Is anyone not having cocktail hour?

I am only having a cocktail hour for the simple fact of the guest can snack on stuff while we take pictures. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't even bother with it.

We aren't having one. I cannot get my reception Location until 7pm and I can only have it for 4 hours. I am not wasting an hour on cocktails. But we are also doing our pictures before the ceremony, so the guests won't be waiting on us.

I am not

I am having a cocktail hour with a signature drink & champagne. Its a cash bar reception. We will be taking photos for that hour. I don't see anything wrong with not having a cocktail hour.

We are having one - but our ceremony/reception are in two different places 5 minutes away and we need some time to finish up photos and such before dinner.

If things are in the same location and you go right into dinner/whatever so guests aren't standing around, I don't see the need. It's more about the timeline than the booze.

I don't know if you call it "cocktail hour". We are going to take pictures after the ceremony for about 30 minutes. The ceremony is outside at the same venue that the reception is. So guests will have some fresh fruit, cheese and crackers and some chipolte chicken meatballs to snack on and access to the bar. We are only doing open beer , wine and champagne.

The ceremony and reception are at the same location, so the time between the the two will be their choice of "walk around the botanical gardens" or "go upstairs to reception hall and have drinks and snacks". We will have an open bar most the night.

We are having one because we are not having a receiving line and to finish up any pictures. I also want my guest to mingle with each other.

Yup, but we're having it first as a welcome cocktail reception. FH and I are doing a first look, so this will be the buffer if we take too long for pictures. Also, I wanted the sun to set a bit more before the ceremony. Then we'll go straight to dinner from the ceremony. All at the same venue.

As Kris said, the point of the cocktail hour is more the question of timeline, rather than drinking. You will probably want to take pictures with family, bridal party and your formal pics. So it's for guests to have something to do during that time. We also had the ceremony and reception at the same location, and we did the first look. But we still needed some extra time for pics with the family. So that's the point of the cocktail hour.

We are not.. Were doing picture before.. I dont want to have to rush & keep our guests waiting..

No cocktail hour for us, we have a cash bar and I don't drink, so the only alcohol that I am paying for is the champagne to toast with.

Yep, for the wedding party to take pics.. we prolly wont call it a cocktail hour cuz we arent having cocktails! only beer, wine and champagne... maybe like mingle hour, or convo hour or something less implying..

I love appetizers, if I had gotten my way we would be doing a heavy appetizer reception. Alas, I must settle for cocktail hour and buffet dinner. However if a ceremony and reception are at the same location and you aren't doing pics in between there's no need for a cocktail hour. It's definetly not a must have to throw a great wedding reception.

We didn't have one.

We had appetizers set up next to the food, and people snacked on that while the servers prepared the food. and the bar stayed open the entire time

@Sami I'm with you. I would've have a heavy appetizers wedding because I just love them!!!! Although I love it and will have the cocktail hour just for that reason because we'll have our pics done before the ceremony. SO, we are just planning to mingle with the guests before the reception and catch the sunset meanwhile.

I didn't really want one but logistically we kind of have to because our ceremony and reception are in the same place and the staff are going in to set up the reception tables after the ceremony. The way our venue is set up it would look strange if the tables were already set up during our ceremony, so the cocktail hour is kind of a way to distract the guests and get them away from the ceremony/reception site for an hour if that makes sense. If you can get away with skipping it I say skip it- one less thing to worry about.

We are not because our ceremony is at 6pm and dinner is at 7.

I dont think its necessary if you dont have a long break before dinner.

We aren't have a cocktail hour either. Ceremony 6:45 and then during our photos, the cash bar will be open and I'll have the videographer take video photo wishes with guests to keep them occupied. I think that will help in the transition. Our ceremony and reception are side by side on the Penthouse level, so its easy.

We aren't having an cocktail hour either. We are going to take all of our pictures before except the family pictures. The family pictures shouldn't take no longer than 30 mintues tops.