Reception: How Long is Too Long?

How long are your receptions going to be and how do you plan to keep your guests there?

Also, I didn't mention this, but we're also inviting our guests to a Wedding After-Party later that evening to continue the festivities (9 p.m. - until)

Ours is five hours (1 hour of which is cocktail hour) - which has been pretty standard for all the weddings I've gone to. The only people who I have ever seen leave early are older family members. Most of my family and friends are dancing fools!

And too me, 3 hours is pretty short. Our reception started at 5:30 p.m. with cocktail hour and the DJ played the last song at 2:00 a.m. Though all the major stuff (dinner, dances, cake cutting, etc) was done around 9:30-10pm

People generally leave if they are bored. So as long as your guests are entertained, they should stay. Also, since your reception is during the day people are less likely to leave due to it "getting late"

Question - So are people getting their food while B&G are getting introduced, dancing, and welcoming?

@ PurpleSun - Since we're doing it buffet style we're going to give everyone 30 minutes to get through the line (once) and then towards the end (after about another 30 - 40 minutes) we'll start the toasts.

I read some where you want to have the toast as close to the end of dinner/lunch as possible since champagne is meant to cleanse the pallet before desert and because if timed just right people will still be seated finishing their meals and not too rowdy.

IDK, just a rough draft though.

That is a really short reception IMO.

I've never been to a reception that wasn't five hours, the longest was seven (those people partied till 1:00am!)

Good point Wendy. Probably telling you how many guests I have will give a better perspective. We're planning for 90 guests. Also, we're meeting for an after party later. So I don't know if that makes a difference. We're expecting anywhere from 25 to 40 to attend the after-party.

Ours is 6 total but that includes the ceremony so about 5 or 5.5 for reception. However, we have friends who like dance/party so I don't forsee a lot leaving after just a couple of hours or hope not at least. My sisters reception was about 3 hours and it felt so short and rushed.

I firmly believe that an ideal reception is about 4 hours long. If you want to go 5, that's fine. But I believe anything more than 5 hours is too long.

We were married on a yacht...so everyone was stuck! but it was a total of 4 hours and everyone said it was the perfect amount of time

Thank for the feedback ladies. I guess seeing people leave early at that last wedding made me nervous.

Our reception was 3 hours and I wish it had been longer. I think 4 is average. I can't imagine being at a reception for 7 hours!

People arrived at reception venue just before 3. bride and groom just before 3:30. Cake cutting 3:45. food 4:00 we had food all evening in hot and cold buffet, fresh not just left there to get dry and nasty. There was music at 2:45 and DJ was paid til 7 in contract. He played until 11:00 and we still had plenty of people dancing, of course he was paid hourly after 7.

I think it depends on what you want and what your guests want. Ours wanted to dance so the DJ played.

Ours is 4.5 hours. 8pm until 12:30am. We gotta a plane to catch at 7pm so we will be leaving at 12:30am shutting the party down. I also can't imagine a 7 hr reception geez

The last wedding I went to, the reception started around 4:30-5ish (people coming from the church didn't all arrive at the same time) and the bride and groom made their grand exit at 8:30. I thought it was a little too short (3.5-4 hrs) since I was having fun!

I also wouldn't always take people leaving as a sign they're not having fun. Some people may get exhausted by social situations. My FIL's just don't like to stay places too long. It doesn't mean they didn't enjoy it, but they are in their 60s and like to have quiet time.

Ours is going to be long- I'd love to have a short one like yours but I know my fiance's friends love a good party. I think as long as you serve the food early enough if should be fine no matter how long the reception is.

I don't think it has much to do with the amount of time so much. I would say more of the time of the day. If you expect guest to stay until midnight most won't stay. Especially on a day where they have to get up early for work the next morning like Sunday, they won't stay late.

In my head these sound a bit short.

Here you probably sit down for your wedding breakfast around 3pm (if you do it for traditional timings which because of old laws and thing people tend to do) then evening buffet and guests about 7/8pm finish at 11/12 (maybe even 1 depending on where) so could be about 7 to 9 hrs.

if it was 4 hours i would feel a bit short changed

Wow... mine is a long one then!

Ceremony 2.30-3pm

3pm - Drinks reception, canape's, lawn games (croquet, giant jenga etc.) with string quartet playing (FH and I will have 20 min photo session and family photos 15 mins during this time)

5pm - Dinner - starters, cake cutting, mains, dessert, coffee, all accompanied by jazz band

7ish - Speeches

7.30 - Evening party, soul band,

9ish - Buffet

PARTY UNTIL 12

hotel guests can stay up until they go to sleep! (For most of my family I imagine that will be 2ish)