Invitation Time Advice

Well if you put 5:00pm some people will arrive a half hour early at 4:30 and then will have to wait around for an hour for the ceremony to start. I would put the intended start time of 5:30 and then you could plan on starting at 5:35 or so.

Mine is at 11:30 and have considered putting on invitation 11:00. Everyone is coming from out of town and don't want them late/stressed. Everyone could mingle for 30 minutes?! I am following your question, since I am curious of responses.

If the ceremony is set to begin at 5:30, I would set the arrival time as 5:00 on the invitation. You want to give everyone a chance to arrive and get situated before the ceremony.
As for the wording, either way would be fine. It's all about your preference.

The time on the invitation should be the time that the ceremony starts, not the time that people should start arriving.

Sorry can't help with the wording. In South Africa, we just keep it simple with 5:30pm, and don't write the words out on invitations.

I've always been under the impression that you are supposed to put the actual time. You're inviting adults and they should know to show up early. Most people try to show up about 30 minutes early so if you put 5, then people will be waiting an hour for you to walk down the aisle, which is crazy. And as a guest if I arrived an hour early I'd be confused and thinking you were late if the time said 5.

The second part of your question depends on how formal your wedding is. We are spelling out the time and putting four thirty in the afternoon.

Put the actual time.

Someone literally just posted the other day that she works at a venue and they often have couples put earlier times only to have most of the guests show up a full hour early and have to stand outside in the rain/heat/cold/etc cause the venue has nowhere for them to go while they set up. Obviously, guests are not happy to find out the time on the invitation was incorrect and they now have to wait around outside.

People know to get to weddings early and if they don't, oh well.

I've seen "Please arrive between 4:30-4:50 PM, the ceremony will start promptly at 5:00 PM" too!

Thanks all! I appreciate it. I know I'm overthinking it. I too work at a venue on the weekends, but I'm there as a bridal attendant, so I'm not involved with the planning aspect and never know what the managers say they should write.

I agree, they are all adults and should know how to get there on time, thank you!

@CatJam - We're having a duo play at the ceremony and they'll be playing while people come in, and if I'm not mistaken, although again, waiting for them to confirm, my venue will be passing out some early evening cocktails to keep them occupied.

I would put the actual ceremony start time. You don't want your guests arriving an hour early.

I would also go with the former: "Half past five in the evening".

Put the actual time you plan on starting. Your guests are all adults who know that when you put a time, that is the time the event starts and not the time to start arriving. Most people will arrive at least 15 minutes early. So if you put 5pm when it starts at 5:30 then you will have guests arriving around 4:45 (or even earlier if they're anal like me and hate being late). That means they will be sitting around for an extra 45 minutes, and it will look bad on you either way because they will either think 1. You are running really behind, which looks bad and causes annoyance; or they will discover you lied to make sure everyone arrives early which will make you look rude, and cause people to not only be annoyed but insulted. I don't think either of these things is how you want to have as the atmosphere in the room for your ceremony.

Put the actual time you plan on starting, it will be fine.

The wording I think just depends on formality. If you want it to read more formal put Half past Five, if you are leaning more casual out five thirty in the evening. My wedding begins at 5:30 and we put half past five in the evening.

My wedding is at 4pm and I put “Four O Clock in the evening” as the start time— we will begin a slideshow of pictures of us growing up at 4pm that will last between 5-10 min for those who typically run late

I put 5:30 for a 6pm wedding per the suggestion of my planner at the venue. He takes me up to the balcony to see how many people are there before the ceremony starts to see if we should wait for more people to show or not.

I would put the 5:30 time on your invite - and not make people who arrive 15 minutes early actually wait for 45 minutes. I put my actual start time on mine and plan on starting no later than 5 minutes beyond that. I am always punctual so I am not catering to those who are not.

I think you should write out your time if you want a more formal vibe.

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice!

What I personally did was put the time on the invitation when the ceremony starts. Then on the details card I wrote out:

"Ceremony begins at 4:30pm. Please arrive early to find your seat."

I know this is the UO on WW, but we put an invite time of 5pm for our 5:30pm ceremony. It's pretty standard for weddings in our area, and I've never attended a wedding that started at the time on the invite. Beverages were available for guests upon arrival, and the ceremony started at 5:30 on the dot, as planned.

So up to you to decide if you care if people miss your ceremony or not. I cared. So we had a later start time, as very, very strongly urged by our venue. Like basically required by the venue. I know everyone likes to think we live in a perfect world where "adults are adults who know how to get somewhere", but this ain't a perfect world, and people will be late. It's inevitable.