Not sure what to do between welcome drinks (2pm) and evening party (7pm)

Are you asking for yourself or for the guests? You and the bridal party can always kill some time taking photos. Otherwise I think playing some background music or playing games are a great idea !

Wait. So there’s about a 1 hour gap between the ceremony & cocktail hour? Then cocktail hour is 5 hours? Maybe I’m not understanding the timeline. Can you break it down?

12:15pm - we get married

When thats done we head over to the reception venue so that takes about 30 min of travel

when there we have nibbles & welcome drinks (around 2pm)

at 7pm the bar,dj and caterer for buffet comes

I'm asking for both of us really. I have no clue what to do with all this time & dont want guests to get bored but don't want anything too long / too quick to do

This seems like a very long time for guests to wait at the venue for dinner/dj, even if there are games/entertainment. Are the guests staying in local hotels? Maybe allow some time for them to go back to their room and start the welcome party a few hours later?

View Quoted Comment You should completely revamp your timeline. There’s no reason to have 6 hours between your ceremony and reception. All that’s going to do is cause guests to skip one or the other.

That's an extremely weird timeline. Usually you have your ceremony then cocktail hour and dinner to follow right after.

For example

12:15pm - you get married

2pm cocktail hour (so you nibbles and such)

3pm reception starts

if your reception isn't until 7pm you should give your guests the option to leave and go elsewhere between 3pm - 7pm without drinks or food is far to long to have your guests waiting around.

Your cocktail hour or nibbles as you called it shouldn't begin until 6pm and your guests can choose to do whatever they want during that time. Gaps aren't the best but that's the only real way I see you getting around with that timeline.

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Agreeing with this as well, Personally I would skip your ceremony and just show up at 7pm for the reception.

Ok, the ceremony timeline with drive time makes sense now.

Yikes. The after-ceremony gap is huge. What about doing first-look photos before your ceremony so when you get to the reception with your guests you could just have a 30 minute cocktail time (soft drinks & appetizers) giving guests enough time to arrive/get settled. Then open the buffet/bar at 2:30? It may be helpful to have the DJ start just before guests arrive. He/she can play appropriate music for cocktail time then switch to dancing music after the main meal.

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They dont have to go at 2pm its optional.
just if people wanted some food and chill they can - it's not written on the invite.

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Its optional - ive not written it on as it was thought of today and invites were sent out. a lot of my family wouldn't want to go off like they stay with me.

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I cant change reception time or ceremony time

they are having food and drinks,
there would be tea,welcome drink,sqaush and they can even bring their own if they wanted,
nibbles would be more than crisps by the way and its optional for guests to come.

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I can't change the time of ceremony or reception timings

its optional and we're planning on games and things now to fill time.

we could do photos and such too

If the 2pm nibbles aren’t on the invitation, i would probably omit it for anyone that isn’t part of the bridal party. The bridal party could use this time to snack and take photos while the guests would head back to their hotels/freshen up/grab a nap before the evening festivities.

the lag time between your ceremony and reception is a considerable amount of time. You shouldn’t have to entertain your guests for this downtime.. but be prepared for people to solely attend the reception at 7pm vs the ceremony. Even with games/snacks i would probably not attend the middle of your 10 hour wedding if i were not in the bridal party.

View Quoted Comment I agree with this as well.. that is a huge gap! It doesn’t even matter how you’d plan to keep me entertained.. I’d skip the ceremony..

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Yeah i get that , its completely optional and doubt many will for this reason and i'd prefer for everyone to come to reception more so . works better for us tbh but i'm still planning for this in case anyone wants to.

That is a long day, I would definitely need more than nibbles to keep me going.

So how long will the whole event be? I assume dinner won't be over until 8 or 9? That is crazy long for a wedding. If the ceremony has to be at 12:30 PM. I'd have a break until 6 PM, then I'd start your cocktail hour then.

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I would agree with this. The only ones that will stay are probably bridal party and immediate families. Everyone else can go grab drinks somewhere, go back to hotel, etc. But I would still have some fun outdoor games (big jenga, corn hole, etc.) for the people who do stay for the gap!

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Agree with this, you should have your cocktail hour/nibbles and drinks before dinner not right after the ceremony and then a big gap. I'd, as a guest, enjoy going to the ceremony then having free time then doing the reception. My ceremony was at 6pm, cocktail hour 630 to 730 and dinner began right after! For ANY brides out there, since my ceremony was a sunset ceremony and the reception began right after my ceremony was packed, I mean everyone but I think 3 people were late and they were late by minutes. I was worried that I would not have a lot of people at my ceremony because you know most people come for the party but since everything was back to back it ensured that majority of the people would be there.

5 hours is a very long time. If you can't move your ceremony or your reception, can you just start cocktail hour at 6? As a guest, I'd much rather have a long gap between the two where I can refresh and do my own thing than be stuck somewhere waiting for dinner for 5 hours.