Having a panic about Wedding timings...

We get married at 1pm but having a civil ceremony and in the same venue all day. These are my current timings, I know they might change slightly when I've spoken to the venue but I am going off what they've previously advised.

1pm-get married

1.30pm-reception drinks and photographs

3.30pm-Wedding breakfast

5.30pm-Speeches

6pm-Leave room so it can be turned round for evening do

7pm-Evening guests arrive

7.30pm-cake cutting and first dance

If anything then I might move the wedding breakfast and speeches forward half an hour as 30 mins probably isn't enough time for speeches

We are getting married at half 1, 45 mins for ceremony and then a few pics at the church (grounds r very small so we wont be able to do big group pictures) we then have got a drinks reception at half 2, dinner at 4, this is which is due to finish at quarter past 6, coffee and tea will then be served with evening guests arriving at 7.

Then welcome drinks + more photos, sit down for the meal about half 3ish?? How long should I give for the meal roughly??

How many guests are eating? Your venue should answer this question

Then speeches/presents... in my head I have imagined this all finishing by about 6pm... do you think it could be done by then??

Depends on the above.

Evening guests will turn up from 7pm.. Do you think one hour will be enough time to rearrange the hall etc before the evening guests start to arrive?

Again, your venue will know this.

I may be worrying about nothing but I didnt know whether it might be a good idea to change my church by an hour or half just to be safe?!

Entirely up to you. We had a 12 noon ceremony with evening guests arriving from 6pm (138 day guests). Our wedding was at the reception venue, though, and they didn't need to do any room changing as the evening do was in a different room.

I have roughly around 130 guests during the day...

Ok ill ask my venue the questions then!

Ok so you have similar numbers to me. I think it all depends on how quickly your venue can turn the room around. If it helps our timings were the following:

12 noon: Ceremony

12.45: Reception drinks and photos

2.30: Called through to dinner and FOB & Groom speeches

3.00: Dinner

5.30: Best men speeches

6.00: Evening guests arrived

7.00: First dance

8.30: Buffet

12 midnight: Home

Our ceremony was at 1pm but ours was all at the one venue. These were our timings, I've no idea how closely we stuck to them though as I didn't have a watch:

1pm ceremony

1.30 photos

2pm drinks reception/garden games

3.30 receiving line

4pm sit down for wedding breakfast

6.30 speeches

7pm cutting the cake (then room rearranged for evening)

Not sure what time the first dance was (maybe 8.15), but it did take over an hour for the room to be rearranged and the band to set up. Generally everything did take longer than expected! Hope this helps.

Hi You have similar times to me. My church is 15 minute drive from my venue. Our schedule for the day will be:

1.00 Ceremony (about 45min)

2.00 Photos in the church gardens

2.45 Guests depart to venue

3.00 Arrive at venue for drinks reception, canapes and more photos

4.00 Wedding breakfast

7.00: Evening guests arrived

7.30: First dance

8.30: Evening buffet served

12 midnight: Home!

Hope this helps!

Oh my God now you're worrying me! Our ceremony is at 3pm as when i suggested a 2pm ceremony, our wedding coordinator at the venue suggested this was too early!

Ours is...

3.00 - 3.45 - ceremony

3.45 - 5.00 - drinks and photos

5.00 - 5.30 - speeches

5.30 - 7.30 - meal

7.20 - 12.00 evening reception

I went to a wedding at 2pm last year and there did seem to be a lot of waiting around between the ceremony and the meal but I can't remember the exact timings... only I was a bridesmaid so in a lot of photos and I was still getting fed up of waiting!!

So I'm sure yours will be fine!

xx

Natalieexx are you having an evening buffet too?

As others have said I would definitely ask your venue for a guide - they will know how long everything takes. When we booked our venue they recommended what time to have the ceremony and how long we would need for reception, photos etc based on how many guests.

I think it would be better to keep the hour gap between meal finishing and evening guests arriving as even if they haven't finished turning the room around it wouldn't matter hugely as most evening guests would spent the first hour having a drink and chatting.

I think we plan to do this (may change, there's still time). We have approx 30 min journey from church to reception

1pm Ceremony

2.15ish - Leave church (all guests will be taken by Routemaster to venue)

3pm - Reception drinks and photos

4.30pm - Speeches

5.00pm - dinner

7.30pm - Evening guests arrive/Evening drink reception

8pm - Cut cake/First Dance

8.15pm - PARTAY

9.30 - evening buffet (cheese and biscuits, will warn evening guest of this so they can know to eat before hand)

Midnight - Home time.