Start time ??

I always love the :15, :30, or :45 on an invitation. It’s so unique to me. My wedding ceremony is starting at 5:45 in the evening.

Work backward from the time you have to leave to figure out how long you want to be there and maximize the time they allow you. You can't go wrong with either of those.

Oh and to answer the second part (sorry I got excited) starting a 4:30 will put you at 5pm dinner. Dinner takes about 45 minutes. So you have will have just 3 hours and 15 minutes of dancing which is plenty of time.

Something to think about... if you’re planning on doing photos at sunset, plan around the sun! my ceremony is at 4:30, cocktail hour at 5, dinner at 6 then over at 10 so pretty much on the same timeline as yours except for cocktail hour.

I would have the ceremony at 4:30... if you’re going straight to the reception then that would start at 5, and dinner would be served at like 5:30-6 right? That seems good. If you had the ceremony at 4, I would think dinner would be too early.

Our ceremony started at 4:30. It was about 20-30 minutes long then we had a receiving line and cocktail hour. Our grande entrance was at 6:15. The salad course was served at 6:30 and the buffet opened at 6:45. Since you are skipping cocktail hour, then I would plan for dinner to start about 5:30. This will give guests enough time to get to their tables and for you to have your grande entrance if you plan on doing so.

Ours was 3-8. We kept it early because it was a Sunday. I don’t think 4 or 4:30 is too early. Half past the hour is supposed to be good luck. We picked our time so we’d be done with photos before winter sunset.

We're doing a 4:30 ceremony, but we do have a cocktail hour. The timing will also depend on how you're doing your dinner. If you're doing a buffet, it'll be quicker than plated service. If you're doing plated service, you'll have less dance time, so you may want to move the ceremony earlier.

We're starting at three, which, when I initially put 3 on the invitations, it made me nervous but now I'm glad that I did because we had to add a lot of COVID interventions that will make dinner take a little longer since guests can't serve themselves from the buffet. My venue said that it takes about an hour from start time to get up to the barn for the reception (they're on the same property but it's a huge farm). So, that would put us around 4 getting to the reception area, guests will have a cocktail "hour" while we take photos and then our introductions. The toast from my dad. The prayer from my fiance's grandma. Then, we'll begin releasing tables for food before dancing and we have a caricature artist, so I want people to have time getting their photos drawn.

View Quoted Comment Good point! Gotta get those golden hour pics! lol thanks for your help! 🤍

View Quoted Comment Haha I defiantly love uniqueness! Thank you! 🤍

View Quoted Comment Makes sense! Thank you for your help! ☺️

View Quoted Comment Yeah and because we aren’t doing any “late night” snacks (just dessert) I don’t want people hungry when they leave! Thanks for the help! ☺️

View Quoted Comment Thank you for the timeline!! 🤍

View Quoted Comment Oh my goodness I didn’t know that!! Thanks for letting me know! We can all use a little luck 💚

View Quoted Comment Good point! Thank you!! 😊

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the timeline! Also my heart goes out to you and all the COVID wife’s/husbands! 🤍 and caricatures are so fun!! That sounds like a great give away to friends and family!! ☺️

I would do 4:30p then if you're not having a cocktail hour.