Photos before Ceremony -- Question

Do first look photos because you want to do first look photos, not to appease your timeline or photographer. They are special photos.

I wouldn't extend the cocktail hour over 60 minutes. That would put dinner around 7 or later. Sixty minutes should be plenty enough time for the things on your list.

We did the majority of our pics before the ceremony and then a few more at the church. We had a 90 minute cocktail hour only because the latest we could do our ceremony was 3. After it was over at 4 our guests could go to the venue where cocktail hour was from 4:15-5:45. Dinner then began at 6. When we first got to the cocktail hour, DH and I went inside to have some alone time. Our coordinator brought us some champagne and a plate of apps. Then one of my bridesmaids bustled my dress. By the time I joined the guests I think it was sometime after 5. We both enjoyed having this time to visit with our guests.

Great suggestions. I am thinking get as many photos before the ceremony to be able to enjoy the rest. Rather have non posed photos..

We are doing our first looks and then using whatever time we have left before the ceremony to knock out a bunch of the formal, posed photos. Realizing we probably won't get all of them done (and would like to get some done at the reception venue) we are using our time in between to take the remainder of our photos. Our ceremony ends around 4:15 with our cocktail hour beginning at 6 (we opted for a longer break in between because it's a Friday and many will be battling rush hour traffic as it is if they can't make the ceremony) So we are prepared to have plenty of time to do the remaining photos AND enjoy our cocktail hour.

I don't think you will need to extend cocktail hour unless your family is very large.

We did everything at the same venue and also had a first look.

After the ceremony we did family pictures, signed the license, bustled my dress, and cut our cake privately (we didn't want to stop people from dancing later just to watch us cut a cake). We even did a staged picture of us dancing with the indoor fireworks in the background because my photographer wanted to make sure we got an awesome shot of it no matter what.

Even after all of that we were still able to join cocktail hour and make the rotations to say hello to our 100 guests with time to spare.

For my FBILs wedding we did all pictures before the ceremony. They just had grandparents show up a little early. Everyone else was already there getting ready or setting up. So they were able to go to all of their cocktail hour. I plan to do the same.

My wedding party is doing pictures before the ceremony because my venue gave us three hours for a long catholic mass when were doing simple half hour "I do"s. In order to not waste time and get straight to partying that's what we've decided. The only downside is my superstitious friends are upset that the groom will see me before I come down the aisle.