Reception/cocktail hour length

We are also doing cocktail house and a 4 hour reception. I think that's the norm.

Cocktail hour is fun! Definitely do cocktail hour with hor d'oeuvres if it's in the budget.

We are having a cocktail hour and 4 hours reception.

if you have doing photos after the ceremony you need a cocktail hour for the guests not taking pics.

Cocktail hour is my favorite part of a wedding! But that's just my opinion.

Most of the weddings I have been to are 1 hour cocktail, 4 hour reception. A few (including my own) will have a 5 hour reception after cocktail hour, but that has definitely been more rare.

ETA: My favorite part of a wedding is actually the nuptials and ceremony (because that's why we're there), followed by cocktail hour.

Cocktail hour is literally my favorite part of a wedding!!

we're doing one hour cocktail and 4 hours reception

We're doing a 1 hr cocktail hour and 4 hour reception.

I love cocktail hour! I think it's the best time for mingling, and I usually think the hors d'oeuvres are the best food of the night

I prefer 1 hour cocktail hour plus a 4-5 hour reception. I like longer receptions, if you can cover another hour of the open bar and band/dj

Your cocktail hour should begin while you are off taking pictures so that your guests are entertained, but I would not serve drinks to the group taking pictures with you! You'll want to bang out that shot list quickly and it will be much harder to do so if people are grabbing drinks

Thanks everyone!! A cocktail hour would be a few thousand dollars extra (hors d'oeuvres are really expensive at our venue...about $8 per piece) so I wasn't going to have one. But if everyone's enjoys it then we may have it.

As for the photographs, we will be having a first look so we don't need a cocktail hour for that reason.

Do you think the 30 mins of photos with our guests is unnecessary/awkward?

I plan on doing 1 hr cocktail and 4 hour reception.

What I like about cocktail hour:

- ample time for guests to get there

- chatting with everyone/catching up with people I haven't seen in awhile

- having a few snacks and drinks

- talking about the wedding with other guests

What I don't like about cocktail hour:

- gross snacks/too few snacks for number of guests

- drinks start AFTER dinner

- Cocktail hour has gone over at every single wedding I've ever been to. Make sure this doesn't happen. If your guests are waiting over an hour, they are going to get very hungry and crabby.

ETA: the 30 min photo session sounds like a logistical nightmare. Skip it.

I like cocktail hr and 4hrs of reception time is a good enough time. From a partying standpoint, I always think I'm ready to leave the club after 2 hrs anyways so after dinner service and all of that is done, 2 hrs of the dance floor being open is long enough.

I very much enjoy cocktail hours as long as they actually stay close to an hour and have sufficient amounts of hor d'oeuvres/drinks. There's nothing worse than an almost two hour cocktail hour while the wedding party is taking ten zillion pictures, with almost no food or drink for the guests. Expect people to get bored/hangry/annoyed.

I tend to agree with some of the other posters that the 30 min photo session sounds like it will end up being too hard to coordinate and probably is not worth it.

Thanks everyone! I guess I'm just trying to figure out a time where I can take photos with my family so I'm not sure when I should do that. I could do the cocktail hour for everyone and at that same time I could take photos with specific family members at that time

A cocktail hour is fine, its when it turns in to 2 or even 3 (

Gasp) before you get to dinner that it becomes a problem.

I like cocktail hours, as long as they don't last longer than an hour. Usually photos are taken during cocktail hour. I like a 4 hour reception afterwards.

I like a cocktail hour and longer receptions (4-5 hours).