Drinks before ceremony.

If you open the bar before the ceremony, you will NOT start promptly at 6:00. It is tough to drag the guests away from the bar. Also, the drinks will be in the ceremony photos (whether beer bottles, red Solo cups, or crystal glasses). Yes, I have experience with this!

Everyone one can wait until 6:15-6:30 to grab a drink.

We won't be opening the bar up until after the ceremony. Something about opening it up before just sounds tragic to me.

Everything Nancy said was true. I was at a wedding this past weekend and the ceremony was supposed to start at 6:30. People were still drinking at the bar at 6:35...and I forgot to trash my beer before sitting down...but I hid it from pics

Ok thanks!!

now I am singing red solo cup, thanks nancy!! lol

We have a 6pm ceremony too, and we're opening the bar at 5:30pm. It's a little different because we're getting married on the grand staircase in a public venue so even if people are still at the bar they'll be participating in the ceremony (we're not in a separate room or anything). We wanted to end with a toast. We'll actually also have waters passing drink trays during that time, which I think will cut down on people actively at the bar. But honestly, I think people can multi-task and watch a ceremony while waiting for a bartender to pour a drink, too. People know when the music starts the ceremony starts.

I would wait until after if you have set on your timeline. Especially if it is so short.

My friend's wedding had her entire cocktail before the wedding, which was nice, but it delayed the start time of her ceremony by a half hour.

A lot of my weddings have their bar open (or a limited hospitality hour; sparking water and champagne, butler passed, but not an open bar). In my area, 90% of the weddings have an invite time of a half hour before so the ceremony can start on time with that little buffer time.

You decide when you're going to start and that's when you start, no matter what's happening. Your venue staff will help get people in place and there you go.

That being said, it's a rare ceremony that is 10 minutes; even my "we just want to sign the license and say vow" ceremonies are longer than that.

Our ceremony is 10 min. we are saying our vows together, theres an opening, and then after we say our vows he announces us man and wife. thats it.

oh and we dont have avenue staff. we are having our wedding at the rec center.

We are not...though because it is cold out we are going to have little 4oz glasses of hot coco or apple cider for guests to sip on before the ceremony.

Our invitations will say 3p the ceremony will actually start at 330p shouldn't last longer than 20-25mins. Then cocktail hour with open bar from 5 to 6 while we take pictures. Dinner will Start about 615ish and the bar will move into the reception area.