Mid afternoon wedding. Dinner?

If your ceremony is going to be at 12:30, you should serve lunch, apps, or just have a cake and punch reception, not dinner.

12:30-1 Ceremony

1-2 Cocktail hour

2-2:30 Introductions, first dance if you choose to do it then

2:30-3:30 lunch is served

If you decide to have a long gap just because you want to serve dinner, you're going to deal with many guests deciding to attend either the ceremony or the reception, not both.

Perhaps you should do lunch instead of dinner?

I agree that you should do lunch instead of dinner

12:30 or 1 is a pretty awkward time for a ceremony because that’s around when most people eat lunch. People won’t really have time to eat lunch before arriving, they’d have just eaten breakfast. So you’re kinda forcing your guests to either skip lunch, or have a SUPER late lunch.

We’re having a 12 noon ceremony. I actually originally wanted to do 1 (an extra hour to sleep and get ready lol) but realized this would be super unfair to our guests food-wise. Our current timeline is this:

12-12:30: ceremony
12:30-1:30: cocktail hour (hors douvres will be served here too so people will already be getting to eat by 12:30)
1:30: reception begins—lunch orders are taken, first dance, toasts, etc
2pm: first course is served

If we had started at 1pm, guests wouldn’t be having “lunch” until 3. If you aren’t starting your ceremony until 12:30, you have to think of the meal you’re serving as lunch, because no one will be eating lunch before they arrive, which would be prior to noon

I would suggest doing a lunch. Our ceremony is at 230, so we're having our cocktail hour be 1.5 hours to stretch it out a bit

That's way too long of a gap. Can you change the time that you have the chapel? If not can you do brunch or lunch? Also instead of a cash bar if you do brunch or lunch you can have some batches of sangria mixed up or even mimosa's. Both of those are really cheap options for alcohol without your guest having to come out of pocket. And it's daytime so they'll drink less

You’re not making sense here. You can’t serve dinner if you want to get married at that time. That’s entirely too long of a gap and it’s super rude and inconvenient for your guests. Either serve lunch or have a cake and lunch reception.

I'm the odd ball here. I have a 1p ceremony, and yes there is a gap.. that is just life. I've never been to a wedding without a gap. Here is my timeline:
12p-2p we're at the chapel
2p-430p pictures we have somewhere booked and will have lunch on the bus
Reception from 5:30p-1030p.
Dinner is served at 6:30p but I will have apps and the bar open starting at 530p; so people can snack. My venue is also by restaurants and hotels if they booked a room at a neighboring hotel.
Do I know that people wont come to one or the other.. yes. I assume I'll have a bigger turn out for the reception and I'm okay with that.

View Quoted Comment Thank you So Much for your lay out. And our ceremony and reception are at two different sides of Green Bay WI. S o they will have to drive in between and my fiance said his family will most likely like the gap because they will all want naps. But you honestly have the closest in time layout as what I was picturing. All the weddings I have been to has had a gap in between either at the same location or at a different one. Thank you for a second look at a lay out.

I guess it depends if you want a gap or not. To me, the whole event should be no more than 6 hours. But if you have a gap, you risk some people not coming to the ceremony and just the reception. Do you not want a lunch reception?

View Quoted Comment Yeah we don't really want a lunch! :/

And we can't change the time unless we completely switch days. And that's not happening lol I think we will just have a gap. 🤷 It just gives us plenty of time for pictures.

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Can you push the reception? Is your plan now to just have a gap until your 5 PM reception time?

View Quoted Comment This exactly. I wouldn't stick around for hours on end for dinner.

We are planning on just having a gap. My fiance isn't as worried as I was about it. He said his family won't mind because it gives them time to go home or go to the hotel and relax, nap, or freshen up if needed. Our doors will open at the reception all by like 430/5 and dinner will be at 5/530. It's a good 2/3 hour gap in between but it ensures I'm getting the pictures I'm paying for. Everyone will figure it out. I guess lol 🤷 I've been to weddings like that and it's not that bad.

Plus we are doing a reception only invite to come celebrate anyways after everyone is done eating. So I'm sure those individuals would of been the ones who wouldn't of stuck around anyways. But, hey thanks again everyone for your input! I appreciate it.

In my opinion that is too large of a gap between the ceremony and dinner. You might run into people leaving after the ceremony or just coming for the reception. I agree with the others that I would opt for a lunch food service vs a dinner. Our wedding is on a Sunday so we are starting our ceremony at 2 and the reception ends at 530 so we are having lunch instead of dinner.

My ceremony is at 11 am! Then my reception is at a different venue at 1 pm and I'm just doing a big lunch!

I would definitely not do dinner. The big gaps in between are awkward and people tend to skip ceremony or reception. The ones that make it to reception would most likely be drunk already and reception would end extremely early even when you still have over 2 hours to go. Speaking from experience!
Have lunch and you can do an hour to 1.5 cocktail hour for pictures while your guest are in cocktail hour. And then follow reception with a lunch, cake and even some dancing if you wish.

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What do you mean by a 'reception only invite to come celebrate after everyone is done eating'? You are inviting new people to reception but only AFTER everyone has eaten? So please come celebrate us and bring a gift, but we won't be paying for your food? I may have read that wrong?? But I would be pretty offended if I got that 2nd tier invite!