Cocktail hour - is it important?

The purpose of the cocktail hour is to properly host your guests while you and your SO are off taking photos after the ceremony. If you do not plan to take photos after the ceremony, you can choose to skip the cocktail hour and just go straight into dinner. However, some people that aren’t doing photos after the ceremony still choose to do a cocktail hour because it gives them time to mingle with their guests (and for guests to mingle with each other) instead of trying to run around after dinner and talk to everyone.

We're doing it so our guests have food/drinks, music, and can mingle while we're getting pictures taken. My FH and I aren't doing a "First Look" so all of our photos will have to wait until after the ceremony. I've been to a wedding where there was no cocktail hour, so we just stood around, bored, hungry, etc.

It was essential for us to have a cocktail hour, that way all our guests had the availability to have something to eat, grab a drink, and mingle/talk with other guests while we (bride/groom/son) and bridal party went to take photos.
Thankfully we hired a day of coordinator in order to help keep us on track and timely without rushing around.

It keeps your guests occupied while family photos are taken. It's also typical to have drinks (alcoholic or not) and appetizers during this time.

So we viewed cocktail hour as essential, not for photos but for all guests to mingle with those not at their dinner tables and get into the party mood with booze/food/live music. Our reception was indoors and cocktail hour was on a rooftop, so it was also fun for guests to experience different environments and keep the party from getting stale.

Even if you’re not using cocktail hour to take photos, I still love it as a guest. It’s time to unwind, mix & mingle, have a cocktail & snack to take the edge off. I’ve never been to a wedding where right from the ceremony you went to dinner. It’s ok for a daytime brunch wedding, but very stiff for evening/dinner.

It's important to have while the bride and groom get their pictures taken so it gives guests something to do rather than waiting for a long period of time to be seated and have dinner. I personally like cocktail hours. It's a time to mingle before reception starts because there is a schedule/order of events that happen as soon as reception starts.

Many couples skip the cocktail hour and that is ok because every social group has their own customs. Some circles don’t serve dinner because it’s a foreign concept but they still have full hospitality. The cocktail hour originated as a period for guests to mingle while waiting for the couple taking pictures after the ceremony because of superstition not doing it beforehand. However many now do all pictures before the ceremony so there is no gap beyond driving time to the reception. Any gap longer than that and guests will skip the wedding entirely. Proper planning and thinking outside the box allows for no gap with no issues whatsoever, so don’t believe that it cannot be pulled off.


Since so many couples now attend the cocktail hour (they say the food options are better than the dinner itself so don’t want to miss out) they use that as a chance to mingle with guests. In addition to the post ceremony receiving line or instead of. It gives them the opportunity to get to everyone which table visits during dinner do not allow for. With table visits, a common observation is that what they hope only takes 30 minutes turns into a couple hours or more that cuts into dancing time and half the tables are not greeted at all.

As long as you don't have an unhosted gap between the ceremony and dinner then you won't need a cocktail party.