Pre-ceremony Cocktail Hour

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share about how my pre-ceremony cocktail hour was a great success! I was married on September 4th. We did all of our photos between 3 PM and 5 PM. I loved this as I was able to get some photos of me getting ready but also didn’t feel rushed to get photos completed in one hour (Plus I was able to enjoy my cocktail hour). Then we had cocktail hour that started at 5 PM. Ceremony at 6 PM. Dinner at 6:30PM after a welcome speech. Yard games and dancing until 10 PM. Our goal was to have a wedding that was fairly casual and having a pre-ceremony cocktail hour definitely started the event off with casual mingling. My husband and I enjoyed cocktail hour with our guests and this took the pressure off of having a big reveal in my dress (I don’t necessarily love all the attention on me). Just wanted to let everyone know how it went in case you are considering this type of timeline! I’ve had several guest come up to me and say that they had an excellent time and loved the idea especially being able to sip on drinks throughout the ceremony. Highly recommend!