Wedding Start Time

Mine will be from 5pm to 10pm music off time per city rules everyone must be gone by 11pm. Plan on starting ceremony no later than 5:05pm as I feel you should start as close to time on the invite as possible. Ceremony will be about 20-25 minutes then introduced at reception 6:15 at latest (hoping). Dinner immediately following with toasts towards the end of dinner. Dancing starting around 7:15-7:30 with cake cutting around 8:30-9. I think it will work as I am not having to change venues.

Here are some good timeline spreadsheets that may help: http://apracticalwedding.com/spreadsheets/

If you start your ceremony on time (key), you'll have 4 hours for the reception. Should be fine, though we have plenty of weddings starting at 4:00 and 4:30 this summer. It's a Saturday; I don't think that's too early, but most of our venues do two affairs a day, so the evening one starts at 6:00/6:30 usually.

How long do you have your venue for? Are you having a cocktail hour? How long do you think your ceremony will be?

We are getting married at 6:30pm. Ceremony will be about 20 mins, and then guests will go inside for cocktail hour about 7pm. We're doing a first look so I expect to be done 90% of pictures before the wedding, so we plan to join our guests at cocktail hour, and really only have it about 45 minutes. We have a 4-hour reception including the time for cocktail hour so the reception will be over at 11pm.

Our is on a Friday evening and we are starting at 6 pm leaving us an hour at the church. Cocktail hour is at 7, reception starts at 8.

Our ceremony starts at 5 pm, gonna be about 15-20 minutes long, take a couple more pics as married couple. Then introduced into the reception around 5:45ish and we have to be gone by 11 pm

5 hours is a decent amount of time, so you should be good

My entire wedding is from 3pm-8pm. I think 5-6 hours is an good amount of time.

Our wedding is on a Friday and will start at 5. Ceremony itself will only last about 30 minutes, and then we'll encourage guests to drop their cars off at the hotel and be shuttled to the reception. While we finish up pictures we'll have random lawn games set up on the venue patio, a cigar station out on the patio, kid activity packs to keep kiddos entertained, our photo booth and the open bar to help guests pass the time. We hope to take no more than 30-45 minutes finishing photos. It will mostly be bride and groom shots, one family shot(extended family) a few with us and our daughter, and us with the entire bridal party. Reception will end at 11:30 with shuttle back to the hotel.

What are you planing for your ceremony? Will it be long or short? How much dancing do you want. 5-6 hours is typical but it can vary. Here is our timeline:

6:30-7 ceremony, 7-8 cocktail hour, 8 reception starts & introductions/first dance, 8:30 dinner served & toasts, 10 cake cutting, until 12:30 dancing and fun!

We are starting at 4:00pm (also doing a first look so most pics will be done before), hoping ceremony is over at 5pm sharp.

5:30pm cocktail hour starts at the venue

6:30pm dinner starts

7:30pm hopefully dancing and party starts

10:30pm my ass is in bed.... maybe.

We are starting our wedding at 5:30 and the grand exit will be just before 11. Its totally doable!

Our wedding will also be from 5-10 pm. We would rather jam everything tight together than have so much time people get bored. I want a grand exit, so I am worried if we let the party go on later people would leave before the grand exit.

Awesome. Thanks so much everyone! Feeling good

Mines 4 pm and reception until either 10 or 11 pm

My wedding was scheduled for a 5 PM start (we started late due to missing rings that were found later). The ceremony was "short and sweet" (I mean 10 minutes) and then immediately into cocktail hour. I think that if your ceremony and reception are in the same location (my wedding was) it makes it easier to ensure a 10 PM finish (which is what time we finished). If you have to travel, you may want to take the travel time into consideration.

Is it tacky to start the ceremony at 6pm have a nice amount of cocktails to be served, but only have a desert reception?