Time of ceremony?

[CatchingBabies]

We really wanted a 1pm ceremony as our venue suggested that as the best time to make sure there is no long gaps in the day and prevent people being bored etc.

Problem is for our chosen date, and in fact every Saturday in our chosen month the 1pm or 2pm registrar slot isn’t available so we have a choice of 12pm or 3pm.

The venue thinks 3pm will be too rushed as we are having sit down meal, canapés and drinks reception etc. before the evening but will 12pm be too early also?

Not much option for changing the month as prices go up considerably for our venue a month later and the month before some of our bridal party are out of the country.

Did anyone have a 12pm civil ceremony and did the timings work ok?

I recall a friend having a 12pm ceremony and a sit down dinner - we went home and had a nap. I think 3pm is easier as people can have lunch at say 12pm and be fine for a dinner at 5-6pm sit down.

3pm or different venue

Yep 3pm over 12.

I had a 4pm wedding with drinks and canapes after followed by a sit down meal. Worked out perfectly. No long waits, no wondering if you should be eating before you go.
However we did not have separate evening guests, everyone came to the whole thing.
So I'd say 3pm would be fine

Definitely 3pm. We did that and it worked perfectly. I hate weddings where you end up waiting around for ages for the next thing to start.

We did 3pm. Drinks and canapés straight after, dinner around 5ish, dancing started after dinner around 7.30. Worked really well, no gaps.

A 12 noon kick off drags the day out too much. Lots of milling about for hours. 3pm leaves plenty of time IMO.

Worst wedding I went to had a 12pm start. Everyone wanted to go home by 9.

Best wedding I went to started at 4!

I had a 3pm wedding. It was great. I had a very relaxed morning getting ready very chilled. Dh even played a bit of golf in the morning I think our meal was at 6 though we did not have a evening reception but it all finished around 10. Though we married in a church and travelled 12 miles to the venue getting our photos in between. I always wanted to have a 3pm wedding after seeing one of the local gentry have one and it was the same church.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Different venue is not an option as it’s the registrar not available so no matter what the venue they only have 12 or 3pm available.

If you had a 3pm ceremony, what time did your evening reception start? Won’t it be rushed to fit everything in?

Personally I think later is better. Too early and everyone has peaked by 7pm!

Go for 3 pm, then you can have a civilised dinner at a normal eating time, and won't need anywhere near as much food in the evening.

So you couid invite more people to the whole do (which is far nicer) or those who you don't have want to feed, you couid say it's for Dancing from 8 (or an hour either way) so they know to before.

If ceremony is 3pm, finishes at 3.30pm
Then drinks reception and canapés from 3.30pm until 4.30pm
Then photographer wants an hour for group photos so that takes us to 5.30 pm
Wedding breakfast at 6pm by the time we are all seated. Venue says to allow 3 hours for this with speeches and serving etc. Then they need an hour to turn the room around.

That means the evening reception won’t start until 10pm at the earliest, surely that’s far too late?

Timings:
3pm ceremony (45minutes ish long)
4pm people travel to venue, have welcome drinks, socialise etc. If you choose to do photographs now is when you'd do them.

5:30pm Wedding breakfast

6:45/7pm speeches

7:30 evening guests arrive.

That way people can travel to you in the day, eat lunch and then will be ready to have fun!

Sorry I sent that before I saw the time for the turn around catchingbabies!

We are getting married at the same venue. They have said 1 hour between ceremony and wedding breakfast for turn around and 1 hour between wedding breakfast and evening reception. That’s the absolute minimum. They have also said to allow 3 hours for the wedding breakfast to allow time for speeches and for them to serve the courses. It was the venue who said that 3pm will be very rushed.

Oh and some guests are travelling 4 hours to the wedding so probably won’t have eaten dinner before, hence we want the canapés ASAP so people are not starving. Skipping them and going straight for wedding breakfast after photos etc. means some guests won’t have eaten all day.

I do suggest canapes and photographs are done at the same time else your guests will be waiting around for an hour doing nothing

We had a 4pm ceremony and everything followed on perfectly!

Op the venue sounds very slow and tight, it’s like they are wanting to employ less staff to serve your event. 3 hours is too long for food service, people will be bored I’d expect 2 hours and then 30mins max for speeches.
Would inviting everyone all day be an option and only having one lot of food served? Or to cut food serving time would just 2 courses be an option?

3 hours for the wedding meal/speeches? Unless your serving rice and using pins for cutlery, I can't imagine why it would take so long.

I got married at 3pm. It means you only have to feed everybody once.

5 hours to eat and turn around a room? That will drag!

3pm ceremony
3.30 canapés and photos
4.30 wedding breakfast
5.30 speeches and dessert/coffee
6-7 turn room around
7pm evening starts

I got married at 12. It was long enough for photos and to be able to mingle.

Yep definitely have photos whilst drinks are going on. With a 3pm ceremony you can happily assume people have had lunch so you really don't need to bother with canapés. I agree, the worst wedding I have ever been to started at midday, it was soooo long, and so much hanging around! Sounds like your venue are being awkward and inflexible.