Ceremony & Reception Timeline > Total 5 Hours Long Enough?

More than enough time. Our ceremony is at 530, cocktail hour 600-700, reception 700-1130. FH and I are fairly certain our final exit will be around 11.

ETA - We're headed out to the bars with friends afterwards which is influencing our decision.

We are at a 5 hour venue as well- I'm assured over and over it's enough time!

As long as the venue(s) can accommodate the immediate transition (factor in flip time/travel time), it's more than enough.

I would also do a first look, as you may not have enough time with that 30 minute cocktail hour

We had pretty much the same timeline, but my ceremony started at 5pm and the reception ended at 10pm. I didn't feel like anything was rushed.

I think it's totally fine as long as you start on time, regardless of who is there or not. (You knew I was going to say that, right?)

No need to have the invitation time as 6 and start at 615.

Just start at 6.

You shouldn't need 1.5 hours for dinner. 45 min to an hour tops. That's an extra 30-45 min right there.

Mine was 4.5 start to finish....I would have loved longer, but like you it came at a price. It worked out totally fine time wise.

first off-start your ceremony according to the time on your invite. your guests are adults. they know to show up on time for a wedding.

ours was 6:30 ceremony

6:45 cocktail hour

7:45 dinner served

8;45 toasts

8:55 cake cutting/dance floor opened

11 pm send off.

ETA: doing this type of schedule, you really need to do a first look and get your photos done ahead of time. Unless you just don't want many formal photos and can do them in your 30 min cocktail time...

If you are looking to save time or want the dancing to be longer you can do a few things. 1) Start the ceremony at 6pm. As a guest, I hate it when the start time is listed earlier than planned. 2) Start dinner at 7 and plan on it lasting only 1 hour. We had a buffet for 140 and we only needed 1 hour for dinner.

Here was our timeline:

6:00 Ceremony

6:30 Cocktails

7:00 Dinner / Toasts

8:00 First Dance

8:15 Dance Floor Opened

9:00 Cake Cutting

10:00 Tosses

10:45 Exit

11:00 Reception Ended

More than enough time! I would start the ceremony at 6 though so the cocktail hour can be a little longer... more time for pictures

We have a 5 hour venue time to

Thanks yall, this helps me feel more at ease

That's just fine if OP is prepared to actually start at 6:00 no matter who is there.

But that rarely happens....

Haha, I totally agree, Celia! I wish I would be able to start on time but I'm 99% positive that my parents' friends (all middle-age Asians, might I add) will be running behind and god forbid I start without them. *eye roll* I'm truly not worried at all about my ceremony start time whether I decide to put 6pm or 6:15pm on my invite.

My biggest concern is that my 4 hour cocktail + dinner event will be enough time to do things, which it seems as though it's doable based on the responses received!

I'm having the same but having trouble planning out the timeline, so you mind saying what yours was like