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Master October 2022

Ceremony vs reception start times?

Jana, on June 14, 2020 at 5:54 PM Posted in Planning 0 5
While having everything in one location is ideal, some people have a certain vision for the ceremony or reception that doesn't always work at both venue options. Or it requires long travel time for everyone to an all-in-one venue.


In the situation that you had each at different locations, what was the starting time of each, taking into account getting pictures done and travel to the reception?
As an example, say you wanted an outdoor woodsy ceremony with pictures taken there before reception. A local public park offers that but they only market their options as being everything in one location, no ceremony only options. Or drive an hour away to $$$ all in one venue. The park and similar closer locations don't let you start before 5pm. Which means a late start time to the reception and unless you have a venue with an after midnight closing time, not alot of time to party, especially with most travelling out of state anyway so they're not coming in straight from work. Or nix the outdoor ceremony and have it all at the reception venue, but what do you do about pictures?
What were your start times for ceremony and reception and did your guests have to travel between the two?

5 Comments

Latest activity by Pirate & 60s Bride, on June 16, 2020 at 12:35 AM
  • P
    Savvy September 2021
    Paris ·
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    My wedding ceremony is separate from my reception because we are not catholic, when talking to our reception space she gave us the start time of our cocktail hour at 5pm. I made my ceremony start time at 4 because it will only be a 30 minute ceremony. The travel time between ceremony and reception location is only 15 minute drive so that will give the guest 30 minutes 4:30 to 5 pm to make over to the next location.


    Making sure our guests did not have a long drive time in between was important to us so it took awhile to find a good location that worked. But we will have a little over a hour to take pictures with travel time and guests.
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  • M
    Legend June 2019
    Melle ·
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    5p ceremony and 6p reception. My reception location was only 2 miles down the road from the ceremony. We had like a half hour ceremony and then we had people go to the reception. For me we didn’t need time for photos because we did them before the ceremony
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  • Jodie
    Expert August 2020
    Jodie ·
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    Our ceremony is in a beautiful park. We're not doing a first look. Our start time is 3pm with ceremony over by 330. Pictures in the park after until about 445pm. Reception venue is about 35-40 minutes away because we live in a very small town (a mile and a half from end to end)- closest venues are 30-60 minutes away from our town. Reception start time is officially 430 with the cocktail hour but everything will be set up before then in case guests get there early. We will get there around 530pm and dinner starts at 6 and partying until probably 1030-11ish... the end time is negotiable because we have our reception venue from Friday morning till Sunday night.
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  • Mrs.a
    Master October 2021
    Mrs.a ·
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    We’re having our ceremony at 4:00pm. All of our guests are having pictures taken so we’re planning for cocktail hour at 6:00pm. Our venues are approximately 15 minutes apart.
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  • Pirate & 60s Bride
    Legend March 2017
    Pirate & 60s Bride ·
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    We had ours at the same location. But as a guest, if the ceremony wasn’t at the same location at the reception it was almost always less than a 15-minute drive. Funny, I’d drive up to two hours for a wedding but then would want both at the same location. Honestly, if the ceremony & reception were more than 30-45 minutes apart I’d probably skip one part or RSVP no. Too much wasted time driving. 😔
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