How much time should there be between the ceremony and reception?

First word of advice- dont stress yourself out over timeline. I tried so hard to get my timeline to flow seamlessly and when i sat down with my venue coordinator she promptly squashed my ideas.

Some people are super anti gaps... i get it.. they can be slightly annoying, especially depending on location. But this day is about you, the family and friends that truly want to see you get married with happily deal with a gap.

My ceremony starts at 3pm, will be a half hour long at most, and my reception/cocktail hour is from 500-1030. My venue is about 5-10 minutes away, but also city traffic with a huge festival a block away. I wanted enough time for photos without rushing, and wanted to avoid a first look, as it just wasnt something i wanted. That leaves about 1.5 hours for my guests to occupy themselves.

Id suggest not going over 2 hours, and nothing under an hour. 30 minutes is an awkward amount of time, not enough time to grab a drink somewhere or freshen up at the hotel, but too long to shoot straight to the reception and wait it out.

I had a similar timeline. I got married in December and it got dark by 5 p.m. Our ceremony was at 3 and ended at 4 (church ceremony). Our reception venue was only 10 minutes away from the church. We did do a first look to help with the timing for pictures but even if you don't do a first look you can still get the majority of your pictures without each other before the ceremony. This will free you up after the ceremony to quickly take the ones with each other.

Our cocktail hour began at the reception venue at 4:15 and was 90 minutes (4:15-5:45). Dinner was served at 6. This allowed us to finish taking our pictures at the church and join the cocktail hour at 5. If possible, you should avoid any gap between the ceremony and reception by having a cocktail hour fill the time in between so you can take the rest of your pictures. This is what cocktail hour is for.

I absolutely hate gaps, especially if they are avoidable. If there's time for me to go home between the ceremony and reception, I'm probably skipping one of them instead. Take as many photos as you can before the ceremony and then use your cocktail hour for the rest of them. Don't inconvenience your guests for your benefit.

I would take as many pictures before as you can. So picture with the groom & groomsmen, groom and his parents, bride & bridesmaid, bride & her parents, detail shots, getting ready shots, etc. Then you only have together pictures to take after. Does your venue have any pretty indoor places to take pictures too? If you have any break longer than 10-15 minutes, I'd just host a cocktail hour.

Yeah I agree also even though it is your day you don't want your guest inconvience too much. Once the ceremony is over they should be able to go to the reception hall and atleast go in for small talk and cocktails while you are finishing up. People have already dedicated this day for you but gotta have some compassion also. We are not doing a first look either and we told the photographer to get as many pictures as possible before the wedding the groom, groomsmens, parents, as many bridesmaids as possible, so after the ceremony the only pictures we will really need to take is the ones that will have me in them...

Ideally, you want an hour between ceremony and reception for your guests to go to cocktail hour while you and your bridal party take pictures. If your reception (which I am assuming where the cocktail hour will be as well) is at a different venue than the ceremony, I'd suggest adding 30 minutes for travel. So, you probably want about an hour and a half in between the ceremony and reception. You can adjust your ceremony / reception time according to that and what time it will be getting dark. If it gets dark at 5 pm, then I suggest:

Ceremony at 3:00 pm

Pictures, travel, and cocktail hour from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Grand entrance to the reception (followed by first dance and welcome speech) at 5:00 pm

Dinner at 5:30 pm

Perhaps moving the ceremony start time up will help with the daylight issue. Are you open to having a cocktail or social hour before the reception begins? This way, your guests could have something to do while you wrap up with photos.

If it were mine this is what I would do

ceremony: 4-4:30

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

reception: 5:30-9:30

Durring the hour for cocktail hour you can take pictures with you and FH and with your WP and family. I would do as many photos as possible before hand with your WP and immediate family though.

P.S. sunset and some dusk photos will be absolutely lovely!

This is what we did:

Ceremony - 5:00-5:30

Travel time to reception venue - 5:30-5:45

Cocktail hour - 5:45-6:45

Reception - 6:45-10:45

Gaps are brutal for your guests. You should really only do a gap for travel time. You do your photos either before the ceremony or during cocktail hour or both.

So, a lot of this involves your photographer, they can help you with this.

1. you are 100% correct in looking at sunset time. You want ALL photography, except sunset pictures to be done 15 min before sunset [in case you are behind schedule]

2. Make a draft of your picture groupings: how many family grouping will you have? What are your must have pics? this helps you gauge the time needed

3. Do you have the budget to do happy hour? Alcohol doesn't have to be served; you can do light refreshments for example.

My advise:

Give yourself at least 30 min for first look and and extra 30 for pictures before ceremony [minimum]. Plan for extra time in case you get behind. Your photographer will really guide you with this timeline.

If your ceremony is 3:30-4, it is TOO TIGHT to start the reception at 4:30. I would tentatively plan to start the reception at 5, unless you want sunset photography, in which case 5:15. You would be looking at around one hour for happy hour, which is reasonable. Remember you will need some bathroom breaks & freshen up time. Work with your photographer about the timeline for photography. Know your photo groupings in advance, and have them ordered to maximize efficiency.