Event timing

Yikes I would feel rushed I am starting my wedding at 3:45 and ending at 11:00

I think you can definitely be in and out in 4 hours if it was a cake and punch type wedding/ reception.

If you are wanting a full meal with drinking, dancing, etc, then it may feel quite rushed without a whole lot of time to actually enjoy the reception.

Are you sure it's 4 hours for BOTH ceremony and reception? I believe ours is either 4 or 5 PLUS 1 hour for ceremony.

4 hours would be tight for the typical ceremony and reception.

We had our ceremony and reception at the same venue with a 5-hour rental (30 minutes of which were guests arriving before the ceremony per the venue's contract, so really 4.5 hours for ceremony and reception). We were able to do everything and have the dance floor open for almost an hour and a half, but we still wished we tacked on an extra hour. Everyone's not lying when they say the reception just flies by!

Our timeline was essentially:

5:00-5:30pm = guests arrive

5:30-6:00pm = ceremony

6:00-7:00pm = cocktail hour

7:00-7:15pm = introductions, first dance, and toasts

7:15-8:15pm = dinner

8:15-8:25pm = father/daughter and mother/son dances

dance floor opened (anniversary dance somewhere in there and took longer than we thought it would lol)

9:00pm = cake cutting

dance floor opened again

10:00pm = last dance

TLDR - If you want both ceremony and reception with enough time for dancing and merriment along with all the traditions, I'd tack on at least another hour for a 5+ hour wedding.

Our wedding is 4.5 hours, but we can use the venue starting at 3:00pm

6:00pm Ceremony

6:30pm-7:00pm Cocktails/appetizers

7:00pm - Grand Entrance, special dances

7:30pm - Dinner

Cake Cutting, group photo, dancing, etc.

10:30pm - Departure

Our rental was 4 hours I believe, but we had a mini wedding. Ours was a quick ceremony and lunchtime reception. I imagine it’s be difficult to throw a “normal” wedding during that amount of time.

From what I have seen, that is standard timeline for many venues. It includes ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing, which is virtually impossible not to feel rushed. That’s exactly why brides say they wish the day was longer but because many venues are “wedding factories” where you are given a set time and not allowed to go over. Then again, last week I was watching several dj interviews online where they say in their experience more than 1 1/2 hours of dancing is too much for guests because they are wiped out at that point. Didn’t make a lot of sense considering their prices.


Looking outside the box for unconventional venues is pretty easy and you can find many that have 8-12 hours standard and some that have no curfew at all so if you want to keep partying into the next day (past 2am) you can go for it. Personally I would want to utilize the venue for the entire time allowed, even if that means starting midday. In our circles it’s common to have a 3/4pm ceremony with dinner soon after and dancing lasting well past midnight.

I've gone through a friend's afternoon wedding and I'm pretty sure it was no longer than 4 hours. Like another poster said.. It was a cake, punch, and sandwich reception and there wasn't any other dancing besides the traditional ones (so no DJ or band).