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Dedicated May 2020

First look/ceremony start time thoughts

Samantha, on October 29, 2019 at 2:23 PM Posted in Planning 0 5

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I am getting married on a Friday at the end of May near Athens/Atlanta GA (hopefully outside). Our venue requires that the reception has to be over by 11pm (everyone gone) so our exit will be at 10:30pm. We don't want to have a super early ceremony either. I know that this means our reception will be cut short (not the normal 4hrs). My fiancé and I are debating on whether or not to do a first look as well as get some pictures out of the way before the ceremony. I know I also need to talk to my vendors about this, but do you think a 6pm ceremony start time would work okay? That would have us doing our first look around 5pm and I'm not sure if the lighting will be good for pictures in our area around that time. What are you guys opinions?

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Latest activity by Cristy, on October 29, 2019 at 3:01 PM

Master January 2015
null · on October 29, 2019 at 2:29 PM
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If you're not having a cocktail hour (since you'd do pictures before the ceremony), I think 6pm would be a good start time. I'd assume dinner would start right after at 6:30 or 6:45? If you do have a cocktail hour, I'd be concerned that 3 1/2 hours might be a little short for dinner, special dances, cake cutting, toasts, etc. unless you don't plan on having a whole lot of dancing. We're having a five hour wedding from ceremony to exit, but we aren't much of a dancing crowd so I was fine with that
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Dedicated May 2020
Samantha · on October 29, 2019 at 2:36 PM
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Since we don't have a best man or maid of honor we are not planning on spending a lot of time for doing toasts. Since we will not be getting all of our pictures before the ceremony, we are currently planning on having like a 30 minute cocktail "hour". We are also only having two special dances (first dance and father/bride dance) so that will save a little time as well though not much.
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Master May 2021
Cristy · on October 29, 2019 at 2:37 PM
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Why can't your reception be the "normal 4 hours"? We also have to be out of our venue by 11pm, but we are having our ceremony at 4pm, cocktail hour from 4:30--5:30, then reception from 5:30 to 9:30pm. We are doing a first look, starting at like 2 or 2:30, so we can get the majority of our pictures done before the ceremony. Then after the ceremony, we'll only have to spend no more than 30 minutes doing pics with family and friends.
If you're serving dinner, you want to be mindful of your guests, and not make them wait too late to eat.
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Dedicated May 2020
Samantha · on October 29, 2019 at 2:49 PM
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My fiancé and I feel as if 4pm is too early for a ceremony on a Friday. The earliest we would consider having our ceremony is 5:30PM. This is just our preference. I was more asking if people thought the lighting around that time of day in our area would be okay for good pictures that don't have to end up being overly edited since we chose a bad time of day for lighting
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Master May 2021
Cristy · on October 29, 2019 at 3:01 PM
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Ok, in that case, I would suggest going to a local or regional weather app, and plugging in your wedding date. Most of the apps out there now will show you exact time for sunrise, sunset, temp conditions, wind, rain, etc. so you will be able to predict what the lighting will be like on that day.
Also, you may want to speak to your photographer about this, as they usually have experience with this sort of thing, and if yours is from that area, they can usually tell you when is the best time of day for the photos you want to get. I know ours did that for us.
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