Gap between Ceremony and Reception

Also 11am-10pm is a REALLY long day for a wedding. Do it at 2 and then have the reception 30 mins away. I have a child and if I was asked to go to a wedding that was going to be that long with the scavenger hunt and stuff i would opt out and go home.

Do the 2 pm ceremony.

You will be done by 3.

And doing a 4 or 4:30 cocktail hour won't be a huge deal. It will take people a few min to leave, drive over - check in to the hotel if need be and get to the venue. Way better!

We are getting married in a Catholic church and gaps can't be avoided. You have to either have our wedding at 10am or 2:30pm our wedding is at 2:30pm and will be an hour long. Our reception is at 6pm. So there will be a 2 1/2 hour time gap. Catholics are used to this situation though, all wedding in the church have been this way.

There is nothing that will make a hours long gap any less painful. You will find people skipping the ceremony.

Heck; all of my ceremonies have the reception immediately following (because I am on-site) and people even skip them. Because who wants to sit for a 20 minute ceremony (sarcasm).

And you know I side eye the shit outta them when I see them walk in at the end.

I've never been to a wedding where there hasn't been a gap so I just see this as the norm (unless the ceremony was at the same place as the reception). Of course, it's better not to if you can avoid it.

A half hour drive between ceremony and reception really is not unheard of at all. I've been to a couple weddings with gaps and it was annoying, and your gap would be significantly longer. And as someone else mentioned, 11am-10pm is a super long day and a lot to ask of your guests. Do the 2pm ceremony at your church.

Also think of what an 11am ceremony means for you, your FH and your bridal party. You will have to be getting ready very early in the morning and if you are doing hair and makeup and photos of with your attendants, this will be a very long day for all involved. Including the photographers who will likely want to charge you for extended coverage.

As a guest, I would probably skip one or the other if it were a 4 hour gap between ceremony and the reception.

Yes, don't listen to everyone telling you gaps are listen. Listen to the 2 special snowflakes saying it's fine because it's your day! Gaps can 100% be avoided, the couple just chooses to inconvenience their guets.

I wouldn't attend. I don't want to get all dressed up in uncomfortable clothes. Go home get comfortable then put the uncomfortable clothes back on later.

WTF? Catholic Church weddings make gaps unavoidable?!

Yeah, I've *only* gone to Catholic weddings and there have been zero gaps besides drive time.

I would skip too. Gaps are super, duper shitty.

Lindsay-You are so wrong. If you wish people would skip the wedding or reception because of the rude, selfish planning on YOUR part-why the fuck are you inviting people in the first damn place?!?! A gap is a CHOICE. The "Catholic Gap" is the biggest bullshit excuse to use nowadays. Sweet baby Jesus the entitlement and bratty attitudes of some people now a days is astonishing.

Thats a big gap in time. I would try to find another venue.

I think driving 30 minutes is better than a 4 hour gap. We're getting married at a catholic church at 2 and our cocktail hour starts at 5 about 20/30 minutes away. I haven't received any negative feedback so far...

Angela, your guests won't tell you that your plans are inconvenient.

We have a catholic ceremony and that was important to us to get married in the church so the gap is unavoidable. But our guests are used to this. Our ceremony is at 330 and reception is at 7. its on a Friday so I know not everyone will make it to the ceremony and thats fine with me. Gives people time to go the reception after work

I really, really hate when people say "gaps can't be avoided" with Catholic weddings. That is blatantly false. There are LOTS of Catholic weddings with no gaps. My brother's wedding that I mentioned earlier is the first out of dozens that I've attended that will have a gap and we all hate it.

2 pm wedding with a drive to the reception venue is very common and avoids leaving guests unhosted or a day dragging out.

They make no sense from a hosting perspective. Would you invite people over to a Super Bowl party, then kick them out at halftime with a list of local places to entertain themselves until the second half begins? No? Then don't have a gap.

I also wouldn't attend the ceremony and would just come for the reception. This gap would be wayyyyy too long.

I was MOH in a wedding that had a 5 hour gap. the bridal party drove around in a limo taking pictures (and drinking). by the time we got to the reception we were all so tired and just wanted to sleep! it was a long day! the bride didn't give any suggestions of places to go or things to do since she felt everyone knew the area well, but people didn't know what to do. most went to the hotel early (where the reception was) and hung out in the bar. There was a casino attached the hotel so some people did that as well.

long story short - dont have such a big gap! as a guest its not fun and as a person in the bridal party its no fun!

The thing that is worse than a known gap is the weddings with unknown gaps. Last fall I went to my former roommates wedding. The church and reception site were literally right next door to each other and the invitation said, "reception to follow."

The church was at 2pm. But they wouldn't let anyone into the hall until like 4pm. So everyone was waiting around for like 30-45 minutes. It was so dumb.

In a way I'd wished they had written on the invite that the ceremony was at 2 and the reception was at 4. But who knows maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere.

I too would rather drive 30 miles than have a huge gap like that.