Cocktail hour?

Jacks, giving up the Catholic ceremony would be the only way to emulate it. Which I am not willing to do.

Ok so ceremony at 1:30-2:30. Then give travel time and chit chat after the ceremony time, so cocktail hour starts about 3. Do 3-4:30 cocktail hour. Get everyone seated, enter, first dance, cut the cake. Dinner starts at 5. Dinner 5-6. Dessert. Honor dances. Everyone dances. Should be done by 9. Go to after party and continue the fun. You will lose a lot of people after the reception ends, but the partiers will stay. All your guests will be properly hosted, no gap, you still get your late night fun.

Edit: 90 minutes is a long cocktail hour, so you definitely need a bunch of food and if you want to have something like a photo booth I would put it in the cocktail area.

THat's not true, actually. Please again, see AlwaysMs. suggestion.

You can't have both an early ceremony and a late night reception. You have to give up one of them to be respectful to your guests.

Jacks Im sorry I worded that wrong. I am taking AlwaysMrs recommendation. You asked if changing my venue would emulate it and I was just trying to emphasize that I would not give up the Catholic ceremony.

I've never been to a wedding without a cocktail hour. If you won't have any pictures to take after the ceremony then I don't see skipping it as a big deal.

Sorry- just read the thread. Have an earlier wedding. I've been to plenty of daytime weddings and they were just as fun. I drank just as much and danced the day away. Have your ceremony 1-2 and cocktail hour from 2:30-3:30 with reception starting at 4:00. People can get settled. Watch your dances, etc. and you serve dinner at 5. That's not too early.

Yay Trista! Change your avatar to something more specific and hang around! You will love that timeline and every Catholic wedding I have been to has had a really fun after party.

I plan on sticking around. No getting rid of me that easy. Isn't my avatar a picture of my Fiance and I? Is that not a good avatar? Still getting used to the whole WW. I've used it for the timeline for a while but just starting to really use it for the forums.

Trista, we just see double rings, the standard avatar. You need to change the avatar on the desktop version, otherwise it doesn't show up to us. Welcome to WW!

Trista- I'm sure that it's a great avatar! Unfortunately, we can't see it yet. The photo you're seeing isn't actually uploaded as your avatar here on the forums. (It's confusing, I know) you'll need to add it on a desktop or the internet browser on your phone. It won't work on the app.

How about now, are the double rings gone?

@futuremrspiccione I also come from a place where gaps are very common. I've actually never been to a wedding before without at least a 2 hour gap. Someone told me its a regional thing but I don't really know if that's true, I'm from Ohio. I mentioned on a discussion here before that I planned for a 4 hour break and I never heard of it being rude either until many people commented. I ended up switching from a 4 hour break to a 1.5 hour break based on people's comments. I think its preferred with no break but I went with 1.5 hours because literally every wedding I have gone to has had a break longer than that. I never really thought anything about it or every thought of any of the other weddings I went to as rude but it depends on the guest I suppose. If your guests are used to gaps in between then you should probably be ok, especially with your parents hosting in between. But I say yay to a cocktail hour!

Yep, it's a picture of you and your FH now.

Yay, thank you for letting me know.

@bridalbethany, it is nice to hear of someone else in my situation and it could absolutely be a regional thing. When I met with the wedding coordinator at the reception hall yesterday and mentioned possibly wanting the cocktail hour at 5:00 he looked at me like I had 6 heads. The majority of weddings here are Catholic weddings and have at least a 3 hour gap. I would like to keep the gap minimal but I think people here especially our large Italian families are used to having a gap.

Why can't the reception just be earlier? Every reception doesn't have to be dinner. I honestly couldn't do a 5 hour gap and then continue into a 4-5 hour reception unless I was going home to take a nap during that gap.

What does the fact that it is a Catholic wedding have to do with long gaps? I still prefer a reception for lunch over an all day event. That is a lot to ask from people.

I'm not saying it has anything to do with the gap just has to do with the dictation of the ceremony. Most Catholic churches, in my area anyway, wont do a wedding ceremony any later than 1:00 or 1:30 due to Saturday masses.

I understand your point and this is why I posted was to get people's views and this is why FH and I are now discussing the time of the cocktail hour/reception.

Very common in NJ . Also common to have a hotel block close to reception venue with transportation . Most of the guests who attend church travel to the hotel change get ready and take shuttles to the reception venue . Others completely skip the church and show up for the reception . I've never heard of no cocktail hour though it's considered the best part at venues around here .

I would not get all dressed up to go to a ceremony, then hang about trying not to get my dressy clothes rumpled or fidget off my makeup for HOURS before being fed. I'd go home. But then, I never knew people expected their guests to sit around for hours in between events before coming to WW.

I'm also an introvert, and this would make for a LOOOOOOOOONG day for me. After 2-3 hours of socializing, I'm done for....not amping up for a party with a bunch of people. Close that gap!

We are having a cocktail hour to host our guests while we are taking wedding pics after the ceremony.

I have also been to weddings where there were hours in between the ceremony and cocktail hour and those were miserable because us and other guests didn't know what to do in between.

So as long as you don't have a lull between the ceremony and reception, you should be fine. Either start the dinner earlier or have a cocktail hour right away would be my suggestion. Totally your preference if you and FH want to have the cocktail hour to mingle with guests tho

I've been to weddings without a cocktail hour, however, every wedding I've been to in the last 5 years has had a cocktail hour. It's a common thing, don't skip it.