Friday weddings & start time!!?

My wedding is slated to start at 6pm for my Friday wedding.

I would not go to a 5 pm Friday wedding... unless I really liked you lol as I work until 4:30 pm. Also, please put the start time on you invitations, it is rude to do otherwise

We're having a Friday wedding. Our ceremony starts at 3, it's a full mass and then reception is 6 for cocktail hour. I felt that was fine and ppl didn't want to or can't make the ceremony then I'm ok w that.

I would put your actual start time on the invitation. I'm not having a Friday wedding, but I went to one last month. I have no way of knowing what their attendance rate was, but I did observe several people coming into the room during the ceremony or just showing up for the reception -- this was at 6pm.

I also echo other people's concerns about an outdoor wedding in December -- seems like it might be asking for trouble. I was worried enough about doing it in September. Even if it's not super cold, standing outside in the elements for at least a half hour is going to be uncomfortable for a number of your guests. If it was me, I would do the ceremony inside and maybe start a little bit later.

My Friday ceremony starts at 4:30. It's early but the venue needs us done and out of there by 10pm so it had to be pushed back. We unfortunately didn't get as many yes RSVPs as we wanted, our 100 count guest list is totaling 45 when all is said and done. There are a lot of factors why people cannot attend. The people that are coming are either taking a half day from work or are taking the day off. Some people skip the ceremony, others arrive late. It's hard to anticipate this. Attendance can be because of a lot of reasons!

My sister had a Friday wedding last year, ceremony starting at 6. She had some logistical problems with the shuttle getting guests to the ceremony but it was pretty full once they started.

I'd put the actual ceremony start time on the invite. An idea if you're concerned...depending on how many people are there at the start time, maybe figure in 15 minutes to the schedule in case there aren't enough people there?

I'm always early for everything. If you put 5pm, I'm expecting you to walk down the aisle at 5:00 so I'm showing up at 4:30 to allow time to park and find a seat. I'm gonna be annoyed if you don't start until 5:30.

If you push the start time back too far (like 6 or 7), people might tap out after cake. I'm always exhausted on Friday evenings after a long work week, so if your reception is too late people might leave early.

I think you should do 6 or 7 and INDOORS. This is also a know your crowd situation. For me a really close family member/friend might take off work but its unreasonable to believe that your entire guest list will. ( Unless its small or a DW)

Also I know my guests. Getting them to come on time is almost unheard of. I know they wont be there early. I NEED to start later than the invitation time or 50% of my guest will not be there yet lol. I go to multiple weddings each year and i have NEVER been to one that started on time. EVER. I will be doing as Celia suggested with a half hour window.

I'm glad you asked this, also having a Friday wedding but our time is for 4:00 I think to get a lot of the golden hour for outside photos. Take a look at that if you have not already and talk to your photographer, so fantastic.

We're having a very small wedding today (Friday). Not counting FH and me, we will have 19 guests including my uncle, our officiant. Everyone on my mom's side is retired (she's the youngest of 7 and is 64)

No advice, just a fellow Texas gal saying hey!

We are getting married on a Friday, the ceremony starts @430pm. The venue suggested putting 15-30 difference on the wedding. I did 430, it gives people time to get in and settled. And we can always start a little early

Our wedding is on a Friday in September. Our start time is 4pm.

Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind has been my philosophy...

Thursday night wedding with an invite time of 5:30pm and a start time of 6pm.

People are planning half days or days off.

I'm having a Friday wedding in November. We can pull it off because we are having a very small close family wedding ceremony and then taking everyone to a nice dinner.

Our ceremony will start at 6pm, but the sun is setting around 5:00pm so we are planning on doing a first look as well as all our formal photos with our BP so we can have the majority if not all of our photos in the daylight/sun set.

I would suggest you push your ceremony back by an hour for a few reasons; many people get off of work at 5pm and it's also a high traffic time because of people trying to get home from work.

Overall, I would say that Friday weddings work best if you plan on having a small intimate wedding. If you want a larger guest turnout I would suggest a Saturday wedding. It really just depends on what you and FH want to do.

We have a Friday wedding with a 7:30 start time. We live in the DC/MD area and traffic sucks ass here. Most everyone is leaving work around noon and heading to hotel.

We've attended, as guests, a few Friday evening weddings that actually start late Friday afternoon. The last one, I believe, began at 4:30 PM. An accident -- a bad one -- ate up the extra 20 minutes we gave ourselves for Friday rush hour traffic (NYC commuter traffic), so we ended up waiting in the parking lot, watching the limos empty out, and when we sure the ceremony had started, we went into the church.

Not every professional has the choice to leave work early for a Friday wedding ceremony -- unless one half of the couple is an immediate family member and the proper work place notices have been put in place. Does everyone attend the ceremony? Not in my experience, but there certainly weren't enough absences to make the ceremony look ill-attended (it was just that the reception was better attended).

Friday weddings are increasingly common (we service them all the time). However, there's a reason that Saturday evening weddings are the most expensive, and it's generally because a majority of guests are free on the weekends (I know, I know...not everyone...I said a majority, and venues are well aware of the stats).

I'd say put a start time of 5:00 PM and start on time. Fake ceremony times? Hate them. A wait of ten minutes? Yeah, okay. However, we usually show up 20 minutes early, and I get agitated sitting around for what typically equals 35 to 50 minutes doing nothing but small talking with surrounding guests -- conversations punctuated with "What time is it?".

We've attended, as guests, a few Friday evening weddings that actually start late Friday afternoon. The last one, I believe, began at 4:30 PM. An accident -- a bad one -- ate up the extra 20 minutes we gave ourselves for Friday rush hour traffic (NYC commuter traffic), so we ended up waiting in the parking lot, watching the limos empty out, and when we sure the ceremony had started, we went into the church.

Not every professional has the choice to leave work early for a Friday wedding ceremony -- unless one half of the couple is an immediate family member and the proper work place notices have been put in place. Does everyone attend the ceremony? Not in my experience, but there certainly weren't enough absences to make the ceremony look ill-attended (it was just that the reception was better attended).

Friday weddings are increasingly common (we service them all the time). However, there's a reason that Saturday evening weddings are the most expensive, and it's generally because a majority of guests are free on the weekends (I know, I know...not everyone...I said a majority, and venues are well aware of the stats).

I'd say put a start time of 5:00 PM and start on time. Fake ceremony times? Hate them. A wait of ten minutes? Yeah, okay. However, we usually show up 20 minutes early, and I get agitated sitting around for what typically equals 35 to 50 minutes doing nothing but small talking with surrounding guests -- conversations punctuated with "What time is it?".

I noticed the outdoor December wedding as well, but I assumed, as the OP is getting married in Texas, that it wouldn't be cold? Educate me...seriously. What's the average temp on a late afternoon December wedding in Texas?

OP, if there's a chance of it being in the 50's, rethink the outdoor ceremony.

I've only been to one Friday wedding for a niece. Had to take off a day of work which I did NOT appreciate. It was supposed to start at 5:30 but was delayed because a lot of people came late due to work and traffic. I get they were trying to save money but they did it at our expense of having to burn vacation days. Not a fan.

Also not a fan of Friday weddings. The "they can just take time off" concept always rubs me wrong. I wouldn't ask my guests to do that, I have no idea what their work situation is and what they want to use their days for.