Time on invitation?

I have been thinking of putting 345 on my invites (ceremony is at 4) But I am still undecided on that. Not sure if this is something that is done or not

Never, ever put anything on your invitation but the actual ceremony time. Your guests who are prompt and early should not be kept waiting just because you have other guests who can't be on time.

I have heard that there is an invite time (4:30 for example) and then you plan to actually start about 4:40-4:45. So, as I understand it, the invite time would be 3:30 for you OP and then you would actually start at 3:40ish. I would keep the invite time to the hour or half hour then it's not so obvious that it's actually only an invite time and people will take it seriously.

ETA: Just make any delay (or not) part of the timeline so you aren't thrown off all night.

If the ceremony is at 3:30 put 3:30. It's so awkward as a guest to show up early and then see everyone looking at watches or phones wondering why the ceremony hasn't started when it was supposed to

I'd put 330. Most guests arrive early

This is a very hot topic here. I am in NJ/NYC and the beginning is orchestrated in a very specific way in most cases.

Sure, you can put 3:30 on there if plan to start at 3:30 no matter who is there, no matter how late the shuttle is.... but I rarely see this. You hope people will be adults, and most of them are, but once you make a decision to wait for those who are not? There goes your time line. And I can tell you that the time you lose will come out of cocktail hour and reception time. If you are in a venue that has multiple, even two weddings close together, it wrecks havoc with the whole place.

Every venue here advises inviting a half hour ahead. They serve sparkling water, sometimes wine, people greet each other, shmooze, cha, minglet and are shepherded out to be seated 10 minutes before the ceremony start to get settled. It runs like clockwork. We walk up the aisle on time, everything else runs on time, and no one is inconvenienced; they just start a mini party early.

There is no such thing as '10 minutes' in the wedding universe. "We'll start in ten minutes' means everyone is seated, your party is lined up and ready to go. You are holding your bouquet and your photographer is in place.

Honestly, I don't even get why this is such an issue except that people seem to think time does not apply to them. Even with a half hour buffer, I see people come in after the middle of the ceremony. In some cases, depending on how long you choose to wait, your officiant, your music, your photographer may be owed extra charges too.

In a perfect world, you'll invite for 3:30, everyone will be there, and that's when you'll start. But I can tell you this is rare.

Standard practice here is to specify the time that the ceremony will start. I would be pissed if I arrived no later than 3:15 for a 3:30 wedding, then found out you never planned to start until 4:00 pm.

Unless it's your parents who are late, I see no reason to wait for late arrivals. If they don't place enough importance on your wedding to arrive on time, why would you wait for them? They can discreetly grab a seat at the back of the venue. Reward your guests who arrived prompt;y and start on time.

I am always punctual, so I'd also be annoyed if I arrived and found out I'd end up waiting 30+ minutes. Granted, in big cities I can see traffic having a greater impact on the decision of what time to 1. Have the ceremony, and 2. Put on the invitation.

Put 3:30

If you want to put an earlier time I'd put something like "seating begins at" because I'm a ridiculously punctual person (meaning I will always be 15-30 min early for anything) and if I was there even earlier so I would have to wait an entire hour? Probably wouldn't be thrilled.

Yeah I was thinking just like 15 minutes so 3:15. I just didn't know if this was a normal thing to do lol. But I'm going to go ahead and just put 3:30.

I think 15 minutes is the max you can go without people getting uppity. In our area, it is common for people to be mingling outside for a bit, so we're having our officiant make a 10 minute warning announcement as well.