Is our day too long?

1:30~12:00 Ceremony

12:00~1:30 Champagne & Canapes

1:30~2:30 Photos

2:30~4:30 Dinner

4:30~5:00 Speeches

5:00~5:30 Evening guests arrive

5:30ish First dance

6:00~7:00 Disco

7:00~9:00 Buffet

9:00~12:30 Disco

Your timings for each element are about right but the 12:00~1:30 Champagne & Canapes and 1:30~2:30 Photos will all run at the same time

So

12:00~2:30 Champagne & Canapes and photos

Food and speeches for 30 people may not be as long as 2.30 hours though.

Your evening sounds great as so many times the evening is over so fast when it starts at 8 -8.30.

The issue I see is that 2.30 hours between end of ceremony and food is a long time for 30 guests, if you had 100 guests then it would be great as you will be spending a lot of time saying your hellos.

Bring the speeches/food forward 30 mins to 2pm which will now end at 4.30pm which will then give you 1 hour breathing time/ relax before the eve guest arrive at 5.30 then have your cake cut/ first dance at 6 pm and buffet at 8 pm which will be no longer than 45 mins then its party all night.

Also you did not mention the time of year or the nature of the venue because if it was in the summer at a venue with grounds to wander or space for garden games then 2.30 hours for 30 people may be ok when compared to winter in a city hotel.

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Thankyou for your thoughts! It's the last week of April so fingers crossed we get good weather!

I agree with Bill about 2.5 hours for drinks/photos being different depending on the weather and venue. We got married in a city hotel in late autumn so our 30 guests were confined to the inside bar area after the ceremony. Once photos had finished it was still almost 2 hours before we went in for dinner and I could see some guests were flagging and getting restless, the children in particular were struggling. If they had been ready for us to sit down 30mins earlier then I would have taken it.