How many hours ceremony & reception ?

The only issue I see with only sticking with a 3 hour event is photos. Are you getting all your pictures in beforehand and can go right into dinner? Or were you anticipating having a cocktail hour so you can take pictures? If you were planning on a cocktail hour the 3 hours isn’t going to be enough time.

I'm having a 5 hour event from ceremony start time to reception exit. With the timeline I've made, even that feels a little rushed. I wouldn't do anything less than five hours personally, unless maybe you planned on having a separate celebration afterwards.

I agree with PP. I think five is too little.

We had 6 hours for the actual event. 30 minute ceremony, followed by cocktail hour, plated multi course dinner, and dancing. We took pictures starting 2 hours before and rental companies were loading things all day for setup.

Our wedding was from 4:30 pm to 12 am. Guest all arrived around 4 pm (I provided transportation for everyone from the hotel) for welcome drinks. Ceremony was 30 minutes. Cocktail hour was 1.5 hour (we were taking pictures at this time) and then reception from 6:30 to 12 reception. We had 45 guest and did dinner, speeches, cake cutting, first dances and then full on dances after. 5 hour in general seems really rushed to me.

We’re doing 4.5 hours total. 30 minutes reserved for the ceremony (even though it will only take about 10 to 15 minutes)… 1 hour for cocktails/appetizers/mingling and 3 hours for the reception. Set up and breakdown is separately outside of the 4.5 hours. Most photos will be completed before the ceremony and, since we aren’t having a bridal party, there won’t be many pics needed after the ceremony. FH and I want to participate in the last 30 minutes of our cocktail hour. We also aren’t having a lot of activities during the reception and it will only include: dinner, first dance, open dancing, cake cutting and more dancing.

Our wedding starts at 3:30pm to 9:00 pm. Our ceremony is an half our, cocktail is one hour and the rest of the time for reception.

We're doing 5 and a half hours. Ceremony is 30 min, then cocktail hour and the reception. Honestly anything less than that would feel rushed for me since I actually want to have a decent amount of time for dancing and the actual party.

We are doing ceremony and reception at the same place. Ceremony starts at 4, cocktail hour starts at 5 and reception starts at 6 and ends at 10. So we have a total of 6 hours, but we aren't doing any set up or break down.

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This is very similar to ours. Our ceremony will start at 5, cocktail hour 530-630, then reception until 1030.

Our use of space from start to finish was 4 hours long. 1 hour before to get ready, 30 minute ceremony, 30 mins for photos (we had a bit of a break and didn't do a "cocktail hour"), 2 hours for dinner, toasts, and cake. We didn't do dancing or set up/ tear down. I would think for set up/ tear down, ceremony, etc you'd need AT LEAST 5 hours if not 6.

This is our timeline:

3 hours prior: we are allowed to enter the property to start getting ready and set up.

2 hours prior: photographer meets with bride and bridesmaids

1 hour prior: photographer meets with groom and groomsmen

Ceremony starts and last for no more than 30 mins

Cocktail hour is well... and hour...

Reception is 3 hours with 30 additional minutes at the end for cleanup.

Our venue is very generous with their services and time. All that we need to do by the end of the night is to make sure presents are in my parent's car.

We are having a 3-hour ceremony/reception that also ends at 9pm. We're doing all pictures before the ceremony and we're having an after-party that we were able to spend more money on the drinks and food for since we didn't have the overhead that the venue was charging.

Thanks again everyone the venue sent me over a timeline & we will be booking for 5 hours with 1 hour set up and 1 hour take down but since we’re doing it at a brewery we aren’t doing much decorations so she said we can use the set up and take down to start but beer won’t be served until 5 and it will stop at 10 & we have it from 4-11....