Skipping cocktail hour

I would do a fully hosted cocktail hour with passed apps and open bar even if you do a first look! This way, you can take any pictures you didn't get in the first look, then mingle with your guests at your cocktail hour!

My FH doesn't want to do a first look, so we'll need to do all our pictures during our cocktail hour so we'll probably miss most of it unfortunately. I'd love to be able to attend!

We did a first look and took pictures before the ceremony, but we still had a cocktail hour. Some of the people we wanted pictures with like grandparents and family members weren't around before the ceremony.

You will probably want family pictures after the ceremony, unless you're having all the grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc show up early.

We are taking pictures before the ceremony and doing a cocktail hour.

The point of a cocktail hour isn't JUST to allow time for pictures, but also to allow your guests time to socialize and transition from the ceremony to dinner. I would think it was odd to go directly from the ceremony to being seated for dinner with no cocktail hour in between.

We're having a first look and a cocktail hour.

During that time we will sign the marriage license and get photos of that, some just married photos of FH and I, and any remaining family photos.

I did a first look and took tons of pictures before the ceremony and still had cocktail hour. It's also about your guests, not just you. Mostly everyone I know always looks forward to cocktail hour so they can mingle with everyone. I wouldn't skip it.

We're doing a half hour of cocktails and family photos. Our venue normally does cocktails BEFORE the ceremony, but we told them we needed time between the ceremony and reception you move the decor over, so they agreed to 30 min

As others have mentioned the cocktail hour helps guest transition form your ceremony to formal reception. Even if you have a first look and get photos, you and your DH are going to want a breather, maybe a few minutes alone. Or this could be a time to freshen your hair and makeup, bustle your dress, have a glass of champagne with your bridal party, and the list goes on. I suggest having the cocktail hour.

Edited to add: If you do not need the entire hour for a breather, bustle, etc., you and DH can join cocktail hour and mingle. This sometimes takes the pressure off of feeling like you need to go to every table and talk to each guest.

I'm doing a first look so we can get pictures finished before the ceremony and skipping cocktail hour. My only reason for doing so is because MAYBE 10 people on my guest list drink. So those ten people would have their drinks and mingle, and I'm afraid everyone else would be bored. I'm having very light apps before dinner; the plan is for the ceremony to end at 5:30 and dinner to begin between 5:30-6.

We are also doing a first look and hosting cocktail hour. It will allow us to get some additional photos with the whole family and give us some time (hopefully) to mingle with our guests. My hope is that we will be able to mingle with enough of our guests that will give us enough wiggle room with time to sit and eat dinner between getting up to make our way around to all of the tables.

Thanks for the advice, I think I will definitely go talk to FH husband about keeping the cocktail hour. It would definitely be to have down time and mingle with guest as some of you pointed out.

This made it more clear.

THANK YOU LADIES

We did a first look and did a majority of the pics ahead of time but there were some we missed before with even 2.5 hours of time allotted.

It was great to mingle with guests during the cocktail hour and catch up on those couple pics that we missed beforehand.

I'm skipping the cocktail hour. It's just going to be ceremony, receiving line, travel to reception venue for dinner. To be fair though, my wedding ceremony starts at 6:30 so I legitimately couldn't justify making people do cocktail hour at a meal time instead of just serving a meal

We are also skipping the cocktail hour (and it lowered our $$ per person by HALF! we are doing first look and ALL pics before ceremony! I personally don't see how hard it is to transition from one place to another specially if it is at the same location.

I'm in between. We are having our wedding at an all inclusive DW. So everyone will be eating and drinking all week long. It becomes kind of repetitive, right?