Arrival an hour before

[Dismilussioned]

just received an invite to friend’s wedding in August. Can’t wait to go, but it’s the first I’ve been to and it says arrive an hour before the ceremony. Is this normal we have a 10 year old who can cope but is questioning what happens on the day ie why dessert is 3 hours later (the cake cutting ) and why isn’t it a fried breakfast at the ‘wedding breakfast’. We’ll sort those expectations but not sure what happens in this first hour are we expected to sit for that whole time or milling etc?

Maybe there will be food / drinks before the ceremony? Is it taking place at the reception venue? That’s quite common now.

It’s so you can all get seated in time I guess.

Yes all day at the same venue and pretty sure most people are arriving the night before as it’s quite a distance from where we all live.

Every time we've been to a wedding with that sort of gap it's normally people chatting, catching up, having a drink / nibble and then 15 mins before the ceremony being asked to take a seat. Hopefully similar for you!