Reception timeline with a noon catholic ceremony

Are you having a full mass? If so, the ceremony/mass will take about an hour. Having a cocktail hour? That could start at 1:30. Dinner follows with dancing and anything else you are doing for your reception.

Start cocktail hour immediately after ceremony. Sooo, yes, 1:30 for cocktail hour.

Yeah a mass isn't 2 hours. We had a full mass, it was about 50-55 minutes? So ceremony noon-1, cocktail hour 1:15-2 or 2:15, reception 2-6?

Will the church not let you bump that back at all? I know Saturday mass prevents evening ceremonies, but our church is letting us start our ceremony as late as 3:30 pm. Which works better with dinner timeline (cocktail hour at 5:00, dinner at 6:00).

Our full nuptial mass was 45 minutes.

Communion, the works.

Boom.

@Soozie the wedding part (vows and stuff) take the place of the gospel, so wedding masses are the same length as regular mass. Why would it be longer if you have large Catholic families?

I'm sure @SoozieP is thinking larger families will take longer for communion. But in the many many catholic weddings I've been to, I've never seen a wedding have more people in attendance than a regular Sunday mass. I also agree that 1 hour is the norm.

Sos0033, really? I thought there was still a gospel. I could have sworn we had one.

Maybe larger families, more for communion? But if you have enough EMs, you roll along/

I feel like your priest should be able to answer this question best. You can assume an hour but talking to him about it may make things easier.

Thank u all for the responses. I will ask the priest again to make sure. 1:30 sounds good to do cocktail hour. Then begin the party at 2:30- 2:45ish. Ok that's my plan. Getting that excited feeling again.

Your wedding in on the Feast of the Epiphany!

@Nonna yup yup. That means an extra cake for us to cut at the after party.

The only 2 hour Catholic Wedding ceremony I've been to was my cousin's. Long story short, she went to be a nun in her younger days and learned it wasn't her path. When she got married years later, (not kidding in these numbers - just pulled from her program), 20 priests, 56 nuns, and 4 bishops. Plus a bridal party and some extra super traditional elements (like carrying the cross, etc).

The entrance alone took 20 minutes! Unless you plan on loooots of extras, for a full mass plan 1-1.25 hours.