Ceremony time

If your ceremony begins at 4pm, it shouldn’t typically be longer than 30 mins? After that is usually cocktail hour for about 45 mins to an hour. Dancing comes in once the couple makes an appearance as newlyweds, and that from my experience starts no later than 2 hours after the event begins, so let’s say, 6ish? Is about 3 hours of dancing (minus some time for dinner/drinks) sounding ideal?
Also depends nowadays what your state regulations will be. I have read articles lately stating some future weddings won’t even have dance floors at all to have guests maintain proper distance, but we have to remain optimistic!

4 pm - ceremony

4:30 pm - cocktail hour and photos

5:30 pm - introduction into reception

5:35 pm - welcome speech

5:40 pm - dinner is served

6:35 pm - speeches

6:45 pm - spotlight dances

7 pm - cake cutting

7:05 pm - open dance floor

Obviously this would be altered if you're doing your first dance before dinner or including other events like a bouquet or garter toss, but this is a rough draft. I don't think 9:30 is at all too early for the older crowd, and depending on how old we're talking, they may be ready to go before then.

We had our ceremony at 3 and started dancing at 5:45 after cocktail hour, dinner, and toasts

I would think the older crowd may be ready to leave by 8 or 8:30 at the latest. If you have a lot of older guests, eating dinner 5:30-6:00 would be good.

We are starting at 4:30. Ceremony 4:30-5

View Quoted Comment This was awesome and so helpful! It's been hard for me to judge how long each thing will take and to see it in front of me has helped and made so much more sense. Thank you!

Thank you everyone for your input. It's been so helpful. I feel much better about the 4pm ceremony start.

This definitely got me thinking or rethinking our start time & ceremony time. Initially I thought we would have the ceremony at 3:30pm. Our cocktail hour/reception is scheduled to begin at 6:00pm and our venue is 10-15 minutes from our ceremony site. I’m thinking about moving the ceremony up to 4:00pm. Does this sound better or would you keep the ceremony at 3:30? It’ll probably last 20-30 minutes. I want to be sure we have enough time for photos, to relax and for guests to check in at the hotel if they want in between.