Our ceremony starts at 4pm, cocktails start right after that, dinner is at 5:30pm, reception starts right after dinner. Doing toasts during dinner, then we go table to table while they eat. Cut the cake afterwards, then dances. Reception ends at 11pm.
Our ceremony is at 5:30pm, cocktail hour is 6-7pm, and the reception is 7-11pm. I believe most cocktail hour/receptions are 5-6 hours depending on the venue.
We're having the dreaded Catholic gap, because it's unavoidable with the times our church has for weddings. So hour-long ceremony at 2:30, cocktail hour from 5:00-6:00, dinner and dancing until 10:00. The reception site is about half an hour from the church. Then after party at a location TBD!
We are having our ceremony at 6pm (didn't want it earlier on a Friday) then cocktail hour from 630-730. Then the reception from 730-11pm ETA: we have to pay for an extra hour to go to 11pm. They told us many times that going to 10pm would be plenty of time but i didnt trust it so was willing to pay the extra for the hour.
We were planning on ending at 10 but I feel like we should go longer... I already signed the contract for vendors with an end time of 10 though.. Darn it! You all are making me feel old now since only like 2 of you are ending at 10 lol