2pm or 2.45pm ceremony? Critique my timeline!

[cuminpotato]

Booking ceremony for wedding. Do you think we should go for 2pm or 2.45pm ceremony?

And how long does the ceremony take (non religious?)

Ceremony/reception/dinner/dance are all in the same venue (multiple rooms)

2pm- ceremony
2.30/3pm- reception and photos
5pm- 3 course sit down meal
7pm til 11pm- evening party (with pizza for evening only guests and anyone who gets peckish later on!)

Is this too long for reception, as we won't be serving canapés? All guests at ceremony will be coming to the meal.
Would people eat lunch before a 2pm ceremony given that they will presumably have to arrive around 1.30pm?

Please let me know your thoughts, I haven't been to many weddings!

I think it sounds good. The main benefit is that it's late enough for people to have had some lunch before, it's tricky when you have to be at a venue at, say 11.30 and don't get fed until 4/5. It also means anyone travelling can do so on the morning of the wedding rather than having to pay for an extra night.
At my sisters wedding the actual ceremony was about 15 minutes so with the signing of the register etc we were in the 'getting married' room about 30 minutes. 2.45 would get you out at 3.15 so maybe only an hour for photos which is tight. I'd go with a 2pm start.

Either ceremony time sounds fine to me. As a guest I would have an earlyish lunch which would keep me going until 5pm.

We had canapés instead of a starter at our wedding to give people something to nibble on while they were waiting around drinking and chatting. The main course and dessert we chose were quite stodgy comfort foods and so a starter as well might have been a bit over the top. We also made up little snack bags made up for kids so they didn't get hungry/had energy to run around!

I think 2pm is ideal. Gives traveling guests longer to get there, and everyone a chance to have lunch beforehand!

This. What will guests actually be doing after the ceremony and before the meal? You said 'reception' - but what does that mean if you're not serving canapés?

The thing is about a 2pm start is that if it takes you 1.5 hours to get there, that's leaving at 12 to be safe. You eat before you get into your fancy clothes which means lunch at 11/11.30?

Also agree that if you're not arranging anything for the reception, that's a long time. Will they have access to a bar/bar snacks? I'd expect people to be a)hungry and b) merry.

Venue is in a city location, and the vast majority of guests (except family who will be staying a night or 2) live in the city the wedding is in if that makes a difference

Could reasses the budget for a couple of canapés per person! is a small nibble ok?

How many canapés per person is reasonable? don't want them being too full for the meal!

Would be expecting them to drink, chat, be merry. We're planning on doing a quiz after dinner so starting to fill in/chat about their answers to that!

What do people do after earlier ceremonies if 2pm is too early?!

Have a 4pm wedding breakfast! Followed by party/DJ/dancing/mingling from early evening and snacks mid evening.

2.5 hours of mingling with one (?) glass of fizzy and possibly nowhere to sit is quite a long time. And hour and a half of that max. Plenty of chatting time after dinner.

I would do 2:45. Are you having speeches? If so, before or after dinner? Speeches before dinner will add 30 mins on, so that’s eating at 5:30.

I think if you can include a few canapés that would be great, but my main bugbear is weddings where you don’t know what’s going on. I appreciate a timeline/sign of some sort - it can be vague, but means you know if you’re expecting to stand around for 30 minutes or 90.

Are you doing confetti or group photos? I would do those first so people can relax a bit, and you can take your time with photos.

Congratulations!

Firstly, congratulations!

Secondly, my qualifications.. 😂 Had one mini and one big wedding myself (Covid postponer) and in the last four or so years (excluding Covid lockdowns) I must have been to around 20 weddings…

I’d say canapés or some sort of food at the reception is a must. You definitely don’t need to worry about people filling up before dinner. People will be drinking (assuming you’re serving alcohol) and you’ll want them lining their stomachs a bit! And as a guest, when you’re standing around, potentially wearing heels, for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon, breakfast feels a long time ago. I think with a 2/3pm ceremony, most people will just have a brunch beforehand then hope they’ll get something to nibble on to tide them over until dinner. We had 6 canapés per person. If the budget doesn’t stretch to canapés, I’d cut your reception to 1.5 hours and go for the 2.45 ceremony, with dinner at 4.30.

Non-religious ceremony with no readings or songs - max 20 mins. Otherwise 30-40.

Allow 2 hours for a 3 course meal, plus 10 minutes per speech, and a few minutes for overrun.

This was our timeline for our wedding and it seemed to work well (at least as far as I could tell!)

2pm - Ceremony (non religious, two readings)
2.30pm - Drinks reception - Prosecco etc and canapés
4.30pm - Call for dinner (it takes people ages to actually move through for dinner, so it’s unlikely they’ll actually be seated until 4.45pm at the earliest.
4.45pm (ish) - two speeches
5pm (ish) - starter, followed by main, then two more speeches, then dessert
7pm - coffee and tea
7.45pm - cake cutting
8pm - first dance/beginning of evening party
9pm - evening food
11pm - band finished
midnight - carriages!