To have a 4pm wedding?

[B2B25]

So looking to get married in October this year (quite short notice I know) our venue is available on the date we want but they only have 12pm or 4pm, WIBU to opt for the 4pm?

I'm thinking if we do 4pm we can then feed people at a typical tea time? It won't be a fancy wedding breakfast or anything like that, think hog roast/buffet.

Does this sound OK or will people be annoyed at having to wait around all day!?

I disagree. 4pm to 11.30 is 7.5 hours which is plenty of time for a wedding. Twelve hours plus extravaganza are exhausting.

I had a 3pm wedding. It allowed people time to travel on the day rather than pay for 2 nights accommodation.

It's the norm in Scotland. Anything earlier than 3/4pm throws us lol

Do it

I would love this, weddings are such long days

Best wedding I have attended was 16.00. Married and reception in the same venue. Black tie requested.

Felt very smart, easy and contained.

The reception was a sit down meal, followed by the usual music.

Perfect. We got married around that time. Meant people can travel to get there

and you feed them once saving money

Sounds lovely!

We had a 4pm wedding too. As there was no separate evening do to pay for we could invite more for the full event and it cut out all the hanging about. Go for it !

DD's wedding was 3.30 and it worked very well. No rush in tbe morning, some time for lunch and we ate at a meal time. PP's suggestion of some photos before the ceremony to take advantage of the lights sounds good.

I'd love to go to a 4pm wedding, Ceremony, drinks, meal (at a normal time), a bit of socialising and then home/hotel.

Cuts out lots of the hanging around and whilst I'm sure it doesn't feel like 'filling time' to the bride and groom it can feel like it for guests.

As others have said it also gives more opportunity to travel on the day, get checked in, get ready at a leisurely pace etc.

I much prefer a 4pm wedding. There's no waiting around at all, people are free to do or travel earlier that day.

I had a 3pm wedding in October.

it was lovely .
lovely.

what I did end up feeling was the day was so short.
that it was so lovely and I wished it was longer.

but I had a city centre wedding and lots of friends wanted to catch last tubes etc, so it was all over by 11.30

if you are surrounded by party people who will dance the night away

or if you are more introvert and will find it all a bit much
then go for it.

Perfect. I went to a 12 midday wedding. Loads of people drinking alcohol from 11am. Drunk before the food.
Then people tired and drunk who left after food and didn't make it back to the evening do etc.
My preference would be later wedding and straight into evening meal.

Sounds so civilised. Much less of a rush and everyone can have lunch first. We wanted 3.30 for similar reasons, but even though we rang to book the registrar on the first day we were allowed to they were already booked up and only able to offer 12.30pm.

We had a 5pm wedding and it was candle lit and beautiful. We had champagne and then dinner and dancing! It was the most fabulous day - all of our guests loved it. It was seamless with no waiting around and no one was tired or hungry and everyone still had the energy to really dance and have fun! I thoroughly recommend it.
It was nice for me to get up leisurely enjoy breakfast and getting ready - spending time with my family before the ceremony and not the usual rush.

I have been to many a late morning wedding and it is a marathon, it’s just excruciatingly tiring for the guests. The amount of dead time waiting for hours and making conversation is just exhausting. By the time the wedding breakfast is served most are wilting. So as a guest I would really appreciate the consideration of a later start and I’d enjoy it more as a result, we went to a 3pm wedding and that also flowed extremely well.

Everyone to their own I guess, you do what's right for you.

I wanted my day to last forever and get my monies worth 😀 had a lot of family and friends many came the night before and made a weekend of it. We also had an evening do with evening guests, a band, evening buffet and entertainment etc. I remember the photos alone took hours...so no way all the above would have fitted into a few hours.

But it was a few years ago now when I suppose you did split the day into day and evening. Times change and I guess it's preference, no right or wrong. Just what you prefer.

I think 4pm would be too late, I would feel like the whole day was gone.

Noon would be great. Our church messed up and double booked then moved us from 11.30 to 10am which was too early for a big wedding and a bit stressful though with an extra 2 hours it would have been fine.

Love a later wedding!! Seems sensible to take half a day not ALL day or 2/3 days!
I would love not to rush around in the morning, eat some lunch then bob along for a ceremony and tea…

My niece had a 11.30am wedding and everyone was drunk by mid afternoon and many were leaving as the DJ began his set at 8.30pm and there was no one left by 10.30pm when the evening buffet came out (They had been there for a solid 12 hours by then) so I guess it depends on what you want from the day. People don’t have infinite energy!!

I had a late wedding. 4.30 I think.

We got ready early, did our couple photos before the wedding. Wedding in a registery office with family and friends, group photos then walked to the pub then had lots of champagne and good food.

All good!

Sounds good as long as you aren't bothered about daylight

We did 12 for our november wedding but was happy to make a bigger day of it with both wedding breakfast and food in evening

As a guest, definitely 4pm. Do your couple photos at 3pm, maybe, so you get better light, and don't disappear off after the ceremony for an hour.

I got married at 4pm in October (married the wrong man but that's a different story!) and it was brilliant. No one had to get up early, people had time to travel - there was no 'dead' time - we got married, had a 15-minute champagne reception (and photo time) then straight to the wedding breakfast. If I were to do it all over again (with a different man!) I would get married at 4pm again.

But you got married after the clocks had gone back - it makes a massive difference in October if you get married before the end of the month. I got married in the first week of October at 4pm and it was lovely golden sunshine until about 7pm.

Going against the grain here but I got married in November at 2pm and wished I'd had the ceremony earlier. I'd do the 12 if I were you - although that is dependent on whether people have a long way to travel/will be staying the night before.

Our photographer was so manic about the light fading that we had to have loads of intense photos straight after the ceremony, and we also got caught in the rain which ruined my hair 🙈- a hazard of an autumn wedding! We missed all of the drinks and canapees.

By the time you factor in the usual lateness of everything...the ceremony likely being a bit late, the food taking a while to come out....I feel like I missed most of the day tbh. Didn't feel like I was free to actually speak properly to any guests until about 8.30pm and then the wedding finished a couple of hours later.

I think at 4.00, you'd be looking at food at 6.30ish earliest which will then eat into your evening quite a bit as you wouldn't be finished the meal and speeches etc until probably 8?

Every wedding is different of course but if I'd had mine at 4pm we wouldn't have been back in for the evening until about 9pm 😳And that was just with lateness of the ceremony and slow food service.

4pm sounds fine to me as long as the wedding’s in late spring/summer. It could be rather cold and dark otherwise.