How long is your reception?

FH and I are allowed to arrive around 5:30pm, ceremony at 7pm and we get kicked out at 11pm

Aboout 3.5 hrs of reception time for dinner, dancing, etc.

We can add extra time for a fee if we think we will want it -- we are still debating -- I'm thinking by 11pm I'm going to be ready to start the honeymoon ; )

We only had 5 hours for our venue also. We booked from 4-9 (also on a Sunday, MLK day weekend). I was really concerned that it would be too short, but the coordinator assured me that it wouldn't be. She said that 50-75% of the guests leave after the cake is served. We had the option to buy extra hours but it turned out, the coordinator was right! Our time line went like this:

4:00-4:30 Ceremony

4:30-5:30-Cocktail hour (we did pics)

5:30-6:30-Dinner

6:30-9:00-formal reception/dancing (dances, cake cutting & bouquet toss)

A lot of people did leave after the cake was served and by 8:30 it was just my hardcore friends and my family there. It turned out to be a perfect time frame. And it also was early enough that my family that wanted to continue the party were able to go to a bar and keep the festivities up!

Our wedding in on a Friday night - but our ceremony will only be about a 1/2 hr - cocktail hour will be 1 & 1/2 hrs (going a little heavier on the cocktail hour since most people are coming from work and lighter on the dinner) and the reception is about 4 hours

So our time line looks like this:

5:00 - Ceremony

5:30 - 7:00 - Cocktail Hour

7:00-11:00 - Dinner/Reception

We are also having an after party that will probably go from 11:00 - 1am.

All of this will be at our venue which is a B&B so we will be staying on property for the wedding night as well. Personally I would be happy with everything ending at 11 but my parents want the after party so i am kinda stuck having to deal with it since I am outnumbered on the whole after party idea.

It sounds to me like your time line is pretty good - and you can always consider doing an after party at a bar or something too.

Our reception I'm not sure about yet. We just made up our minds two nights ago about where we're going to do our wedding and reception.. I got a call from a tent and chair rental place.. and the prices to rent chairs for our guestlist had me very very scared about money (I wanted an outdoor wedding) but the price had me thinking twice. So FH came up with we get married at the church he's a member at and use their tables and chairs, my church that I'm a member at isn't big enough for our guest list unfortunately anyway we still have to talk to the pastor about what we will be allowed to do music and dancing wise, we plan on doing the cake cutting, first dance, etc at the church. FH's sister offered to let us use some land below her house and we plan on having an "after party reception" below her house so we can have whatever music we want and all the dancing we can handle!! And the best part is.. It's all right around our house

Our wedding is at a location too that has a strict schedule too. The ceremony is in the chapel and the reception is still on the same location in their reception hall so nobody has to leave the facility.

Ceremony 12:30-1:15

Photos 1:15-1:45

Reception 1:15-4:00

We are not doing alot of dancing at our reception. In lieu of dancing we are doing activities/games throughout while people are eating. There is a champagne send-off period too where the venue provides a white rolls-royce and all the guests come outside and send us off (the final photo op). The rolls drives us to our hotel for the evening and the next day is the honeymoon in Puerto Rico!!!!

I actually don't mind the short time because quite frankly once the ceremony is over, I am going to be anxious to leave and go spend time with my new hubby. Neither of us are the big party type so it works out. But if you are the big party and dance type, the short time may be an issue. You'd be surprised how fast that time goes by.

Our reception starts at 5 goes till 11pm! With an after party of course!

Ours is kind of the same way but they said we can add an hour which i think we will. it will cost and extra $750 though. I would ask the venue if you can start an hour earlier and still end at 10pm or add an hour to end at 11pm.

ceremony: 4pm-4:30pm

take pictures/cocktail hour: 4:30pm-5pm

eating: 5pm-6pm

original ending: 8pm

with additional hour (9pm) 3 hours of dancing

also though our wedding is on a Sunday, If people still want to party after 9 we can go home and have an after party!!!!

We're having a brunch reception so there will be minimal dancing, We will have 3 1/2 hrs for the total reception food, some dancing and mingling and the bouquet toss ect. However, I think for a normal night time wedding I would suggest for a longer dance time. I definitely think the after party at a bar would be nice.

We had 4 - 10 and the venue offered to stay open until 11 but we were ready to go by 10. A bunch of us did end up going to the hotel bar afterwards which was a lot of fun. Most of the adults (yup I'm still a kid) went to bed.

It's been a while since I've been to a wedding that didn't have some sort of planned or impromptu after-party.

We're having a 3.5 hour reception with an after-party back at the hotel bar (and an after-after-party in the MOH's room....we're classy like that). Honestly the last hour of a wedding tends to be a few diehards running up the bar bill, and they're usually ok with moving on to the after-party at that point.

Ours ends at 11 on a Saturday day and we have a flight to Jamaica at 9AM the next day.

5:00 Ceremony

6:00 Cocktail Hour/Pics

7:00 Dinner

8:00-11:00 Dancing

If people want to go to a bar afterwards, that's fine. We have no desire to do anything other than sleep. We have to leave for the airport at 6AM!