How long for dancing?

As of now our reception starts at 5. So dinner will be from 5-6:30pm and then dancing from 6:30ish to 10pm.

Our reception is starting at 7 with dinner, so maybe 8ish the dancing will start and we have the DJ playing music until 11:30.

That seems reasonable! Our reception starts at 6:30 PM, and dinner will be served pretty much right away. I'm assuming guests will be done around 7:30 or 8:00 so we will do the cake cutting then. Then the dance floor will open! It'll be open the whole time but I'm assuming more people will start dancing and all that. Our reception ends at 11:00 PM.

I am curious about this too. We are given 6 hours of "active" time and the latest we can go is 11pm. Working backwards, that puts our ceremony at 5pm, which feels too late for me. Is it worth the extra $$ to buy two more hours of active time?

We haven't finalized our timeline yet, but I feel like 2-3 hours of dancing is the norm.

So, are most of you not having a cocktail hour? We are having one for our guests while we take our pictures. So we cannot just go right into dinner after the ceremony.

I’m curious about this too. The ceremony is at 4 and then cocktail hour is 4:30-5:30. We have the venue until 9:30, but I don’t know how long things like cake cutting and such take

We had more time than that! I think our dancing started around 8pm (after our first dance, parents dance, cake, etc.) and ended at 12:00am.

We did a 4.5 hours of dancing, from 2pm-6:30pm, since we love it so much. We would have had it for longer. Within that timeframe we also had abbreviated parent dances (mother and son, father and daughter), and an abbreviated first dance. We cut our dances to ~1.5 min each. Then we had an all inclusive dance which called up different groups of our lives, ending with every person on the dance floor. It was 2pm in the afternoon on a Sunday and nobody wanted to stop dancing. We had no other activities nor cocktail hour, not even a photobooth. Just desserts that were available (not announced), at 3pm.

Ultimately, it depends on your priorities and overall wedding vision. If the two of you dance you may want to lengthen the time, since if you're chatting with guests you won’t really get to dance. It was one of our top priorities so we literally danced the entire duration. So think about what the two of you want for your time at your wedding, what other activities you might have (cake cutting, cocktail hour, photo booth, garter toss, bouquet toss), and if your guests may be the dancing type.

As a guest, I would love the opportunity to dance at least for 3 hours, but that's just me!

View Quoted Comment Oh ok well how many hours was your space available to you? We only get ours for 5 hours and we’re doing a cocktail hour while we take pictures.

Oh 2 hours seems like a short time. At least my group is big on dancing. I have 4 hours of dancing. My dance floor opens at 8:00 all the way until 12.

View Quoted Comment I kind of have the same situation and one thing a lot of people have told me is better to have too much than not enough if you can afford it ! Specifically to this it’s your wedding day you only have one day in and particular one evening to enjoy it longer the better and it gives people more time! If others have had enough they can retire!

If your like me and me and you have any little doubts or gut feelings you want more time, I would do that! Again if it’s affordable for you, and not interfering with anything else


my ceremony is at 3 — probably less than 30 mins (more like 15-20) then we have family pics for 30 mins or so while guest have mini coctail hour and reception beginning around 4 — everything same location just different areas. And I have everyone planning to stay until 10 and then what vendors do pay as you go after certain amount of time I have them down until 9:30 my bartender in dj Have a rate then charge around $50 for each hour after the confirmed time which is really nice and I asked them if they would be available until 11 at the latest

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I think that is the difference. We had our space starting a couple of hours before our 4:30pm ceremony until the dancing ended at 12:00am and then an hour more to clean up. Basically it was all at a country club and nothing else was scheduled that day so it was all flexible! Our dance floor was packed until midnight so i'm so glad we had all that time!

We have a DJ for 5 hours and we are starting reception at 5:00-10:00 for the DJ, but we have the place til midnight if we wanted to stay later (well our wedding party and us are staying at the venue that night) and just set up our own music if people are still mingling and wanting to visit. I figured I’d rather end the night more slowly and casually and not have dancing right up til the last second. I’m hoping 5 hours is enough from reception intros to end of dancing. We can’t afford to pay more anyways

View Quoted Comment That’s what I am doing! Ceremony at 3:00 and cocktail hour following while we take family pictures. My wedding is next month and I wanted some sunlight lol but yes cocktail hour immediately after is highly recommended. As a guest I have always noticed I personally like that so do the other guest and my wedding planner highly suggested that as well. I will have a full bar and dinner at reception so will be having a lite bar and appetizers during cocktail hour.... when we are done we will be announced and the Reception will then start... probably around 4:30.....

I just started thinking about timeline today. Our ceremony is 5:30, cocktail hour 6-7, intros/first dance at 7:15, dinner 7:30-8:30, 8:30 toasts, parent dances, cake cutting, then dancing until 11. That’s what I’m thinking right now, but I’m going to talk to the dj and photographer and adjust if necessary.

Our wedding started at 6 and reception at 7 and done by 930. It was perfect for us.

View Quoted Comment That is normal we will have just short of two hours. I am only paying for 5 hours of Photographer and DJ. That what we can afford

View Quoted Comment This is exactly how our timeline will be. Ceremony at 4. Reception 5:30-9:30 ending time. Curious as to how you set your timeline if you don’t mind!

We had 3 hours of dancing, not including our first dance and mother/son, father/daughter dances, and it went SO fast. Wish we had another hour or so.