Ideal ceremony time

A few considerations, how many people are getting ready with you on the morning of? The more you have, the longer it takes or you may need more than 1 hair/make up artist. Also is the bridal prep area it’s own space? If so when do you have access from? If you’re using a room in the hotel, when do plan on booting your FH out of the room (if you’re staying together the night before)? When do you want your wedding breakfast to be? And how much time do you want between the ceremony and the breakfast?
The ideal time is what suits you probably based on a whole variety of factors, so it may be helpful working through all the times with your other half and the venue.


As an idea though, as we are also having a summer wedding, so for us, we have the bridal prep space from 8am. There’s only me and my 2 MoH’s, so the 12pm ceremony means it still won’t be a massive rush in the morning. We wanted to maximise our wedding day, so we’re purposely having a longer cocktail reception, with music, games and extra food (hopefully outside 🤞 but there’s plenty of lovely space inside if we have to), before the wedding breakfast at the normal time of 4pm (call to dine will be before this, actually eating at 4). Then it’ll be chill for an hour after eating, before the evening do starts at 7:30pm, with bacon sarnies likely to be around 9:30ish. Hope that helps, but do what feels right for you!

View quoted message Thanks so much Lisa - hearing your timings of the day is very handy! I will have the getting ready bridal suite from first thing on the morning and so I won’t be getting ready in our bedroom. Also my 4 bridesmaids will be doing their own hair and makeup so can take place at the same time as mine. Therefore I’m thinking 12 to maximise the day like you said! But we’re not hiring games and only doing 3 canapés pp so conscious of people getting hungry or bored before the wedding breakfast! Pros and cons for both, I keep changing my mind every other minute haha! Thanks so much for your thoughts!!

We are having our ceremony at 2.30. Some of our guests will be staying the night before and most will be staying the night of.


We went for 2.30 as our ceremony will then finish by 3, with our wedding breakfast starting at 4.30. So this gives us 1 and a half hours for photos and a few canapés. This felt like the right time for us, we are not doing any entertainment in-between the ceremony and wedding breakfast.
We will be chatting to our guests the night before, the day of and the morning after as we are all at the same venue, so it felt like plenty of time for us. Xx

We got married at 3pm because we wanted to do our photos before the ceremony (whilst we had the light in November) and I didn't want to feel rushed in the morning. We sat down for dinner at 5:30 so plenty of time to mingle with guests over drinks. We didn't have extra evening guests so the meal could take as long as we wanted without worrying about other people turning up.

12pm seems early to me and I wonder what you would do with your guests all day. What time were you going to have your meal? If guests can't eat lunch and are only having 3 canapes alongside alcohol then you wouldn't want to leave it too long before feeding them properly.
I don't understand your venue's comment about you bring stuck in the bridal suite. If you have your bridal party and access to refreshments then you will be fine. If you have a photographer coming to you then they may have a minimum time they suggest for the 'getting ready' shots so it's not rushed. I would think your H2B will spend the same amount of time with your guests no matter the ceremony time as guests will time getting ready with when the ceremony is.

Yes I echo what Haley says

I would say that as your guests are staying there then there is no reason for them to arrive extra early to make allowances for traffic or finding the place like they normally would and so I don't think your groom will have much time mingling at all.

Also no doubt he will be sorting out little jobs that you have given him, and will be seeing the registrar, and having some photos done himself.

I just wonder by the venues use of language "stuck" and advising you for a 12pm wedding that its more about suiting their timings than what timings you want.

For bridal prep I tell my couples that I will be there for the last 1.5 hours which is usually the bit when yo are out of your curlers !

I might be there earlier if there is a travel time between prep and the venue.

Here is my page with a few examples of bridal prep shots

The problems with a ceremony at 12 or 1 are:
- guests don’t get to have lunch (if you are like me you always carb load before a wedding because you never know what the food situation is going to be like but not everyone does and you don’t want your guests to be hungry)
- you will have to get up extremely early for hair and make up if you are having professional services for this-it’s a long day for guests if you are expecting them to stay until midnight partying and often brides and grooms are disappointed that the party is called early but 12 hours is a long time to keep the hype up!-in a similar vein, you risk guests getting drink too early or feeling same-day hungover which also limits enthusiasm for the evening party -the lull and weird meal times. A civil ceremony is only going to be 30 minutes. Let’s imagine your ceremony finishes at 12:45, your guests will be hungry but you will be doing photos. What time are you then going to have your main meal? There can be a lot of hanging around and/or hungry/bored guests
I honestly think weddings ideally are between 3 and 5pm. Everyone eats at a normal time and there is plenty of time to fit everything in while keeping the hype!

So we're getting married in the summer at 1.30pm. This was decided for a number of factors.
It's looking likely that it will be the same day as there is a big 24hr festival on the beach which is 20 yards from where we will be. While we're getting photo's etc our guests will have the opportunity to sit and watch the world go by, have a gander to the festival and the stalls, or even take some 2ps to the arcade 100yards away.
Because I have so much near by our ceremony will be done by 2 and food will be at 4, allowing for that. Free entertainment.