How long of a reception?

Our reception (including cocktail hour/photos) is going to be 5 hours.

Hey there! Between dancing, toasts, photos four hours isn’t very long! I have been to multiple weddings and been In a few that we danced and then helped clean up for hours... it never ended and being apart of the bridal party you can just leave the reception when you feel like it. Maybe look at diff venues?

Our ceremony started at 5 and our reception ended at 11, so we had a 5 and a half hour reception including cocktail hour.

3.5 hours including cocktail seems VERY short to me. You prob will just have time to have a dinner reception and not a lot of dancing.

Ugh I was worried I would get these answers! Such a disappointment luckily I have a few other venue tours coming up so hopefully I’ll find one that has a longer rental time that I really like

Knowing our friends, the dancing is going to be the best part! I would hate to have to cut the fun short

Our reception is also 5 hours, including the cocktail hour, so yours definitely sounds like it would be too short to squeeze everything in. Our venue adds an extra half-hour before the reception for the ceremony, and we are allowed to get there an hour before that to do a first-look and get photos in early.

I would definitely add at least an extra hour if you can afford it, or possibly look for a new venue.

Our entire wedding/reception start to finish is going to be 5.5 hours. Wedding at 4:30, cocktail hour immediately following until 5:45-6ish, then dinner and dancing until 10pm. We have to stop at 11pm because of the noise ordinance in our town, so we are stopping at 10, and people can go to the bars downtown if they want to stay out. (Historic old town.) But honestly it's not bad. I had a friend get married at 5, had cocktail hour, dinner, then like 30 minutes of dancing. Last call was 9pm, then everyone left by 9:30. I felt so rushed and like no one got to genuinely enjoy the night because they went from first dance to cake to bouquet toss to the grand exit so fast.

Aww I’m sorry for the disappointment. We had a few dream venues that were actually kind of let downs because of silly restrictions and the costs to add on to various aspects. Does the rental include time for set up and break down? That’s also a huge factor. You may need to keep looking if adding more time is out of your budget. You may just find the place that is perfect for your needs 🙂.

I have my venue from 3 until 9 but the lady at the front desk said if we clean up and take the garbage to the dumpster he might let us keep it for a extra hour or two!!

Average reception I have been to are 5 hours for dinner and dancing, etc. We actually have the venue we chose for four hours for ceremony and reception, so probably three hours for the reception total. But the factors that went into that decision are that the we have a smaller guest list of about 50, we're not doing a traditional sit down dinner then dance party and skipping the dances (excep for first dance), bouquet and garter toss. If you want all those things, you probably need more time.

Oh and he is letting my vendors come in as early as 8am

It truly depends I've been to short weddings and I've been to long ones. After a certain point your guests will start to leave. Normally after cake cutting, the guests start to roll out so if you want to cut it "short" then you can just leave early. Then people will start to leave.

Our reception including cocktail hour is 5 hours. 4 hours total seems very short. That is pretty much time for formalities and not much else. I would look into other venues if you want time to dance.

Ours is 5 hours. 4:30-9:30 total which is actually pretty typical if you are not having a long ceremony etc. So would adding an hour at 1,000 be worth the venue? Up to you!

Our ceremony was at 4:30, cocktail hour from 5-6:30, reception from 6:30-midnight... so the dinner/dancing part of the night (the actual reception) was 5.5 hours. The whole event was 7.5 hours.

Our ceremony is at 5 (different venue), our cocktail hour will start at 5:45, reception will start at 6:30, and the reception will end at 10:45! It’s a 5 hour rental so we’re using the first 45 for cocktails and the last 4ish for the reception!

Our ceremony starts at 7 and we only get 4 hours as well and $500 for an extra hour or $250 for an extra 30 mins. I didn’t mind it because I’ve gone to weddings that were only a few hours and they were the best. When I first seen my venue I knew it was the one. So I had to go with it.

My reception alone is 5 hours.

Price it out against other venues. It may not be that much more than other places to pay for an extra 2 hours.

Our ceremony, cocktail hour, reception are six hours; bridal party can arrive two hours earlier for "getting ready" and pics.