Time of ceremony??

We went with 1.30pm service, like you we're having a civil ceremony in a hotel.

Part of our reasoning was restrictions by others, which you may wish to check.

Our venue said that they could serve the wedding breakfast meal no later than 4pm, due to catering for the evening for other guests. This may or may not be an issue with your venue.

Our photographer recommended at least an hour, and up to 2 hours, for photographs depending on what we had - we have 120 guests at present and it's the group shots that can take the time due to herding people into place.

Our whole ceremony, with a separate blessing immediately following the 'legal bits' and the registrars departure, will take about 45 minutes. So that's 1.30pm start, ceremony through till 2.15pm, followed by a welcome drink in the garden (15 minutes) and an hour and a half for photos takes us to 4pm. We'll take perhaps 5 minutes at the start to say a few words to our guests before we eat - as our speeches are being moved into the evening celebrations so everyone can enjoy them.

Evening celebrations start at 5.30pm with a welcome line, speeches starting at 6pm, cake cutting 7.15pm, first dance 7.30pm, evening buffet served at 8pm and all wrapped up by 11.30pm as per our hotel's instructions (more than late enough for us!).

Hope that helps.

We are having ours at 2pm, photos and reception drinks after that and then wedding breakfast at around 4pm. The evening will start about 7-7:30. I thought these were quite nice times as are AJ's too. Its up to you and how you want your day to pan out really x

This is good to keep hold of for remembering what will be going on, on the day! A good way to put it Trickers.. Thanks x

What time of year are you getting married? We could have had 2 pm or 3.30 pm. As we got married in March, I wanted to make as much of the natural daylight as possible so went for 2 pm.

I'd go with either 1/2pm if you want a formal sit down and separate evening recpetion, or 3/4pm if you just want service, food, dancing etc. I think 2.30 is cutting it fine for meal then buffet, too early for just the one meal.

Same here!

Hi Esther,

I am having a civil ceremony too. We have booked ours for 2pm. The food starts at 3.30pm after welcome drinks and photos. HTH.

We are going for a 1230 for the same reasons as Canterburybride. Ours is a church ceremony but I anticipate OH and I will be taken away from our guests for a good hour or so to have our photographs done while they sip their pimms and eat their canapes! I wanted to have a bit of time to chill out, see all my guests and enjoy the venue

Yeah it also depends on your order of the day really. Everyone coming to my wedding will be travelling from about 150 miles to 200 miles away so will either be travelling on the morning of the wedding and will appreciate that extra time to check-in to the hotel and freshen up before heading down to get seated for the ceremony. We wanted the latest possible time for this reason. But almost everyone is staying the night in the hotel so the celebrations will carry on into the night and also the next morning as we will see my guests at breakfast and have breakfast with them on our first morning as husband and wife. ?

Ours is 5pm. A little bit of a different situation with it being abroad. All I keep thinking tho - is I won't have my dress on for that long! ?

That's great advice thank you all.

I think we'll have a sit down dinner maybe 4.30ish and then just some small nibbles later in the evening. Won't have many "evening-only" guests except maybe a few work colleagues (and i'm not worried about feeding them lol!). Might bring out a few bacon sarnies or similar at about 9ish and I think that will do.

I can remember all the weddings I've been too everyone is stuffed after the sit down meal and then doesn't touch the buffet later.

Getting married in March (2 years to the day yesterday!) so the clocks will have gone forward and we'll still have lots of light at 3pm I think.

Thanks all for your help!

I've nothing useful to really add but just wanted to celebrate having a (nearly) name twin lol

We got married at 3.30. It was the only time we could have. It was ideal as our venues bar was until 1.00 a.m If your guests like a drink you may find that if you get married earlier they will be drunk and go home early!!!

Had we had married early this would have happened to us!!!!

I would also suggest not to have a time line...things don't go to plan on the day. If your caught up with times you may get a bit stressed out!!!

We never even cut our cake!!! We where having such a great time we forgot all about it!!! Don't get stressed over time.. you will enjoy your day so much more.

Enjoy your planning xxx

Ours feels really early now, we did have ours arranged for 12:00, but I am panicking abit on it not being much time in the morning for me to get ready, so we have settled on 12:30, still really early for some i know (and not really much more time for me to get ready) but as a couple of others have pointed out, ours is a church service followed by a reception about 20mins away, we want an early cermony so that we can enjoy the whole day, were paying a lot for our venue and want to spend as much time there as possible!

I envy you all for getting married later and having more time to get ready in the morning! he he

You might find this page from one of my sites useful for timings https://www.weddingdja.co.uk/planning_your_wedding.php

We're getting married at 3 for this same reason. Hotel has a licence till 1. What time did you sit down to eat?

We have gone for a morning wedding!

ceremony starts at 11am

drinks and photographs 11.30 ish

wedding breakfast 1.30

We wanted to have all day to celebrate and are hoping to snatch some time to ourselves late afternoon before the evening guests arrive.

We have organised the same but 11am! I am seriously worried about getting ready! Ill have to be up with the birds!?

Crikey you sure will!!! he he, am sure we will be fine thought - we will just be super organised!!!!

This is a very good point, specifically if the venue has exterior features or gardens that you wish to use.

Peter

Have decided to sit down with venue before booking registrar to see what others have done. I think 2ish is winning at the moment, but I will have to see what they say.

P.S. hello almost name twin!!

We are having our ceremony at 2pm and sitting down to have a leisurely dinner and speeches at approx 4-4.15pm. Any later and we run the risk of evening guests turning up at 7pm with us still finishing off in the dining room.

We are getting married at 12 but this is because it is the only time that the registrar had left for the date we wanted and I booked it nearly 2 years in advance.

I didnt want to pick another date as the weekend we are getting married is the weekend we had our first date 5 years ago the weekend we get married!

We are hoping to have our meal around 2.30 - 3ish after the photographs and speeches.

Continuing on to the cutting of the cake.

Our evening is starting at 7pm and is at the same venue so gives people a bit of time before evening celebrations commence!

We have a time line from the venue for approximate timings so hopefully this will help.

Hi all

We were advised by our venue to book between 2.30pm and 4pm, as apparently lots of people book really early as they feel this is the best way to make the most of a beautiful venue and get the most out of their money, but the guests get a bit bored and tired and everything goes a bit slowly. At first, I was like "Nooooo I want to get married as early as possible and have my WHOLE day!" but then I did see what she meant. We have booked ours for 2.30pm:

2.30pm ceremony

3pm-5pm drinks and canapes in the gardens (fingers crossed! In the drawing room, if not)

5pm- 7pm- sit down wedding breakfast and speeches

7pm- 7.30pm turn around room, further drinks in the bar and lounge area

7.30pm - 12pm party!

I hope this will keep it all nice and pacy and smooth - rather than it going slowly and the guests getting a bit yawny!

I also think, even though the ceremony won't begin until 2.30pm, I will still have all morning to get ready AND I get longer in the tapestry room getting ready, which I am very excited about - the bath and shower ARE HUGE! I shall be in there for bleedin' hours!

PS I have JUST booked my registrar this morning...two years to the day today, and in Essex, you can reserve your time two years in advance. YIPPEEEE!

7.30pm Evening guests arrive

We're having the ceremony and reception at a hotel too and getting married at 3:30pm, which we did intitally worry would be a little too late but has worked out really well for us. We're having a very informal day and not bothering with separate day and evening guests, so the day should pan out like this:

AM- relaxing time with families and plenty of time to faff about with any last minute details (I hate being rushed in the mornings!). Bouncy castle sets up at 11 so guests with kids who are coming down the night before will have lots of entertainment on site.

Midday - hair and make-up lady arrives

2pm - Everyone WILL be dressed and ready

2:30pm - leave my house (me in my dad's car, BMs in MIL's car)

3pm - Pre-ceremony meeting with registrar (which I can't recall the purpose of, but is apparently very important)

3:30 - 4:15pm - ceremony

4:15 - 5:30 - photos, arrival drinks, making the most of lovely garden games and bouncy castle

5:30 - hog roast and buffet served

7pm - speeches

7:30pm - cake cutting, more photos!

7:45/8pm - First dance (if we have one), evening disco begins

10pm - bacon and egg rolls served

1am - end! SLEEP!