Gap time between ceremony and reception-- Catholic wedding

I forgot to add-- it is about a 30 minute drive from ceremony to reception! The hotel is 2 miles from the reception venue.

Nobody WANTS to do anything between the ceremony and reception, they want to go directly from the ceremony to the reception. The reception location should be prepared to receive guests as soon as they arrive - so probably 4:15/4:30.

I completely understand that. The earliest we can start the reception is 5:00 though... so that leaves me back at square one

Don't even stress about this. Start your reception whenever you want...your guests will figure out what they want to do. This isn't a huge gap at all..Guests will take their time to leave the church, and with the half-hour commute, that takes up a lot of time already. If you had a four hour gap, I'd worry about how to occupy, but this is nothing. If you can, start your cocktail hour at 5, but if not...whatever. :-)

Hey Anna Maria! Hold up are a lot of your guests catholic? My gap is three hours I didn't want to push my reception time because the last thing I want is people to eat early and get hungry. Been to mostly catholic weddings and we always either went home/hotel or hung out and found something else to do! One time I took a nap and loved it. Most guests will understand especially if they are catholic as well. Honestly it might be better to have a little larger gap so people actually had time to do something. Mine is 3 so not sure if catsbonincats would approve . My personal opinion which obviously can differ from the masses.

I agree with @athena. Any time we have celebrated a sacrament at church it was a morning mass then an evening dinner. We personally will probably have a 10:30 am wedding and our reception will start at 5:00. There's no way around the gap because of the ceremony.

Hi Athena! What a relief to see your post. While we do have a lot of Catholic guests, I would say the majority aren't. Probably 30-40% are Catholic. I've come to terms that a lot of people probably will not come to my ceremony and just will make it out for my reception I was really depressed about that for a long time but know I cannot control it. Our real problem is that we have A LOT of out of town guests, and I just don't know what they will do during the gap! But the more I think about, we are providing a shuttle for them, so unless they wanna drive separate, they are going to have to wait for the shuttle no matter what! It's funny... even though I am Catholic, I have only been to two Catholic weddings. One, I was in the bridal party, so we went back to the hotel and freshened up and then met to take pictures. The second wedding the mass started at 7 PM so the reception followed immediately!

I'm having a Catholic wedding too with a 1pm ceremony (since we have to be out of church at 3pm for 4pm Mass). Our reception starts at 5pm which leaves a 3 hour gap in there. We are hosting a snack, cocktail time for the guests looking for something to do in between. I don't think the half hour will make that big of a difference especially if there is a half hour drive. Most Catholic weddings have gaps.

Hahaha glad to help this is a hot topic today! Honestly people will understand and the out of town guests will hang with in town guests or explore or relax! If you think anyone will be a real curmudgeon about it I would say try and hook them up with some locals to hang with or the other out of towners! We will have a lot so I made a weddingpartyapp for us and hoping people will use it kinda like a facebook exclusive for the guests because I would prefer to keep most stuff off FB and don't instagram!

@Sara STB Mrs. R and Ely #catholicweddingproblems haha

Fellow Catholic bride here - we are also having a 1:00 ceremony, with cocktail hour to follow at 6:00. Personally I've always liked the gap as a guest - gives you time during the day to snack nap or do whatever. Most of our guests are local and will just head home, and for the few who are OOT we rented our condo party room where there will be snacks and refreshments (as well as couches, TV, cards etc) to keep the entertained. If people choose to skip the ceremony and just come to the reception because of the gap - that's fine with me too I just feel this way worked better for us - we won't be rushed for photos and we will be able to enjoy our cocktail hour greeting our guests as they arrive. There's pros and cons to every timeline - do what works for you and your guests

Catholic ceremony here too! Just remember that we have very little flexibility in the timing of our ceremonies. Our reception is a half-mile from our hotel (which is about 15 minutes from our Church). We will have about a 2 hour gap between the ceremony and the reception. You need to do what works for you. It is YOUR day. Not anyone else. Yes, gaps are the unpopular opinion, but you do what you want. It is your day. I have never been to a church wedding that didn't have a gap, as an OOT guest and an at-home guest. And I found something to do every single time. I honestly didn't even think anything of it. I even went to a wedding in March that was in the same location for the ceremony and reception with a two-hour gap. We just went to the bar and snacked a little bit... No big deal. Just do what you feel is right for YOUR day and it will be perfect!

The minute you invite other people to your wedding it no longer becomes 'YOUR' day. Please don't be one of those brides that just says ME ME ME. Just because some of the above posters are being rude to their guests doesn't make it okay. No one likes a gap and you should do everything in your power to get the venue to open up early for you so your guests don't need to wait around. Your guests won't say it to your face but they will be disgruntled about having to wait.

Just wanted to add my opinion (not drive you crazy with this). I am catholic (not having a church ceremony) and I think gaps suck. I don't expect them just because I am catholic. You hang around doing nothing in your fancy clothes, lose momentum for the event, and the event ends up taking up the whole day. As a guest it does not make me happy (why I chose to do my ceremony right into cocktail hour into reception). If you can do 5pm its not terrible, but gaps suck.

Hi date twin! I finally found someone with the same date as me! I'm also having a gap in between my ceremony and reception. I think it's completely fine! This gives guests time to check in at the hotel, freshen up, go have a drink at a local bar/restaurant to catch up with other guests. I get that some people might not know what to do, but if you have a wedding website you can give them some ideas of places to go in between or just spread the word to your friends and family.

I'm in the same boat. Ceremony at 3, because confession and mass are at 4 and 5 at my church. My cocktail hour is at 6:30. Reception is 25 min away , hotel is less then 2 miles from the reception venue. Shit happens, people can get over it. They can also choose not to come to the Church if it is so cumbersome on their life or so awful. Is it an ideal situation, no. But it's the situation you're in. Don't worry about it. Start it at 5 or 5:30. The half hour isn't a huge difference. And I am sure many people on here don't agree with me but that's ok. Every wedding except for 1 I have coming up has had a 2 hour gap or more in between. Life goes on gap or no gap!

Catholic bride here as well, our ceremony is at 2:00 and our cocktail hour begins at 4:00. To my knowledge that was immediately following since our mass ceremony is about an hour (over at 3), then we will have the marriage license signing and family photos inside the church for about 20-30 min. while guests mingle in the courtyard then drive to the reception venue would make that about 4 o'clock already. So I think the 5pm reception time is perfect in your case. Maybe if your venue has a fixed up patio you can host the cocktail hour outside while inside finishes getting ready. Just a thought.

I went to a wedding with a 3 hour gap this past weekend. Since most hotels here don't have check-in until 4 pm nobody could check into their rooms and we all ended up in a bar. That meant 3 hours of drinking and a heard of slightly (mostly more than slightly) drunk guests arriving at cocktail hour. Before you assume your guests can check in to their hotels early make sure this is true. long gaps suck IMO.

To echo Alietta, please reduce the gap as much as possible. I'm Catholic too and I've never been to a wedding with a gap. It's not unavoidable, it just takes proper planning.

Oh! @Athena, I guess I should add that a gap, to me, is really fine...I've always found ways to occupy my time, but I definitely understand how it could stress a bride out. :-)

Same boat here! I stressed about it SO MUCH but then everyone told me to stop worrying, our guests are adults and will be ok. We have a 2.5 hour gap. It's about two miles between the ceremony and reception, downtown Chicago, and there is a busy street with a ton of bars and coffee houses on a way. So I've put the names/addresses of all of our favorite ones on our wedding website, appointed a few friends to lead guests to various bars/coffee houses, and will direct our older guests back to the hotel and provide transportation for them to the reception. I've never been a fan of gaps but most of our crowd is Catholic so most of the weddings I've been to have had them.

The hotels where we are doing our blocks all have check-in at 3pm, so all the guests who are staying at the hotel have time to go check in and then head to the reception.

Remember: people are adults. They will figure it out. Yes, gaps suck. But this is not something you're choosing to do, it's part of having a Catholic ceremony. Reward your guests with an awesome reception

ETA: grammar