wedding timings

We are having the exact same timings as you, apart from evening guests arriving at 7:30. It's a fine line between having too much of a gap and being rushed isn't it?? I'm also debating whether to have canapés, I wasn't going to as they're quite pricy at my venue but I don't want people starving. I just hope they have the sense to have a good brunch before they turn up!

Sounds like a good schedule, we have played at weddings and most follow a very similar schedule to yours. I take it your Church ceremony and reception are close together? The only part which sometimes goes over in timings is the wedding breakfast as speech timings are an unknown entity. If your 4 course meal is over 2 / 3 hrs that should leave enough time for your speeches and gifts by 7pm.

Please don't worry about any gaps as people will chat and have a good time together whether theres anything going on or not.

I'm still amazed by the normal length of time for weddings here in the UK! To me it just sounds like there's too much time, as I'm used to guests arriving at the church at 5pm at the earliest for a wedding, followed by dinner and dancing until midnight. I just got an invitation for my cousin's wedding, and it's arrive for 6pm, and I'm a day guest! Although, I've never been to a wedding that differentiated between day and evening guests, so maybe it's not the norm back home?

Anyways, originally I had hoped for the ceremony to be at 5, but were told by the venue that it would be difficult as the registrar's have to perform the ceremony earlier ?

So now it's down to 3:30 ceremony (no readings, so quick!), then pictures and drinks reception until the meal at 5:30 (were told by the TOG that 90 minutes is more than enough time even if we wanted to walk around the grounds just the two of us for a bit doing photographs), and then evening do from 7:30 to midnight, followed by after party in the astor wing billiards and music rooms for guests staying at the castle.

I know my family won't be expecting the day to be this long, though, so I hope they don't get bored.. and I hope OH's family won't think it's starting late! I feel like there's more than enough time, and I'm not sure how I feel being the centre of attention that long. Ahh well.

This.

We just can't afford the canapes at my venues prices £12.50 per head, oooof! I'll be making it clear on the invites the time we'll be eating so they can either have a massive fry up in the morning to see them through or an early lunch as I was worried my guests would starve too.

It will always run over. I thought that we would have a good hour after we had eaten before our evening guests arrived, we didnt, we had to put the bands first set back because people were still finishing off there coffee after the meal, buffet meant to come out at 9pm we put that back to 10pm. It's good to have an idea but just go with the flow. Our weddinG venue said it is very rare a wedding goes exactly to the timings you envisage. 9 times out of 10 you run behind.

We are getting married at 1pm, food around 2.30pm, speeches after, around 4/5pm and evening guests at 7pm. We aren't having a church wedding though so the ceremony will be done and dusted within half an hour MAX and we will only be having a few staged photos (I hate them) to satisfy the rellies and their mantel pieces, so there will be less hanging around for our guests anyway.

Thank you for the replies ladies sounds like I'm on the right track with timings Met Vicar today confirmed Church Wedding 14th June 2013 @ 12.30 (split the difference I said 1pm OH said 12) Now I'm really excited even though over a year away x

When it actually started becoming a reality, we realized there wasn't a large enough flat area to have the amount of people there for a sit down dinner about 200 people. so we decided to do the ceremony there and reception about 15 mins away. We have planned sometime for maybe have cocktail hour in this yard you describe and they could just head in to the reception space and wait for you to arrive and start your dance.

Still the time has not decide yet but the venue and date is decided now and that is South Florida beach Wedding on 21-jan-2015 !!!!!!!!!!Yahoo.............