who has gotten or is getting married at the grove redfield Estate?

Hi Yvonne! Did they tell you why 5:45pm is the earliest?

I was looking through their website and wonder if it's because the estate is still open to the public at that time??

Also if you start your ceremony right at 5:45pm you should definitely have enough time to take golden hour pictures at 6:17!! Most wedding ceremonies are only 20-30 minutes (unless you're having a catholic ceremony).

Because they only allow 2 hours for vendors to set up. So 5:45p is the earliest time they'd like you to have the ceremony. And Golden hour is the hour BEFORE sunset. So having a ceremony at 5:45p will not give us enough time for photos after. It will be too dark by then.

Gotcha!!

Have you thought about doing a first look and getting some golden hour pictures before the ceremony?? I'd talk with your photographer about the absolute best light and timing, and see if it's worth moving the ceremony time to 6:30 or 6:45?

Or, could you do some logistics juggling the set-up timeline? The ceremony space shouldn't take long to set-up (same with cocktail hour), and you could see if your vendors could finish setting up the reception space during the ceremony?? 🤷 Or hire extra hands to make set-up go super quickly?

Either way - if the golden hour pictures are the most important then I'd strategize with your photographers and work the ceremony start time around that photo window!