To wonder if 5pm is too late for a wedding?

[sharkirasharkira]

I've been in contact with a lovely venue in our local area and they have an opening at an affordable price on the date we want.

However, because they are a touristy place and they have to close for the day, a late afternoon/evening wedding is a lot cheaper than a midday wedding for obvious reasons! Having the ceremony and 5pm and then the reception/meal straight after (same venue) will be about £1000 less than having it at midday.

But 5pm seems quite late, doesn't it? We would only have up until 11/12 o clock at the venue so that gives a maximum of 7hrs for everything, is that long enough? I'm worried everything will feel rushed. I haven't been to a lot of weddings but most of them seem to be all day affairs and 5pm to start seems like most of the day is gone!

Aibu to think this might be too late?

Perfect time. The sun's over the yard arm by the time the ceremony is finished, so everyone actually fancies a drink.....and you get to eat at something approaching a normal time. I'd love it.

Sorry to derail your thread OP. My use of the acronym DFOD was an attempt at lighthearted exasperation signalling and I consider it to be different from actually telling a poster to eff off. It can’t be forbidden on MN because this is where I learned it.

expat you are right that telling you to fuck off is out of proportion to what you said. However I stand by my point that you were being offensive about a standard British expression for no good reason.

Have the wedding whatever time you want, really rude and irrating when guests complain, (some people will whatever time you chose) People you cannot get marriedin a "Registry Office", that is for the purpose of registering Land, and Title Deads on houses, so if anyone of you reckon you did get married in one, I would say, congratulations on your house purchase, but your Wedding is nul and void.

What time of the year is the wedding going to be?

No, plus you won't get the middle of the afternoon lull with long weddings.

I think a 5pm wedding is fine. For guests who are travelling, it may be easier, as they would only need to pay for one night accommodation. And less risk of guests arriving at 2pm and getting drunk

Well it sounds like none of you would mind!

I haven't been to a lot of weddings but the few that I have always seemed to start at noon or just after and I remember the mornings being very early starts and then a mad rush to get ready and get there on time! Then the afternoons there was quite a bit of standing around for photos and stuff so I guess it just cuts out all that bit which I'm fine with

Valsie it'll be in May, so spring/summer.

I think May is a perfect time of year for a later wedding. Any earlier in the year and you might struggle a bit with the outdoor photos because of the light.
I would love to go to a wedding at 5pm...gives you all day to get ready and it won’t be a long drawn out affair.
Abets of luck to you x

• best

I personally think a 4/5pm wedding is perfect and something we are considering one day (that or eloping, not sure yet), these are my reasons -

Depending on the time of year could have sunset ceremony / photos and gorgeous late afternoon light OR long relaxed summer evening, I think that's all very romantic

Got the whole day to prepare/decorate venues maybe even go for some spa treatments or something to prepare

Go straight into food and drinks after ceremony (personally not keen on posed photos so would keep those to a minimum and have candid shots taken throughout the day to capture it all) which means one big meal/buffet and one set of guests - no day/evening divide, this works much better for our families and friendship groups

No hanging around getting bored making small talk

Later start means some people can come from work or not need to take quite as much time off to attend, this is a big deal to me personally as I always feel a little uncomfortable sometimes with how much a wedding is asking of people and I think everyone has a tendency to get carried away and make it this big massive all important event when for me, one afternoon/evening of celebration is enough really. It's about the marriage after all.

I think there would be enough time for everything it's just the having to finish at 11 you need to consider, is that long enough for you? Personally, I would be fine with that, I'm not really keen on staying out partying on my wedding night I'd rather have a nice evening without too much drunkenness (that's what stags and hen dos are for!) So this would be fine with me.

You might want to check that the local registry office will supply a registrar at that time before you book it.

I got married at 5pm in late autumn. Was lovely, all dark and had autumnal colours and lanterns. Then we went straight to drinks and meal then dancing. I am not a big one for photos so we did those in about 5 minutes while guests were walking from church to reception venue (100m away). I loved it and we had lots of people say how nice it was to not have hanging about.

Bythepath your wedding sounds great, I love autumn. Another good thing about late weddings having it all dark and romantic, lit by candles/lanterns. Sounds beautiful.

The venue has said that the registrars that have done weddings there in the past actually prefer the later in the day times, so that shouldn't be a problem Muddy

They have said we can stay until midnight if we want to but most weddings are finished up by 11 - with it being a woodland/garden setting any rubbish has to be cleared up on the night so animals don't get to it (understandably) so I'm not sure I'd want to be doing that at 1am anyway! Plus we will have quite a few children there who might not make it that long so I imagine things will start to wind down before then. I suppose that it what I'm worried about, with it being quite a small wedding anyway, it would be a shame if most people disappeared by 9 and then we only had a couple hours to really enjoy it.

I went to a wedding last summer, where it was a late start, straight into reception, then photos were done afterwards in the lovely evening sunshine whle we all stood around happily drinking chatting, etc. Photos were formal, but the whole atmosphere was lovely and informal, no fuss.

I think a 5pm wedding sounds lovely.