Help! Ceremony time? Catholic wedding

Keep it short.

Every long mass Catholic wedding I have been to was on a Saturday(allowing us to "skip" mass Sunday, since late Saturday mass=Sunday mass, if we went to mass Friday, we still went Sunday.

Full Mass at 7pm then a reception? Seems like it could be really late.

ETA: Catholic wedding with full mass=1-1/2 hours.

Wait, so you don't know what time you'll have the reception venue yet? Did they give you choices?

I'd go with 3:00 pm. If you do the service at 3:00 pm, it would be over about 4:30. If you allow for 20 minutes to get to the reception, people would be arriving about 5:00. A cocktail hour from 5:00 to 6:00, followed by dinner at 6:00, and the reception ending at 9:00, doesn't seem outrageous.

Your other alternative would involve not even starting dinner until after 9:00 (even longer if you have a cocktail hour), and the reception not ending until 1:00 am. Unless you could do cocktails and appetizers in the church hall before the service, expecting people to wait that long for dinner is likely to leave them cranky. And you may well find that people drift off by midnight, even if you have the venue later.

Can I offer a tip as a photographer?

A 3pm ceremony would allow time for photographs of you and your husband with some daylight time after the ceremony

If you want to do a first look (seeing each other before the ceremony for photos where the groom sees the bride for the first time), then you could get shots before a 7pm ceremony of you with your new groom with daylight...

In general most people like daylight photos for B & G portraits.

Just something to consider while planning the day, and I hope you have an absolutely wonderful wedding!

-Josh

(your friendly photographer)

@elizabethk we are looking at the venue next weekend! Originally we were going to keep it at the church's reception hall area. But it wasn't really what I wanted, I was just doing it to because his mom works there and it's free. I ultimately decided that it's the one time in my life I should get something I wanted. . And thanks everyone! I love the idea of a 3pm and then restart at 5 for a cocktail hour!

I had a similar issue and ultimately went with 4pm full mass and cocktail hour starting at 6pm. My question is do you put reception immediately following or reception to begin at 5pm on the invitation details card?

We just had a full Catholic mass wedding. The priests in my area must keep things shorter though. I have been to a few, including my own, and non have been longer than an hour. Our wedding mass was 3-4. After the mass we hosted a receiving line to eat up some time then took a few pictures. Our reception venue was 15-20 minutes away so we started cocktail hour at 5. There was still a little bit of a gap (probably 30 minutes in the end), but people seemed to like having time to go back to their hotel room, put their coats away, and sit for a minute before heading to cocktail hour.

We did about 90% of our pictures before hand so that we weren't rushed and had good light.

I agree with most PPs, 3 pm with a 5pm cocktail hour would be best. Just wanted to add that you can always do an unofficial after party after the reception if you want to party later. We are having a catholic ceremony at 4 with cocktail hour at 6, and we will be doing an after party.

Personally, I would do the 3pm. The scenario 2d bride presented sounds just fine.

3pm would be less rushed and wouldn't run things so late (unless all of your guests are party animals that want to stay up and party until 1am ) A cocktail hour or even just a window of time for people to take it easy and chat before going to the reception should work well!

Cocktails and apps before a 7pm full Mass wedding would definitely be a no-go, as no one would be able to receive communion.