Ceremony and Reception Times

That would be too big of a gap for me, especially for the not out of town guests. Are they just supposed to go back home and then come back four hours later? I would avoid a gap as much as possible, if I were a guest I wouldn't want to go back out hours later. Would you have a cocktail "hour" (depending on ceremony length) from the end of the ceremony until the beginning of the reception at 3?

It may be a big gap, but I would rather end the reception later than 8:30! Is your heart completely set on this ceremony area?

Way too long for me which means I would come to one or the other but not both. And I would rather end later.

I would much rather attend an early reception than wait around for 5 hours.

I would avoid the gap and end at 8:30. You could always plan an after party at a local bar. Having that gap also means your hair and makeup have to hold up much longer and you might get bored just sitting around.

Honestly I hate gaps and that's too large of one BUT I've also been to a lot of weddings with that kind of gap and it's ok, ppl will do it.

No don't do it. Ppl hate gaps. I would attend the ceremony then just go home. Hours is waaay too much time.

I would avoid the gap. Our wedding starts at 2:30pm. Our wedding reception will end around 8:30pm. We are just going to have an after party close to the reception location.

With a 1pm start time, your ceremony would probably end around 2pm or a little before. 3 hours could be a bit long but part of it depends on how far it is from the ceremony site to the reception site.

I have both at the same site. My DOC told me that having more than an hour between will result in bored guests even though we have hors d'ouevres, drinks and music for them on the patio. I would think with having yours at different locations, you could get away with 2 hours but at the latest, I would start the reception at 3:30 or 4pm.

I am doing it. My ceremony is in the mountains at 11am, then the reception is back in town (2hr drive from ceremony) at 5pm. We will have some suggestions for how guests can entertain themselves (scenic drive back to town, short hike, etc). We are not expecting guests to be dressed up for the outdoor mountain ceremony so some may change into party clothes between. I'm not fretting. FH wanted a mountain wedding and we own the reception venue so it was a super sweet deal to rent, haha. If people think its too far or too long a drive, i'm fine with them just attending the reception. That's the fun part, anyway.

I’ve been to a wedding where the gap in between was 3 hours long. We ate at a restaurant, drove an hour to visit my fiancé’s brother, then drove another hour to the reception. Honestly, I was really sleepy in between. But I guess it worked out since their reception was an hour away from the ceremony. Our wedding has a 2 hour gap- our ceremony ends at 3:30pm and the reception is 30 min away from the ceremony. The hotel where we reserved a block has check-in starting at 4pm so guests have time to do that before the reception.

Maybe a 1 to 2 hr gap but a 5hr gap that's to long

I was at a wedding last year where there was a gap of a few hours between the wedding and reception. Everyone was trying to find a place to eat and sit for a few hours before the reception started. When my FH and I started planning our wedding we decided to keep it close together so that people could go right from the church to the reception. The ceremony is at church from 2 to 3. It takes about 20-30 minutes to get to the reception venue. Cocktail hour is from 4-5, and then we have dinner, dancing and everything else from 5-10. We are having our guests go to cocktail hour while we go with our wedding party to have photos taken.

Our friends had this big of a gap. Wedding was at 1, Reception started I think at 4. So there was a 2.5 hour gap between ceremony & reception. Luckily I knew one of the groomsman's parents so I just went home with them lol.

Otherwise what I've seen done is that you could print a little card for everyone saying something about the larger gap and that they can take advantage of some sightseeing and go to different places in the town to relax and/or take in the sights!