Anyone else having an early wedding?

Our ceremony is at 12.00. I have a rough idea of our schedule and we will have a couple of hours (I think) inbetween wedding breakfast ending and evening reception starting. I'm hoping to use this time to have an hour with OH and family members can fresh' up etc. Then just have some chilled music playing in the Atrium lounge which has it's own bar untill the reception room is ready.

Our ceremony is at 3pm. We have a pretty neat schedule for the day, we also have a caricaturist booked for that interlude between the end of the ceremony and the wedding breakfast - he'll be there to entertain guests for the drinks reception and while we have our photos done. There's also a bar for the guests

I do think it's too early but obviously it's your choice. I went to a wedding at 1130am last year and it was a really long day. Everyone was worn out and left about 9-10pm which was a shame. I understand wanting to make the most of all day but I think it's a long day and people won't want to be there the whole time. So you have to expect people will want to leave early.

I agree with Baroness, I think. I expect there'll be people who need to travel on the day, which'll mean an early start for them or they'll have to get a hotel room, whether they wanted to extra expense or not. It's also a really long day and you might find people sneak off in that big gap between the food and the evening reception. I remember going to a wedding with a gap like that and everyone went off into the nearby town and wandered aimlessly around the high street for 2 hours before reluctantly coming back. We felt a bit abandoned right in the middle of the day, to be honest!

Anyway, that's just one person's opinion and I must admit, I haven't been to a great many weddings! Whatever you do, your wedding will be lovely

Ours is very much an afternoon wedding. Guests will arrive at 4pm, ceremony from 4.30 to about 4.50, champagne and then food straight away, followed by party time. That gives us plenty of prep time before everything kicks off, loads of time for travelling guests and it's not too long a day for everyone.

Thanks for the replies!

I know what you both mean about people leaving earlier in the evening and expect the older relatives will in the evening reception but also got another 40 people just for the evening!

Its mainly the 5-7.30 part i'm worried about. My close family and friends have booked rooms so they are willing to let other guests use them but i know its still a long time. hmmm may need to look into the entertainment a bit more. Iv heard about ideas like quizzes anf things that people can do together.

I think I will feel better once iv spoken to the venue at the year mark, as they will have had many weddings that are the same timings as us. x

I think it sounds fine...your timings are exactly what we were thinking for our day. I went to two weddings last year, one was 11:30 and one was 1:30. The 1:30 one just seemed to be over so quickly, and the 11:30 didn't drag like we expected. A couple of people left and came back but there was plenty going on so people didn't get bored, even in the 2 hour gap between the wedding breakfast and the evening reception!?

I think it works out to be a long day regardless whether you have a early wedding or later wedding as im sure most people wont sleep that well the night before their wedding I know I will probably be like a child on Christmas Eve wanting to get up to open their presents! lol I will probably be up early organising any last minute bits and pieces.

The only thing that is a concern is alcohol consumption many guests may leave the house in a rush and skip breakfast if they have any great distance to travel and an early start and then start drinking on empty stomachs which isnt great if they are going to make it until the end of the night. Not to suggest your guests are winos but weddings and such events do tend to encourage people to drink who may not usually be seasoned drinkers (my mum springs to mind 1 glass of bubbly at christmas and she is sloshed lol) I worked at a wedding venue when i left school and i remember a few occasions there were a few drunken casualties during the wedding breakfast (think nodding off head first into their food)

Are you having canapes with your drinks? maybe a good idea to have some or nibbles to line your guests stomachs to see them through to the wedding breakfast.

I think it could work but you need to find things for guests to do in the gaps. My brother's wedding started at 11am and it did seem a really long day, particularly as there were long stretches of time when we were just sitting around waiting with nothing to do. We're having garden games and croquet while we have photos done. Could you do something like that?