Church ceremony start time and cocktail hour - need help!

Could you have the ceremony earlier so that people won't be eating too late?

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Im going to ask the priest again. But last we spoke on it, it was either 1pm or 530.

Why does your photographer need so much time for photos? Are you not doing any photos prior to the ceremony?

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We aren't doing a first look and there is travel time between the church and hotel so I assume that is why!

I am having one. The church is 25 minutes from the reception. We plan on having a first look, with ALLLLL pictures done prior to the ceremony. Its not ideal but we can head straight to the reception and greet our guest as they walk in.

What time does your wedding start? 30min +45min + traveling to these locations....is about 2 hrs.

Thats a long time to wait was a guest.

Can you just take pictures at the church, that would save tons of time?

You can still get lots of wedding party and family pictures done beforehand.

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Yes, maybe the OP can just bridal party pics prior if they dont want a 1st look.

My church ceremony starts at 2:00 PM and my cocktail hour starts at 5:00PM. The venue and the church are 35-45 minutes apart.

We are taking pictures outside the church after the ceremony. So from 3-330 we will be taking pics outside of the church. And then we are off to another location for the pictures.

If I were you, I would do all of the bridal party pictures prior to the ceremony so all you have to do is the pictures with both the bride & groom after the ceremony. That is what I am planning on doing. I need to figure out the logics of it still, but what I am thinking is 30 mins for bride & bm to take pictures then 30 mins for the groom & gm all before the ceremony.

Can you extend cocktail hour? Maybe add in some entertainment, or make it like a game time. If there is something structured and planned, and you feed your guests some heavy hor d'oeuvres, they likely won't mind the extension.

I'm not sure what time your ceremony starts, so this is just an example. Wedding: 5:00 PM, Cocktail Hour: 6:00 - 7:30 PM, Dinner: 7:30 PM. I think it's fine! As long as you have plenty of appetizers at cocktail hour.

Hi Joanna! I think you should consider an earlier start time to allow enough time for pictures. Have you been able to decide what works best for you? Fill me in!

We have a late start too. Basically because we are getting married in the Catholic Church and they have Mass at 4:00 pm so we either do it earlier in the day or after Mass at 6:00. Our cocktail hour starts at 7:00 and the dinner at 8:00. What we plan to do is do pictures prior to the ceremony so we have some daylight. Then the photographer suggested taking us outside at night after dinner while dancing is going on to take some cool night shots with lighting. Thankfully our reception location is only 15 minutes from the church so that helps to with timing, but we are cutting it close.