How much time between your ceremony and reception?

How far apart are the ceremony and reception venues? Unless your reception venue is the place your guests are staying, I'd have your cocktail hour start as soon as possible after your guests who attend the ceremony arrive at the reception venue. (E.g., if the venues are half an hour apart, start the cocktail hour half an hour after the ceremony.) Otherwise, what are your guests going to do for the hour before the cocktail hour starts? It's not long enough for them to go anywhere else, so they'll just be standing around being bored.

Two hours is too long unless the venue site is far away from the ceremony site. if they are close by 2 hours, for me its long.

Ours will be about 3 hrs. I want to go to downtown St. Louis and have pics taken with the Arch, Busch Stadium and Old courthouse in background. It is a St. louis thing, LOL. Most , and I mean over 90% of guests or more are local. Those that are not, know somebody who is and could hang with them. It is a good 25 minute drive from one venue to the other so that kills some time. Plenty of stores to go to along the way also. Most of the weddings I went to had gaps like that for pictures.

Ceremony, cocktail hour, reception all immediately after each other.

Our ceremony and reception are in different location about 15 miles apart

If things go as plans, the distance between our ceremony and reception will no more than 10 miles. Knowing that, we are planning our cocktail hour to be 1.5 - 2 hours. This gives us time to take photos during that time.

We are having two cocktail hours to bridge our gap. The ceremony will end at 2:30 with family pics and champagne cocktail hour there. Then 45 min charter bus trip to the reception (plan/hope to have refreshments on the bus, depending on quotes) and cocktail hour officially starting at 5:30. Hopefully plenty of time for us to get some fabulous pictures around Chicago.

Mine has about an hour break, not really a cocktail hour since it's a lunch reception, but a little break with some refreshments while we go and take pictures.

2 hours is too long. We have a 30 min break with a cocktail hour (really half hour) in between. I worry 30 mins won't be long enough, but even if it ends up being 45 mins that's not too bad. What are proposing your guests do for 2 hours to occupy themselves?

As a guest, I'm okay with a 2 hour break. I will usually just find a bar somewhere and have a pre-wedding drink. Our break is about an hour and a half, and we plan on getting to the cocktail hour about 1/2 hour into it - which gives us 2 hours for pictures. There's a 15-20 minute ride between the church and the reception hall, and several guests will have to stay at the church for pictures with us afterward.

Approximately 10 minutes. Ceremony and reception on same site. Going to take one big group photo, then the guests get to start cocktail hour, with us to join them as soon as we are done with photos. And since we are doing a first look, most of the photos will be done.

Our whole wedding event is at the same place. Ceremony on rooftop at 430. Over my 5. Cocktail hour til 6, then they are going to be allowed into the reception room and we will be announce at 630. Or earlier if we are ready.

Our (Catholic) ceremony will start at 1pm, the reception (about 10 miles away) will start cocktail hour at 5 so to accommodate our guests my mom and stepdad will be hosting a joint open house with FILs at their house with some appetizers and cocktails...I don't see anything wrong with your two hour gap, I would just head to a bar that was close and have a few drinks and maybe an appetizer while we wait.

ETA: This is a pretty controversial topic here, but what I have come to realize is this these Gaps are TOTALLY regional...where I'm from its extremely common practice and unless its a destination wedding or the ceremony and reception are held at the same location then there is always an average of a two hour gap. Do what you feel is best for your wedding and your guests.

Our ceremony and reception is at the same place so it's about a 30 minute gap

Two hours is too long. Immediately following if in the same place; slightly longer than the time it takes to get their if it's not.

We're having a two hour gap with everything at the same location. Cocktail hour starts at 5pm (open bar) and appetizers, plus we'll have a photo booth and other things to keep people busy while we take our photos.

Our reception started about 25-30 minutes after our ceremony. Our ceremony and reception were at the same location in adjacent rooms and we didn't have a cocktail hour but the bar opened right after the ceremony ended. The timing was perfect because it gave our guests enough time to get a drink, mingle and go to their tables before our entrance.

A gap with a cocktail hour is fine.

Our ceremony is at 1pm and our reception starts at 6pm. This is pretty normal for weddings in my area if there is a church wedding because of the Saturday mass schedule. We provided a list of restaurants in the area if people are out-of-towners and don't know the area. =]

I would be irritated if there was a gap so the couple could go run around and take pictures while being impolite hosts. Also, just because its common doesn't make it less rude.