Reception too long?

I think that amount of time is normal.. Almost all of the weddings I have been to have been around 6 hours...

After cocktail hour and I’m assuming one hour for dinner, do you have any other activities? Special dances? Cake cutting? Speeches? I don’t think a 5 hour reception is terribly long, although most weddings I’ve been to have had a 4 hour reception.

Nope six hours is the normal time frame for a reception.. If it’s jamming it may go over the six hours.
*When people get tired they know how to part ways-
Happy Planning 🍷

View Quoted Comment Yeah we’ll have cake cutting, speeches, father daughter and mother son dances. Still deciding on bouquet and garter toss. And thinking about that bride and groom shoe game thing too.

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That should take up a significant amount of time. I wouldn't worry about the length as long as you're okay with people starting to leave early. Midnight is pretty late, especially if you have older guests or people with young kids.

I think that’s pretty good! Ours is 5.5 hrs but that includes a 15-20 minute ceremony, cocktail hr, speeches, dinner, and dancing. You might see some people start to leave around the last hour (and likely earlier if you’re inviting children too), but I think that’s a good amount of time! I’ve been to a wedding that was about 4 hours and it felt way too short. Once you start dancing time will fly by.

That is perfect amount of time you would be surprised how fast it goes and never a boring moment. People can dance or just talk and catch up.

I think that's just the right amount of time honestly. Our reception (including cocktail hour) is from 6-11pm. We can keep the party going until midnight if we'd like to though.

Our's is about the same! We have a lot of dancers and alcohol so the time will FLY.

Mine is four hours. Plus one hour for cocktail. With one hour for ceremony. So a total of 6 hrs. 4 to 10pm

I think that’s a good time our reception will be a similar time to yours. The last wedding I attended was around had a 5 hour reception and they didn’t do any special dances or games. They did a cake cutting, a slide show and speeches (it was whoever wants to make a speech you are able to) which took up so much time! I think I sat at my table the whole time and the only thing that made it fun was my dorky family there we talked and laughed the whole time! But if I were attending with a friend or something it would have been so awkward and boring.

6 hours will fly by so quick. My reception was originally 5 hours and I added on an extra hour

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Hello Sara, I have the same amount of time (5.5 hours) for my wedding, cocktail hr, and reception and I was worried that it isn't going to be enough time. How was your experience with 5.5 hours for everything? Did you feel like you needed more time for the reception?