Evening reception start time??

Every wedding i've been too has the evening starting around 7-7:30. The hours go so quick on a wedding day, so it will be lovely to spend time with just your day guests. I suppose it also depends what time your reception finishes? Plus if you over run at all (happens 9/10) you aren't worrying about evening guests turning up during the speeches :-)

Hope this helps! x

Hi,

Your ceremony will last for about 45 minutes, and you need to allow another half hour on top of that for everyone leaving the church, congratulating you and having some photos outside the church. So taking that into account I'd say it'll be 2:45 before you leave the church to get to your venue, and you'll arrive there around 3. If you're wanting more family photos at your venue, and photos of the two of you I'd really suggest moving your wedding breakfast back if you can. With you having a buffet it shouldn't take as long as a sit down meal, could you have it at around 4:30pm instead? That should give you enough time to get the photos done without it being a crazy rush - worth checking with your own photographer how long they're likely to need as well.

The usual time for evening receptions to start is 7pm / 7:30pm. This'll give you time for your speeches, and also a bit of a gap for everyone to freshen up, check into rooms etc before the evening do starts.

Hope that helps!

Ali

I was just about to suggest exactly the same as Ali. I think you might need to move your meal back a bit. I definitely wouldn't have it earlier than 4pm if you can help it.

I started my evening reception at 6pm but we had a noon civil ceremony at the same venue so had a lot more time that you will have. I would suggest 7pm or 7.30pm for your evening guests.

It's probably worth having a chat to your venue about timings etc - they should be able to steer you a bit.

Thank you both for your posts. I'm thinking now around 7:30. Were only having 40 day guests - close family and friends and we also have two small children under two so it would be really nice to spend some time with our children and day guests before the manic of greeting eve guests starts. As the reception venue is a good 20 min drive away I forgot to allow time for traffic...The venue we've chosen doesn't close the bar til 1am so don't want eve guests arriving too early and leaving early now I think about it.

Thankagain

Take care asking the venue to advise on timings....they sometimes have a hidden agenda. My daughters venue advised her to have the meal at 3.30, which only allowed for half an hour of photos. We moved it to 4.30 and still struggled so ended up starting at 5. Many venues let a lot of serving staff go straight after the meal, so it helps the wages if its over earlier.

The other thing to bear in mind with your evening timings is if people have worked that day (even if it is a Saturday) .... a 6 oclock start would be a struggle for some.