didn’t have any seating during cocktail hr so some of the older people were getting antsy, but other than that I didn’t hear any complaints. We had cocktails and snacks (fruits and veggies with dips) and music.
We did our 1st dance and then my dads speech. Dinner started around 5:30. It was perfect!

This is pretty standard for a Catholic Church wedding. Ours will be at 1:30 p.m. will be about 40 minutes, and then the reception is 25 min drive away and begins at 3:00 p.m. (cocktail hour 3-5:30, dinner, dancing after). The gap is the same time as hotel check-in, so I imagine lots of people will do that.

It's likely because there is 4:00 mass on Saturday. We had a 5:30 pm wedding at a Catholic Church, so that there would be no gap between the ceremony and reception. Gaps are rude. If your wedding starts at 2:00, your cocktail hour/reception should start around 3:30/4:00 depending on how far away the venue is.

I'm doing a Cathokic Ceremony. Because it is on New Year's Eve, my church has a vigal mass, so we are doing an 11am ceremony. The reception will probably start between 12 & 1230, we're just going to do a late lunch/early dinner type of reception.

Literally planning this right now. We are opening our reception hall from 3:30 - 4:30 for beer and wine and with yard games. Apps will be served at 4:30, hard liquor opens at 5, and we will be there eating at 5:30. I was NOT thrilled about it but it means so so much to us to be married at our church we decided to make the rest work out!

View Quoted Comment I feel the same way! Might be doing the same!

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It's honestly saved me a lot of headaches!

Its pretty traditional with catholic weddings to have a "gap" between ceremony and reception. We plan to have a 1.5hr cocktail hour to help ease the gap