Cocktail Hour

Your guests are not taking pics which is usually when cocktail hour is so that is their time to eat and drink before the dinner. However, if you are doing the first look then yeah go straight to the reception. I have always seen them as a time when guests are waiting for dinner and want something to snack on.

I did a short social hour but originally I was gonna skip it too

We're doing a cocktail hour. We're taking most of our pictures beforehand, but will have a few family pictures to take after the ceremony, so we are serving appetizers during cocktail hour. We plan to join our guests partway through cocktail hour.

Things are potentially different in a time of Covid, but cocktail hour is also typically a time for guests to mingle and interact with each other (and potentially the B&G if they aren't tied up taking photos). Usually once guests arrive at the reception space they are seated at an assigned table and may not have as much opportunity to mingle (until possibly during dancing, etc.). Also, at a more formal event, a cocktail hour and appetizers are usually expected as a precursor to the dinner. Especially at a more informal event you could skip cocktail hour if you won't need the time for photos. (This would also potentially shorten the total timeline for the event, so without a cocktail hour I'd probably expect the reception to last a shorter amount of time.)

We did a first look but still had a cocktail hour. Honestly it’s my favorite part of weddings.

It all depends on you and your wedding, if you need a cocktail hour do you so for example if you need more pictures done with family and your husband that’s the time you would do it. if you don’t need pictures done or anything like that skip it at the reception anyways everyone is going to mingle in general!

If you're having a mid-afternoon cake and coffee only or an afternoon tea reception, the cocktail hour is skipped. Otherwise most people have one, but it's not required. Make sure all your vendors are aware of your plans.

Except for one very unusual (the ceremony included a pig in a top hat) one, and my covid miniwedding, I've literally never been to a wedding that didn't have a cocktail hour. It's a good time for people to socialize with people who aren't sitting together during dinner and I feel like it works as sort of an icebreaker so people have a chance to get more comfortable, which makes the rest of wedding more fun.

Great advice from all of you! Thank you! I guess I worry about it being a Friday evening wedding and the timeline. I don’t exactly want to start the ceremony until 6 or 6:30 bc of it being a Friday. Pics will be done before hand as well. But I definitely see the point of having one now.

I originally thought that cocktail hour was unnecessary Then I realized that we will need a minimum of an hour to do photos and our ceremony and reception will be at the same venue so we need something to keep guest happy while they wait around. We made personalized cornhole boards for guest to play during cocktail hour.

We had a cocktail hour. As a previous poster said, as a guest I usually really like them. You get to mingle with people you may have not seen in awhile and it creates a nice transition to the reception.

We plan on a cocktail hour. Pictures of the two of us our planned at the same time. The only reason for pictures during cocktail hour is for the sunset pictures.

View Quoted Comment That’s a very good idea.. I’m going to steal that idea lol.

I’ve never been to a wedding that didn’t have one. Cocktail hours are fun! We’re doing all of our photos before the ceremony, and it’s partially so that we can attend our cocktail hour. Ours will be outside with a bunch of appetizers.
The cocktail hour at my brother’s wedding was phenomenal. The food was better than the dinner food, and it was hands down my favorite part of his wedding. lol

The three most recent weddings I've been to, only one had a cocktail hour.

View Quoted Comment How did it go at the 2 that didn’t have a cocktail hour?

We are having a "mocktail" hour with a lemonade bar! Our reception will be really short so we have the main entertainment during the hour with a string quartet, photo station and the lemonade bar. I want the time to take pictures since we have such a limited time at our venue.