Long or short reception??

Your families may be used to long weddings, but what about your other guests? I can't imagine spending 8+ hours at a reception.

A four hour reception is actually quite normal

I, too, am facing a similar issue since I am having a Catholic wedding at 1 PM. It can't be any later due to confession being at 3 PM. I've decided to bar/brewery hop around our little sweet town and also have some photos done during our 'down time'. I want to enjoy my first couple of hours being married and relax a bit before the night really begins. We will probably show up at our reception (which is being held in our backyard) around 4-5:30 with dinner at 6 or so. I need to nail down the timeline with my planner still. Point is, my reception will be in the evening and most people will be dancing until 10 PM or so. We will be both exhausted at that point and we will light a bonfire to relax and enjoy as the party winds down.

I vote the shorter reception.

Me personally, I would go for the 4 hour. If folks want to continue partying they can on their own dime and at another location. I’ve been to 6 hour receptions and it was a bit much. Like you said, lots of down time, people standing, folks leaving and coming back, lots of food and drinks that guests hardly touched. I’m also assuming that you are going to be exhausted. 9 hours is a long time for a party.

I couldn't and wouldn't stay at a reception longer than 4 hours. Unless it's customary and you have very ethnic rituals which others are accustomed to, but honestly most people would appreciate a shorter reception.

Ours is only going to be 3 hours and I'm thinking that's too long.

We had a 2:30 ceremony (in a Catholic Church, it lasted 25 min)
Cocktail hr started at 3:45 (venue was 30 min away)
We left at 8:45, almost everyone was gone at that point. I for one would have never made it to midnight. It seemed like plenty of time to me. 8+ hrs is a very long time. Plus travel time, yikes! I guess If that’s what you’re used to it’s different. In a regular 8 hr work day I eat 2 meals and a snack. So if I went to an 8 hr wedding I’d be looking to be fed twice especially if I’m drinking and dancing. All that said, I’d still go with the earlier ceremony time as I would not want to wait all day to get married. And 7:30-8 is getting close to my bedtime, lol, and way past dinner time. I’m sure which ever you choose will be lovely and your guests will be happy

I think 4 hours will be great. Mine was 3:30-8 (including cocktail hour) and people ate second and third helpings, danced, drank, and had lots of fun.

Personally I prefer a long reception. When else (especially if no one else in your social circle or family is marrying anytime soon) will you have all your loved ones in one place together? Also many brides say their 4-5 hr reception was not long enough for their tastes and go to 2-3 hr afterparty. Why not just extend the reception without leaving? It typically doesn't cost that much extra. As long as your guests' comfort is your priority, it can be as relaxed as you want.


Plus if your families are used to longer receptions, it makes sense to keep that tradition unless you have a particular reason you want to be out of there in a hurry.
Plus with all the money you spend and you only get to do it once, make the party last as long as you can at one location.

In my family, everyone and their brother does very simple cake only receptions that last 2-3 hours max. No dancing, just chatting. Nothing wrong with it if that fits your style. We just plan to keep the party going as long as we can. One of our requirements for a venue is no restriction on the closing time. But guests are free to head home whenever they wish.

This seems like a "know your crowd" situation. Are most of your guests of the culture to know/expect/enjoy a longer reception, or would it be overwhelming for them? As far as long receptions go, there are a ton of games / entertainment options you can do between chunks of open dance floor time to keep people engaged. You can also have live entertainment options like the mariachi you mentioned, a live event painter, etc. As for a shorter reception, you can always host the shorter reception and an afterparty at another location for the people that are used to/expect/enjoy a longer party.

Thank you all for your input. It has been very helpful.

Our guests cover an enormous variety of ages and cultural backgrounds, so it is a real challenge to "know our crowd" in a generalized sense. The older white Midwestern guests would be very happy with a 1pm ceremony and would happily leave by 7pm, while the latino 20-somethings would prefer to party until 3 am (which isn't even possible at an after party, as all the bars here close at 2:30). There will also be lots of children, but mostly from families that expect weddings to last a long time, and likely will not worry about their children's bedtime. It is very hard to know what the right middle ground is!

I think a 4 hour reception would be best. 8 plus hours is very long. You could do an after party for guest who want to celebrate for 8 plus hours.

Does your rental time include set up and take down within that time frame? Because if it does, that makes a huge difference. My old venue gave us 10 hours, but we couldn't set up before the time started, and the venue had to be completely vacated and back to its original state at the end. If your rental is like that, go for the long option!


If not, go with the short option and have the mariachi play during dinner. If you still think you want more time, go with the longer one, but don't plan on filling that whole time. Make it clear when the bar will close and when the food will stop. A fun trick that my friend did is to have the DJ/band go, "this is the last song" and then you or a family member go up and huddle with them and pretend to have a deep convo. Then after the song ends they announce, "we just got the go-ahead to play another hour!" Your guests cheer and you keep dancing into the night. They think you did something extra, but you already had the time planned. If needed, *light* snacks and soft drinks can come out to sober everyone up and keep them awake. 🙂

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I am in the same situation with a 1pm Catholic wedding. Since mass with ceremony is an hour we're holding cocktail hour at 3pm for our guest to allow enough time (but not too much time in between) to get to the venue which both the church and reception venues are downtown. Reception at 4pm