Differences between Brits and Americans

I’d ditto that. In any case, people’s sex lives would not usually be a suitable topic of conversation, unless you know the people very well.

Well I never knew about the daylight weddings and the reasons, thanks, all!

Traditionally in England weddings had to be in daylight so not usually beginning much after 3pm because of weak winter sun.
This was for reasons of identity.
So that someone could not be tricked as to who they were marrying also anyone who might recognise them as already married could object.

Weddings in the Southern US almost always take place in the evening. This tradition began because before air conditioning it was too hot in the summer to have a wedding in the day time.

As previous posters have said, there is just the one reception for US weddings whatever the time of day for the wedding; there are no two-tier invitation lists. But it's a tradition in the US to have a rehearsal dinner (after the rehearsal for the wedding) the night before, traditionally hosted by the groom's family for the wedding party and out-of-town guests, and the guest list for these can often be almost as large as for the wedding itself.

I have only been to a couple of weddings where there was a long break between the wedding and the reception (and it can be a pain to figure out what to do if you are from out of town). These were both Catholic weddings. I think many Catholic churches have regular services on Saturday evenings so weddings take place in the day time. Those couples wanted an evening reception, but most daytime weddings I have attended had the reception immediately following the wedding, with every thing over by 5 or 6 p.m.

On the wedding timing thing, historically Anglican churches in the UK were not allowed to conduct weddings between dusk and dawn.

I have no idea if this is still true, and even if it is the plethora of other options for wedding venues these days make it much less relevant. But it may explain why there is no great tradition of evening weddings in England.

It’s way more dangerous to have outdoor cats in America though. Predation and highway accidents are so common, my childhood pets barely lived past the five year mark (usually coyotes or killed by cars)

Well, it’s not really a separate party as it’s the same location as the earlier drinks and dinner, but a different stage of the day if that makes sense.

Weirdly, we had the long gap wedding happen here in the UK, also a bit too far from home to leave in between. Wedding and then there was a 'mingling and cocktail hour' while they took photos, did some family stuff and the venue got set up for the evening. We stood around, holding glasses of wine for 3 hours! By the time we sat down to dinner we were almost incapable of making small talk with fellow guest, having used it all up.

Another annoying trend is what I call "the wedding in the middle of nowhere".

The couple decides it would just be so fab to get married in a barn in rural Vermont surrounded by dairy cows and sunflowers (just think of the photos you can post on social media!).

Unfortunately the guests are stuck driving down a dirt road for two hours, parking in a field of cow shit and hoping they don't have scars from all the black fly bites!

Letting cats outside.
We let our two cats go out in the States and our neighbours and the vets thought we were cruel.
Whereas here the Cats protection people make you promise they will be let out if you adopt cats from them!

DH and I have lived in the US and then a European city where a lot of our friends were American.
One of my best friends is American, we talk on the phone a lot and she totally gets the British sense of humour.

We differed on just a few things. One was road safety - She was a lot more cautious than me - I let DS ride his balance bike by the side of the road when he was 3, I would be with him but she was horrified in case he rode into traffic.

The kids often don't know how to cross a road in a city. It comes of all the traffic stopping for them when they get off a school bus and their jaywalking laws I think.

There is also an annoying thing in the U.S. of wanting an evening wedding but also wanting to get married in a church that only does early afternoon weddings. That means the church is at 2 and the reception at 5 or 6 leaving people with a few hours to kill between the two. Very annoying especially if it isn’t far enough away to justify a hotel for the night but is too far to drive home and go back for the evening. People often just skip the actual wedding as a result which has always seemed weird to me although I was forced to do it once because finding a babysitter for 12 hours was impossible!

Though I think there are some areas of the US that might also do the afternoon back yard thing

That's definitely still a thing. The cost of a full-out wedding reception now is insane. Anyone trying to keep costs down gets my full respect😀😙
People talk about spending 50-60K like it's completely natural! Crazy (IMO)

*ignore my random emojis...fat fingers and I can't seem to delete the little bastards

Funny how you just take things for granted!

In the UK, it normally goes:

Ceremony – morning to early afternoon
Photos – people mill about, maybe have a glass of something, while pics are taken round the grounds
Wedding breakfast (if having one – otherwise a buffet)
Evening reception with drinking and dancing (and possibly a buffet) – more guests might turn up for this bit

An evening wedding, really!

Yes, that's probably the norm now. So ceremony at 5:00 with cocktails and appetizers immediately following, then food and dancing.

If you want to keep it low-key you might have the ceremony in the late morning followed by brunch.

I eloped and avoided both of the above😅

Haha yes, I have a very transatlantic family and it's one of the things that really surprises folk on both sides.

It's I think why the concept of the "evening do" makes little sense to Americans because the whole thing is in the evening often, or late afternoon at least

Though I think there are some areas of the US that might also do the afternoon back yard thing

An evening wedding, really!

I think most of the weddings I’ve been to have started in the morning, at the latest early afternoon.

(I’m UK, in case it wasn’t obvious!)

I think a big element is that weddings in the UK are during the day - so there is a lot more time. American weddings are much more often in the evenings in my experience

sometimes people are invited to just the evening part…so not the ceremony or dinner, but to the band and dancing and food served late in the evening

Ah, so there would be a ceremony with dinner following with a whole separate party in the evening; that makes sense.

In the US it's mainly the ceremony with the reception (with food and dancing) immediately following so it would be odd to be invited to one without the other.

I’ve never heard of that, but sometimes people are invited to just the evening part…so not the ceremony or dinner, but to the band and dancing and food served late in the evening.

Now for the really important stuff (😂)...

What do people mean by being invited to a wedding but not the "evening do"?

I've seen this on so many threads! Would that mean going to the actual ceremony but not being invited to the reception afterwards?

That would be very unusual in the US. It would be considered really insulting to be excluded from the reception (actually I don't think I've ever even heard of it).

But all the family squabbles over bridesmaids and childfree weddings appear to be exactly the same😁

We did have the famous actress that I believe was in the 5os early 60s and her name was Imogene coco so that’s not true, she was on the Sunday entertainment shows. Every city, county and suburb in the us has different name choices and even different dialects. There are many different religions, socio economic backgrounds and a whole other things that are different in the United States. We’re all things not just one thing here. That’s why it’s called a melting pot and it still is.

Teens don't really have anywhere to loiter in rural areas, which tend to be the poorest parts of the US. Teens loitering in disadvantaged urban areas is definitely a thing. Outside of disadvantaged urban areas - no, you really won't find loitering.

Most Americans live in suburbia or suburban-style parts of cities (cities have defined boundaries in the US), so even a city with a nominally high crime rate is going to see pockets where crime is the norm and wide swathes where life is very peaceful.

You don't have to be wealthy to live in a peaceful neighbourhood. There's a huge difference between most suburban areas and gated communities. About 5% of Americans live in gated communities with the other 95% elsewhere.

In an urban area that includes suburbs close to the city, especially if there is good public transport available, you're likely to find a mix of incomes, with mixed housing available - single-family homes, often ranging from starter types or condos to mansions, or apartments with a range of rents. You will definitely not be cut off from people in different income brackets if you use public transport.

True.

All of my DCs did babysitting until they were 16 and after that they got jobs with actual paychecks.

DS did umpiring for T-ball two seasons aged 14/15, and did odd job style work when T-ball was over, then shifted to furniture moving for the summer at 17. The DDs did office gofer work from 16 on in summer. A lot of their friends worked for the local park district as lifeguards or day camp counselors. Two of my DDs had PT local retail and restaurant hostess jobs during the school year. The others did a lot of babysitting, right through senior year. They all played middle and high school sports too. There was definitely no time at all for hanging around. When they went off to university they had a lot of references available when they looked for PT work.

It helps to have ten or eleven weeks off for the summer. It also helps to live in an area where there are small businesses and you can easily get to your job on foot or by bike, or by public transport.

Teens mature a lot when they're dealing with difficult people (managers and customers alike) in a cafe or shop or have posts of responsibility at a pool.

Basketball and baseball mainly - I also grew up in the US and loads of youth sports ran over the summer. I did a lot of tennis