Dinner to be served at the reception?!

So will you be serving actual dinner or just appetizers? If it's actual dinner, I think most wedding guests have an expectation that dinner will be served around that time. That's pretty typical for an evening wedding in my opinion.

A six o'clock ceremony is not late. A ceremony at that time requires dinner or at least enough appetizers to make up a full meal and that many appetizers would typically be more expensive than dinner. Appetizers would need to be both hot and cold and filling. Guests won't have eaten since lunch and will be starved.

As for how to word your invitation, "Dinner reception to follow" would cover the issue if you decide to provide dinner.

"I know some people would have the thought process of it being an evening wedding so there may not be an actual dinner."

Who would ever have that thought? I would 100% assume an evening wedding includes dinner. I've never been to a wedding that didn't include dinner, so IMO, not something you need to tell them. 6 or 6:30 is a normal time to start a wedding, and definitely not late enough to just serve apps. At the weddings I've been to, the entree course doesn't usually come out until at least 8pm, sometimes 9. You could only get away with just apps if you start your ceremony at 8pm or later, IMO. Then people would know to eat before. But eating at 7, 8, even 9 is completely normal for a wedding, and everyone will expect a full meal.

Dinner needs to be served. My ceremony was at 6pm, and still had a cocktail hour and dinner hour. Feed your guests, that's the whole point of a reception.

Dinner should be served and it doesn't need to be indicated on your invitations.

Regardless if your ceremony is at 6, most ceremonies last no longer that 20-30 min

If you want you could do light refreshments while guests are transitioning from the ceremony to reception.

Our ceremony was at 6pm, followed by a cocktail hour, then dinner. At the bottom of our invitation, we simply stated "Dinner and dancing to follow." Usually, the last line on a wedding invitation indicates that the reception is to follow. The phrasing we used is pretty typical, as is "Reception to follow" and I've seen "Merriment to follow" (though this one is pretty ambiguous).

Agreed with PPs, though, that at an evening wedding occurring at dinner time, most people will expect that dinner is being served.

That's not really a late wedding - our ceremony starts at 5:30, which is really normal, and not too much earlier than yours. Our dinner won't be served until 7:30 or 8.

We just put at the bottom of our invitations "dinner, drink, and dancing to follow"

Even though dinner hour may be slightly later than normal for some people, your guests will have been occupied getting ready for, traveling to, and being part of your wedding for hours before your reception starts.

You need to feed them dinner. How to say that? Dinner and dancing to follow.

Thats when my ceremony started. You need a FULL dinner. Its dinner time.

We had about the same timeline as you--5:30 ceremony, 6:15-7:15 cocktails, then dinner. you definitely need to serve dinner! evening ceremonies are becoming more common and popular because they eliminate the down time between ceremony and reception--the assumption that you are serving a whole meal hasn't gone away. that's part of hosting your reception.

My invites just have a line at the bottom that says "dinner & dancing to follow".

By agree with previous posters, for late afternoon / evening ceremonies and receptions most people just assume dinner is provided.

I know it’s been covered but I just want to reiterate that I would never ever consider that the there might NOT be dinner at an evening wedding. You can definitely have a “dinner and dancing to follow” line at the bottom of your invite if you want to or if you’re concerned, but it’s kind of a given. 6pm or 6:30 are very common wedding start times

I put "dinner and dancing to follow" on our invitations.

You definitely need a full meal at that time. Appetizers work from 2:00-4:00pm or 8:30pm or later.

We included "Cocktails, dinner and dancing to follow at XX Venue" on the invitation.

On my RSVP cards I put the ability of them to choose if they would be having chicken, pork, or vegetarian meal for dinner.

At 7-7:30 I would serve dinner. A lot of people do not eat until 7 anyway, and if guests are arriving to your ceremony at 6 they will be expecting a meal. If your ceremony and reception is in the same place then you could do a cocktail hour with appetizers in between the ceremony and reception.