Should we add an hour to our reception?

I think you should... 6-9 reception, realistically dinner wont start till probably 615-630 maybe and that lasts an hour or more... You want all the time you can get so add more! I would even add 2 if you can! Our reception was; 5-6 cocktails, 6-730 dinner, 730- midnight party and it was still too short!!!

I think a 4 hour reception (including cocktail hour) is plenty of time. If you're wanting your reception to end later, why not move the ceremony to 5:30 or 6?

Our timeline looks like this:

6-6:30-- ceremony

6:30-7:30-- cocktails

7:30-11:30-- dinner/dancing

I would add an hour. Most of the reception venues I visited used five hours as the standard time for cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing.

We had a 4.30pm ceremony , 5-6 cocktail hour and 6-12 reception. I would say you definitely need at least til 10pm. We didn't have our first dance and cake cutting til 8.30!

I would! My original reception was 6-10, which included a cocktail time until we got there. I added an hour to make it 6-11.

My reception is only three hours, but it goes from 7:30-10:30.... I don't want it any longer than that.

Oh man

oh and I wanted a later reception, but sunset is at 5:20.

I may have to do the same thing @Alicia...

Ceremony Starts :4:30pm

Cocktails and Appeitizers from 5:00-5:30pm

Reception 5:30pm-8:30pm... We only have the venue for 4 hours, anything over is $250 an hour...

My reason for starting the ceremony so early is because the sun goes down about 5 or 5:30 in Georgia and we want to get some nice pictures before daylight goes.

Yah, our venue is $350 for the extra hour (plus tax & grat) and we also have to continue our bar or serve a dessert or something, so its roughly an extra $900

Ours is over at 10, almost the same timeline as yours except our ceremony is at 4 and we get an hour and a half for cocktails. I was considering extending ours an hours until I found out my venue charges like $800 to do it. Nevermind lol, we're going to a local bar or something to party instead...

That was our plan, to just head out somewhere after-- we are going to be int he historic district of St. Augustine so it is so beautiful and fun. And FH and I have paid for EVERYTHING. so, its really a tough call.

I even considered shortening the cocktail hour by like 15 minutes because we will be going into our coktail hour at 5:30 since most of our pictures would be done prior.

I would add an hour. It depends on your guests though. Are they people who like to dance/party or are they more low key?

This is the first time I have ever heard of setting an end time. Every wedding I have ever been to just goes until it can go no longer- usually last call hour or if you have to vacate the venue by 1AM type thing. I wish I could set an end time, it would save me a ton of cash on the bar, but I think people would be offended. How do you get them to leave?

Well our guests are a mix, thats why we are going to head out some place after. I am entertaining the idea of adding an hour, but we have already spent close to $30k and it would be another expense.. and we are 2 weeks away!

If you can afford it add the extra hour you won't regret it! Or start dinner earlier.

@Alicia: It's not necessary so if you can't afford it then don't do it. An after party of sorts should be fine. I think if it's an option, then it's good to extend the reception but you shouldn't feel pressured to.

@Alicia....I think your time slot is good! Sounds like you've spent a good amount of money already and you've already planned an after party. I say stick to what you have right now and don't make any unncessary changes 2 weeks out.

We are only having a cocktail reception from 7:30 - 10:30pm, then everything is over! We have a mixed group of guest and our wedding will be on a Thursday. I'm fine with that.

I had 5 hours in the receptions space, so 1 hour cocktail hour, 4 hours reception time. I didn't do ALL the formalities and still felt like I would have loved another hour to just celebrate with the guests who stayed. We did go somewhere afterwards with lots of people, but I feel like I would have enjoyed another hour dancing with my guests and partying on the dance floor, also getting to use my photo booth. If I had the option, I would have jumped on it. I'll never get the opportunity again.

I would love to add an extra hour on to my 6-11 wedding/cocktail hour/reception, but we are already paying an extra $1k for the 5 hours that we have. If we add another hour it'll be another $1k.

I say that if you can afford the extra $900 then go for it! It does seem kind of early to end, but you're starting early, so you may be beat by 9pm, and you're going out afterwards, so you'll be good there if you dont.