time between ceremony and reception?

I've never heard of a Catholic Church even allowing a marriage ceremony or baptism that late. People will be starving by the time your reception starts since your wedding is around dinner time.

Talk to your Priest and see how long the services will take.

Is there anyway to have an earlier ceremony? My guess is that the ceremony you want would take at least an hour, possibly an hour and a half. People probably won't eat dinner before and I'd be starving by 8pm when your ceremony would be over. Talk to your Priest.

Are you having a cocktail hour or going straight into dinner at 8:30? Either way, I'd be starving by then.

I'm really surprised your church is allowing a mass that late. The latest Catholic ceremonies I've ever been to are like 2 or 3. I would move the ceremony up. They're typically an hour without the baptism part.

See if there's a way to make it earlier. I'm Catholic but sitting through a full catholic mass and a marriage ceremony and a baptism on an empty stomach I would get hangry af.

Era: just saw your date, not sure if there is much you can do at this point

A marriage and baptism in the same mass? That's going to take forever and I would not subject your guests to that. I had a Catholic mass and even I was the antsiest person ever by the end.

Although like Sarah said, if your date is correct, this should probably all be taken care of by now...

Yes, my wedding is in 10 days, I hope I had thought this better, at this point the only thing I can do is start the reception earlier. The venue is going to serve 4 different appetizers in the first 45 minutes, and then dinner...

The mass alone will take an hour, and baptisms usually take 20ish mins. Growing up Catholic I am well aware of the time frame lol. I feel like you need to start everything earlier. My mom went to a wedding where they didn't serve food until 8 and her and my dad were so hungry they had to stop by Wendy's between the ceremony and reception.

We're having a full Mass for our ceremony, and I believe it will take a little over an hour. Ours starts at 3:30, I would recommend trying to move yours up earlier in the day.

Thank you all for your advice, as I said before, my wedding is 10 days away, invitations were sent long time ago rsvp's are in, basically everything is done, so I can't change the time of the ceremony... the question was, given the times, do you think reception should start at 8 or 8:30, I don't want people having to wait, but I don't wanna waste time if no body will get there before 8:30, what time do you think is more reasonable

Can you get a better estimate of the length of the ceremony?

Holy crap that's gonna be a looooonnnngggg mass. Please reconsider doing that to your guests!

@Jacks I just talked to my priest, he said he wont take longer than 1 hour

Ok so if you start on time the reception should start at 8, I think.

I know you're not open to questions regarding the wisdom of layering one ceremony on top of the other (an hour? It will be longer than an hour), so the best advice I can give you is to start your reception as early as possible.

I think 8 would be fine. Mass should be about an hour, and I'd be surprised if the baptism were more than 20 minutes. The baptism usually includes another mini-homily so he might skip that. If you're having a cocktail "hour", I would make it as short as possible so that dinner isn't served too late.

I would say start it at 8PM, that gives 30 minutes for travel time etc. Are you having a cocktail hour? I wouldn't bother with such a late reception, because then dinner won't be until 9PM. Or at least shorten it. A quick 30 min passed app, then dinner at 8:30PM.

Have refreshments before the ceremony. (Unless you believe in not having anything to eat or drink an hour before communion). But I've been to masses and I'm always hungry. Doing a baptism AND a marriage sounds like I would end up feeling starved and distracted from the moments you invited me to celebrate.

I would be prepared to see some of guests arriving for the reception only. I agree if you can offer refreshments before the ceremony starts that would be nice.

I would try to do all of your photos before the ceremony and head straight to the reception. I would want to start dinner ASAP for myself and my guests sake. I would not be happy about having to wait until after 9 to eat my dinner. I typically eat between 6-7 on any given day.

Have appetizers at the door before and/or after mass if you can.