Confused about timings???

I think 1pm is a pretty average time for a wedding. By the time you get married, take photos, get to the reception, meet & greet everyone and then eat, there will probably only be an hour or two before the evening reception. People then have a choice of going off to get refreshed for the evening or sitting and having a catch up and a drink with people they usually don't see too often.

Also it may make you feel better knowing that I get married at 10am so people will have around 3 or 4 hours to kill in between day and evening receptions?

We only had the choices of 10am, 12pm or 4pm for our wedding so we went for 12pm. Thought this maybe too long as`we're in the same place all day but since working out all our timings I think we'll only have at most 2 hours to kill, fingers crossed for nice weather & garden games if not will find some indoor games (quiz or the wii) to do.

Thankyou, i feel a bit better now, i thought 1 was average but just started panicking!! I' just worry about everyone having a good time, but i guess you can only do so much, the rest is up to the guests, if they want to enjoy themselves!Thanks again

Believe me when I tell you that the day literally whizzes past... we got married at 1:30 and it was home time before we knew it.... I say the earlier the better so you can enjoy yourselves with your nearest and dearest ?

Yes i guess so, there's going to be a lot of family who haven't seen eachother in a while, so i'm thinking everyone will be busy catching up with eachother. The longer the better, i like that philosophy, it is just the once!

From a Service providers view, I'd say the more time between each major part of the day the better.

It's much more prudent to allow folk more time than required than to have them rushing around and then the potential of running late with everything.

The main culprit is the meal running over and chewing into your evening time.

From over 9 years experience in providing a Wedding DJ service I can count on my fingers the number of wedding receptions (evening) that actually started on time!

Speeches do often take longer than expected, and a common theme are so called wedding venues not having the true capacity to cope with the demand when food preparation and serving is required.

I'm getting married at 11am, reception tarting at 2pm till 5pm then night do starting at 7.30pm till 12. Loads of time between stuff.....I agree with HWS regarding giving people plenty of time.

Our ceremony starts at 2pm, havent got to working out the full timings yet but me and the lasy from the venue thought about 4pm to sit down and eat with the evening do starting about 7ish

Hello We think we will be getting married at 12.30pm at our local church. Drinks reception at venue for 2.30pm then wedding breakfast at 4pm till 6.30pm. Evening do starts at 7.30pm till 1pm. I think 1pm is a good time for a wedding, its what we wanted ideally. I don't think the day will be too long at all, like people saw it will fly by! x

One thing to bear in mind when trying to plan timings for the Reception.

Many people assume that if a meal is schedule to end at say 6pm, and the Entertainment starts at 8pm, then that's 2 whole hours for them to setup and be ready.

Wrong!!!

If by a stroke of luck the meal does indeed finish at 6pm, then it takes on average 30 - 40 minutes for everyone to vacate the room, as it's a wedding people are not herded out like cattle.

Then the venue staff have to begin clearing the tables, this can take up to 20 - 30 minutes, then they need to remove tables (not always but quite often).

It's now that the Entertainment is often told to start setting up, but look at the clock!!

You've already lost 1hr 10 minutes of that golden 2 hours, leaving the Entertainment with 50 minutes in which to rush their setup and often compromise on sound checks.

And the above is if the meal finished on time!

Now I'm not trying to scare anyone or worry you but from EXPERIENCE!, I am hoping to help some of you plan a little better and ensure a much smoother day for you all.

Obviously this only applies to room turn-arounds and not mutli-room receptions where the Entertainment can setup at their leisure.

I'd say 1pm is pretty normal especially if you are marrying in a church and then have to travel to another venue.

We are getting married at 2pm but its all at the one location.

Thanks everyone, sounds like i chose a good time!