Cocktail/Hors d'oeurves Reception Timeline

Humm, what time is your ceremomy? Cocktail hour usually starts after that and is about an hour long. Then traditionally your introduced as husband and wife, then first dance, then dinner. I think eating dinner at 9 might be a little to late?? PPl might get too hungry.

Our ceremony is private, immediate family only on a different day.

Our intentions were to have the tables of hors d'oeuvres set out around 6 to allow for eating an mingling. Later in the evening well set out the stations for those drinking/dancing.

Everything is intended to be a casual, fun party.

We had a reception like that. However, we had food out from the very beginning. Our feeling was that if we had people drinking for an hour on an empty stomach, the results were likely not going to be pretty.

We had a video of our ceremony to show the guests, so timeline was:

8:00 pm – Reception starts; food and open bar available

8:30 pm – Video of ceremony shown

9:00 pm – Music starts; first dance

9:05 pm – General dancing starts; photo area opens

9:45 pm – Musician break; wedding toast and cake-cutting

10:00 pm – Music and dancing resume

10:45 pm – Musician break; cake served

11:00 pm – Music and dancing resume

12:00 am – Music and dancing end

1:00 am – Reception ends

That sounds like a perfect plan. Our photographer, my friend, does amazing montages and were hoping she has enough time to put it together.

Ceremony is Thursday, reception is Saturday and she works Friday. That's a bit of pressure

Bump! How long is a typical reception? Does anyone have anything to add to this thread, I could really use some help