Wedding Ceremony Issue

What time would the reception start? Would the ceremony last about an hour?

Does your reception venue have an indoor option for a ceremony? Or is there a different church you could have the ceremony at?

If you had it at 1pm, you could host appetizers and such at the church (if they allow it) after the ceremony and before moving over to the reception hall, or if your budget allows, maybe find some form of entertainment for your guests for a few hours? Is there an arcade or indoor go-karts or indoor mini golf or something similar nearby that you could rent out and send your guests to while waiting for the reception to start?

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I think the ceremony is not a full hour because it is just a half mass, and its a 30 minute drive to the reception. I already feel bad about making guests drive so I don't want to have a gap. The earliest our cocktail hour can start is 4:00pm. So it would be a pretty big gap.

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We only have 30 minutes after the ceremony ends and then we have to be out of the church. I could look into some entertainment but the budget is already pretty tight right now, but it does not hurt to look!

Thanks for the suggestions, I kind of panicked when FH called me a bit ago and I guess I didn't think through all of my options lol.

Especially since neither of you are strongly motivated to have a Catholic wedding, I'd skip a ceremony that is going to require a long gap. We have a lot of Catholic relatives. If practically everyone attending is Catholic, I think the so-called "Catholic Gap" is understood, expected, and tolerated as a necessary evil. However, to people who are unfamiliar/non-Catholics, it can seem obnoxious. If we're dressed to attend a formal church wedding service at 1 pm, we are not going to go hang out in an arcade or do other "sightseeing" activities until the reception begins at 5 or 6. Also, even within the Catholic branches of our family, ceremony attendance can be terrible when there is a long gap -- like 50 guests show up for the service and there are 200-300 at the reception.... Some people won't want to commit 10+ hours to a wedding -- especially with a long break in the middle. In your circumstance, I'd talk with your reception venue to see what options they can offer for an indoor ceremony. It might not be your first choice, but at least it won't significantly inconvenience your guests. They may be able to "flip" the reception room (e.g., set up for the ceremony, then set up for the reception while the guests are in another smaller space for cocktail hour) or they might be able to make it work to have guests at their reception tables for the ceremony (maybe not your ideal, but probably better than a 3-4 hour gap or being outside when it's freezing). Perhaps you could do a heated tent on the reception grounds (but that's likely to add a significant cost). And, of course you'll need to find a new officiant since Catholic priests almost never perform marriage ceremonies outside of the church itself. Good luck!

I would go with the 1 PM ceremony time. It's not ideal, but also not unheard of. I would not trust Michigan weather in November.

Might be an unpopular opinion...but I’m getting married in November 2021 and I’m in Connecticut where it could go either way just like you. We are planning on having our ceremony outdoors because it won’t last more than 20 minutes and we are giving our guests blankets as favors and telling them to please dress warm or at least bring something warm for the ceremony. So for a ceremony if it’s going to be short I’d say go for outside. The only downside of that would be if that venue doesn’t have an indoor ceremony option. Ours does in case it does rain or snow that day.

When does your reception start? It's common to have the ceremony at the reception site and they generally don't have a chapel..just a section of the room that can be set up for a ceremony. Eliminates your gap.

Given that you have over a year, I would seriously consider looking into other churches or other possible ceremony spaces. I realize that many places are booked but it doesn't hurt to check.