Time Written on Invitation - Help

If it starts at 6:30, then you would indeed put half past six o'clock in the evening. The 6-6:30 thing is because it is expected that guests will arrive within that timeframe and is a hosting courtesy. If you put 6pm, they would be arriving BEFORE 6, when no hospitality is being offered, and that would be rude.

Please do not put an earlier start time. Trust people to manage their time. I would be pissed if I showed up at 5:30 for your 6:00 start time only to wait another half hour.

I would put an insert in with your invitation that says drinks will be available starting at 6 pm and put the actual start time on the invitation.

I was unsure of this with my times as well. 5:30 pm the ceremony starts...5:15 pm there will be butlered champagne. Because of the confusion regarding what time to put, I asked the wedding coordinator I've been working with at my venue what time I should put down to avoid people being extremely early and us not having any back up plans in place or at our disposal to accommodate early birds. Wedding coordinator told me to put 5pm on the invites.

You could put 6pm in case since that's when they'll start serving your welcome drinks and it still gives time for those who may be running a bit late prior to start of actual ceremony.

As a fellow Long Islander, I think 6:00 is perfect. I'm having a Sunday at 3:00, with expectation that the ceremony will start at 3:30. There will be hospitality before. That is what people are used to. If I arrived before 6, I would not expect anything and would not be annoyed. The time goes quick...greet a few friends, have a drink, a snack, find a seat.

Hi and congratulations!

Love Bridgeview, I was there and everything was flawless! Why do I mention this? Because we had the Jones Beach Air Show traffic (126 thousand people) to contend with and everything was fine.

The couple write 5:00 Hospitality, 5:30 Ceremony.

I know in a lot of other places it is different, but here on Long Island, Hospitality has become part of the wedding event. It is a half hour of champagne and light hors devors that you are paying for. So why not invite everyone to come and partake, mix and mingle, and then be seated for ceremony?

Happy planning!

We are having refreshments before but we put the start time at 4:00, which is when the ceremony is starting. The people who come early can grab a drink the people who come late will miss the ceremony. It doesn't bother me at all. I'll see everyone at the reception. I don't prefer buffers because I am always 20 minutes early which leaves me just enough time to figure out where to go and grab a good seat. If there's a buffer I end up having to sit there for 50 minutes. Not a huge deal but just not preferable.

I put the real start time on our invitations, I was about 5-10 mins late starting, and only 1 couple showed up late (they showed up when we were signing the documents... so, they were clearly going to be late no matter what), so I'm glad I put the actual time on the invitation. I don't like the idea of punishing the people that are early/on time just because some people are late. If they can't show up on time, then you start without them (that's what I think at least)

Hi everyone! I was finally able to reach our venue contact, so I have an update on this issue.

She said that people typically put 6pm (for a 6:30 ceremony) and it usually works out fine, but there are "always a few people" who show up earlier; for that reason, the staff prepares to start hospitality at 5:45pm. I've since clarified that this service includes cheese, fruit, and crackers as well as champagne, wine, and sparkling water (not an open bar, as I thought... thanks for prompting me to ask, Celia!).

Prior to speaking with our venue contact, I had emailed our invitation designer to explain that we aren't quite sure about the time yet and asked if she had any suggestions based on her professional experience. She didn't respond with a message, but she did send two updated versions of our invitation for us to choose from: one includes the mention of a hospitality service, the other does not.

I'm attaching the deidentified proof which mentions the welcome drinks. Please let me know your thoughts on this invitation as a whole, but specifically the time options (the other version just says 6pm with no mention of hospitality). If the attached option is chosen, should the wording be changed at all? Maybe "hospitality" instead of "welcome drinks" and "The ceremony will begin at" instead of "Ceremony begins at"?

Thanks, as always, for all of your help. I can't believe how much this has stressed me out!

'Trusting people to manage their time" never works out as you hope. I had one wedding this weekend with a starting time of X o'clock, an invite time a half hour earlier, and we still started an hour later than the start time. Fortunately, I didn't have to be anywhere else, because it is highly possible that I couldn't spend that long on site (I get there an hour ahead...) And yes, I heard the guests saying, "Well, weddings never start on time" like that was a valid excuse for them to take their sweet time to get there, park and sit down.

Bottom line. You can put anything you want on the invite but if it's not an earlier time than you want to start? You will start later that that time. Because it sounds great to be typing it now, but on the day? You'll wait for whoever isn't there to show up. @Pumped up, why did you wait?

I wouldn't put anything about hospitality hour on the invites. Because for your chronically late guests, it just lets them know they have even more time to be late.

@Mrs. Fall Bride My best friends in the world were with me in the wedding party, so no worries there. But I literally had no idea who was in the crowd when I showed up. The coordinator asked if everything was ok because I was late (I showed up when we should have started... so not THAT late) and then she arranged everyone and we walked down the aisle. Also, my officiant had another wedding to get to and I only had a limited time for the ceremony, so yes... grown ups should understand how to be on time for important events, and I'm not holding up the day or loosing out on my officiant having to leave because someone is late. It's fine that they were, we still got married and it was fantastic, they are the ones that missed out. I provided food and drinks for people that were early and shuttles for people staying in the hotel block, I did my part, they just needed to show up. And you know what... they did!! So it all worked out just fine

ETA @Celia Milton - we didn't wait