New hitcher & question about wedding timings

Hi Liz, welcome to Hitched ?

I can't help entirely because I'm having my ceremony and reception in one place but these are my timings for the day. They are based on what the co-ordinator says works well at her venue and how much time my photographer likes to have. Hope it helps? Maybe speak to your Tog and see what they like too?

Civil service booked 2.00

Reception drinks 2.30

Call for dinner 4.00

Dinner served, all courses & coffee 4.15

Speeches 6.00

Disco set up 6.30

Evening guests arrive 7.30

Supper 9.00

Last orders at the bar 11.45

Finish 12.00

Thats great thank you :-) Tis really useful to see your times set out like that - I guess the only real difference will be the time it takes to get everyone down to the reception, so maybe we don't need such an early wedding after all :-) Haven't got as far as booking or visiting any togs yet, although I do have one in mind so I shall take your advice and ask them what they need when I eventually get round to booking the appt!

Thanks again :-)

Liz x

...Hi Liz,

A warm welcome to you! Hope you enjoy the forum ?

tk care x

HI Liz

If I were working through your day's timings I would plan something along these lines

12.30 ceremony

1.15 ceremony finish

photos at church

2pm leave church

2.15 arrive at marquee

pre reception drinks

photos

3.45 call through for wedding breakfast - (you may wish to have a receiving line which takes about 20 minutes for 100 guests, so add onto times if you are going to do this)

4pm serve starters

6pm cut cake

6.10 speeches

6.45 end of daytime reception

Then it would depend what form of evening entertainment you were having as to how and when your evening would start

Things to consider with your timings are, if you have a 12.30 ceremony, guests probably wouldn't have eaten lunch so you may want to consider serving canapes during your drinks reception. Don't have too long for photos for the same reason, no more than 1 1/2 hours really. Also, for a marquee wedding consider where you will have your drinks reception if the weather is bad, did you want a seperate area so that your guests don't see your reception area, the same goes for somewhere for guests to move to after their meal before the evening starts. Lots to consider for a marquee wedding but I hope that helps a bit.

Ruth

x

Wow thats brilliant, thanks Ruth ?

Looking at that, am thinking maybe 12.30 is a little on the early side then, as I was sort of thinking the evening guests arriving at about 7.30ish and then doing a small buffet for them (or do people tend not to bother feeding the evening peeps? - I don't know what the etiquette is for that!). So if we do do this, I would rather not have to do the canapes as we will already be doing two sets of food! (Well, if the budget allows anyway ?).

Thanks for pointing out about the different areas, and people moving away from the tables. I hadn't thought of that at all. We are planning to have a small separate bar area, but this will be no way big enough to accomodate everyone at once! So that will deffo need a bit of thought.

Will have a ponder ? Thanks again!

Liz x

I am having a 12.30 church wedding - I wanted my day to last as long as possible!!!

This is my rough plan at the moment!

12.30 ceremony

13.15 photos

14.00 leave for reception (5-10 minute drive, some guests will check into the hotel at this point)

14.00 reception drinks (we will sneak off for a few more photos)

15.00 sit down to eat

17.00 speeches

18.30 evening guests arrive

19.00 cake cutting

19.30 first dance and start of disco

21.00 evening buffet open

00.00 music finishes

00.30 bar closes (residents bar still open!!!)

09.30 next day breakfast!

I wouldn't say that it was etiquette with regards to providing food for the evening, I always say it's what you can afford and not what is expected. However, again it depends on timings, the earlier you have your evening reception start the less time your guests would have had to eat before they arrive plus it also means more drinking time, so food is always welcomed at some point, if not just to help absorb some of the booze and to stop any incidents! It is because of this reason I always encourage couples to provide something whether it's nibbles, bacon sarnies, hog roast, cheese board and breads or buffet. Other options are mini fish and chips, pizza buffet and jacket potatoes!

I'd check with your church if they will do a 12.30 wedding - I wanted to get married at 3 (our church and reception are about 50 yards away from each other) and when we spoke to the Vicar, he said "So, 2pm orpm? you have first choice, but I'll probably do a wedding in the other slo, so choose now!"

He wasn't being nasty, I think it's just a very popular place and he wants to be able to tell others whats still available.

so, erk... we went for 2pm! Our day looks something like this:

2.00 ceremony

2.45 ceromony ends, photos outside church

3.00pm canapes and drinks on lawn, more togs

4.30pm call through to dinner

4.45 dinner starts

6.00 speaches

6.45 cake cutting, evening guests arrive

7.00 band starts

11.00 end (our venue costs a fortune to hire later than this, so we're going for an early finish!)

but I'm sure things will be different on the day!!! I'm a real stickler for time, and I've decided I'm not wearing a watch on the day and things will just happen when they do, or i'll be stressing out about the drinks overrunning, or something!

I think we're feeding our evening guests, but nothing too eleborate - at the momment I'm thinking of a cheese fruit and bread spread type thing!