Party bus

I have a bus coming after the wedding we are going to the casino

There really shouldn't be any gap between the ceremony and the reception other than the time for a cocktail hour. Any more time than that is considered rude.

Is there a reason there will be a gap? Traditionally there should not be one and cocktail hour should follow immediately after the ceremony. I know sometimes catholic ceremonies have gaps though.

There shouldn't be a gap between your ceremony and reception, so I would worry about figuring out the timing instead of planning something to do. If you need time for pictures you should be hosting a cocktail hour for your guests.

View Quoted Comment Yes it is a Catholic wedding, and our ceremony has to be done before 4, so there will be a gap from 4-6, which isn’t ideal, but we don’t really have choice

View Quoted Comment

Sure you do. Start cocktail hour at 4. Going off on a party bus to have a great time while leaving your guests stranded with nothing to do is rude.

We have things set up for our guests to do. It isn’t my idea to have a party bus, for I don’t drink and would rather do something else, which is the point of this post. We aren’t planning on making guests wait for that long, and it is also a ways to go to get to reception venue from church. Thank you all for your input, I’m just looking for different ideas other than drinking!

View Quoted Comment FH and I will be attending a wedding in May where the Catholic ceremony is at 3:30 and reception is 25 miles away with cocktail hour beginning at 6:30. This is honestly my first time going to a wedding like this though so I don’t really have any advice to give. I was pretty shocked when I got the invitation but we will make the best of it. I would assume pictures would take up a large portion of that time for the wedding party. FH and I will most likely hit up a bar.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

What kinds of things do you have set up for your guests to do during this time?

Are you having a cocktail hour? I had a similar situation where I had to have my ceremony from 3-4 p.m. The reception venue was about 10 minutes away. We just decided to begin the cocktail hour early and have a 90 minute cocktail hour, which is becoming more common. Our cocktail hour was from 4:15-5:45 p.m. Our guests loved it and we had to coax them to come inside once dinner was announced.

View Quoted Comment Yes we are having one. I know my family will like the long cocktail hour because they all live far away, so I’m glad to hear it worked out!

I'm getting married in the UK where an all day wedding is normal. You have the ceremony about 2 -- than the cocktail hour runs about 90 minutes, and the you have the meal about 4 - 6 -- and then the party starts around 7. I think the idea is there is a lot more time just to relax and enjoy each other. We also have more food around 8pm.

Timings...