Reception before Ceremony?

This is really weird

I think no.

What if people leave the reception early? Or want to leave early? I would do the reception after the wedding.

Sort of a cool idea in theory but not in real life. No one will think it is as cute as you do.

I think the most important event which is the ceremony would not have the focus it deserves from your guest.

My eyes hurt now lol but I do love your date. My daughters birthday

You should do whatever you'd like and what makes you satisfied. However nothing goes as planned, it's likely that the 18 minute mark will not match up... so why worry and about stress about it. Life happens and this is your special day, yes it's weird but it's YOUR day!

I think it is a fine idea! Do what you want girl.

I want to preface my comment by saying this is ridiculous.

However, my overactive planning brain can't step away from a timeline challenge:

Guests arrive 1:30-2

Ceremony begins at 2:18

Ceremony ends at 3

Cocktail hour: 3-4

Reception begins: 4

First dances, anniversary dance, speeches, toasts, whatever other shit you do: 4:00-4:30

Cake cutting: 4:30-4:45

Supper served: 5:00

Reception exit by couple: 8:18

Not ideal, obviously. And again, the whole number thing is ridiculous.

If you have a "reception" before the wedding, isn't it just a big engagement party??

I don't want to insult you if numerology is your religion or something. Or maybe you genuinely have severe OCD. I'm not sure, but you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Wedding planning is stressful enough without trying to make everything fit into a wonky timeline. And the likelihood that things will go exactly accordingly to plan are slim to none. So then you just stressed your guests and yourself out for no reason.

Not a fan of the idea

No. Nothing at a wedding is that exact, even with the best intentions, and doing the entire reception first just seems weird. We've done many weddings with the cocktail hour first, then the wedding, then dinner, which might work for you, but I don't really see anything at any wedding happening to the minute.

Odd. So very odd. Sorry not sorry. As a guest this would make zero sense to me

That seems very weird and confusing

I love that you want to do something different and personal to you. Your wedding is about you and your significant other - your family and friends will understand and accommodate anything that makes you happy.

I am curious how this turned out. My sister wants her wedding to be at 8pm also so that her wedding will be at sunset. However many of her guests will be from out of town. Also the town the wedding will be in is small with only 1 small motel and wt story about drinking and driving after reception. Also many of the guests are older and won't want to stay up that late so may not come at all. So we were thinking about a reception first so that everyone could mingle and enjoy the day together then finish with a beautiful sunset wedding. Could serve cookies and desserts early then follow with a bbq style dinner before the wedding. Leaving the focus off of the alcohol. Then maybe do a champagne toast after the I dos.
What do you think? What did you do? How did it work? What would you have done differently?