Schedule help!

Have you considered doing the legal bit with a registrar on another day? It's about £40 to have the bare minimum at a registry office so cheaper than having a registrar travel to you. Then on your proper wedding day you can have a loved one perform as officiant. This means you can personalize the ceremony however you like and have it at a time that suits you.


Otherwise if you are settled on the 10am option with the registrar then you could schedule in free time for you and your guests to do their own thing and recharge for the evening. Your guests will be waiting for you from about 9:30 so it's an early start for them to keep going all day. You could have a buffet as lunch and then guests could go back to their accommodation to take a nap, get changed, put their feet up etc before returning in the evening to dance the night away. If there is a bar/lounge that can be used then you may find some people hang around that you could chat to, but if they know there is a gap where their attendance isn't required then they can plan accordingly.

View quoted message Hi, yeah we wanted to get it all done in one place as its just going to be easier than going to and from.


I doubt most of my guests would go away to recharge but its certainly an option for them to choose. Thankyou x

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My first suggestion was for a different day, so you would still only be in one place on your actual wedding day. It's called a statutory ceremony and takes about 10 minutes to visit a registry office and sign some documents to get legally married. Depending on availability you can do it during your lunch break a few weeks before your wedding. Then you don't need a registrar to come to your hotel on your actual wedding day and you can have your ceremony whenever you like. As you say, a lot of your family got married after 2pm so you could follow that.

Have your photos / mingling / drinks longer than 1 hour, 1.5 hours is the norm so Buffet at 12.30

Ceremony at 10am

photos / mingling / drinks 10.30 - 12 mid day

food 12.00 -2pm

Bring your evening party forward to 5pm - eve guests arrive then with a first dance at 6 pm

Leaves you with 3 hours to "fill" instead of 5.5 hours

View quoted message Ooooo I like this. I'm not sure about my photographer. I'll have to ask what timeframe she's allocating for us. Thankyou x

View quoted message I've messaged my photographer and she's going to be with me 9:45-11:15ish x

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Personally I think that is a little - let's say, not very generous. 9.45 would mean that everyone is already in the room, so no shots of guests arriving mingling or the room set out waiting for you.

Then after the ceremony 45 mins is not long and will be over in a flash and wouldn't leave much time for after ceremony mingling and congrats as well as any other group shots. Or any fun !

If it were me I would be there about 9am and then leave after your buffet starts about 12.30. As you are getting ready there I would probably not miss the opportunity to get a few quick prep shots too actually and the lads before. And if you were having speaches first I would pull them in too, but that's just me, don't want to criticise others business practice's but I wouldn't feel fulfilled myself that I have done a good job for you otherwise.

Your photographer is only going to be with you for an hour and a half?!! That sounds a bit stingy!

I agree with Bill - these timings are going to mean no photos of the ceremony space or guests beforehand as the whole 15 minutes is going to be photographing you arriving. And after, unless you only have a handful of guests, it's going to be very rushed to get enough photos. Getting even a small number of people to get themselves into groups is like herding cats. We had 13 guests and a minimal number of formal shots, and I don't think we would have got everything done in that timeframe.

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I'm having the Bronze package x


Our friend is good at photographs and has a very good camera (plus my daughter is going into photography for college so she'll be doing her thing too) so we only wanted a professional for the main ceremony and afterwards xx

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Ok, this is a bit off topic, but have you seen whole wedding albums from your photographer? And some independent reviews (i.e. not ones quoted on her website) I guess it depends on what area you are getting married in, but that does seem cheap to the point of too good to be true.

Sorry to throw another spanner in the works but 10am until 11.30pm is a very long day for your guests will only be having a buffet at lunchtime? I think you might need to consider some additional food in the evening. Regarding filling in time, could you play some games? Bingo or a quiz? Or even some board games? Or if your venue has space, maybe some giant garden games? You could split your guests into teams (best to do this beforehand) and make it a little competition. Alternatively as someone stated earlier, giving them some free time is a good idea. If your hotel has grounds that people could explore or if there are shops or local attractions etc nearby. Good luck with scheduling, it's a pain but I'm sure your day will be wonderful

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Well spotted! I hadn't realised the evening food was only dessert.

View quoted message This is why I find these forums so helpful, it gives you more eyes to look after stuff to sense check☺️. I always notice your username in discussions and you have fantastic ideas and often suggest things that I had overlooked.

I don’t think you can avoid that a 10am start is very early for your guests and would give them a very long and potential boring day. It’s also a very early start for people that aren’t local.
My suggestion would be to only invite close family to the ceremony who can then disperse for a couple of hours. The rest of your guests can then join around 3pm for a welcome drink and snack. You can then have your formal photographs and speeches before having your wedding breakfast around 5pm with the disco kicking off around 7:30.
This is the version of events I would find the most enjoyable as a guest - you might also feel the need for break yourself!

View quoted message We have a big family (4 siblings plus myself is 5 and between us there's 15 children haha) and only like a handful of friends coming. Max is 60 people for the ceremony plus reception including me, hubby and our kids lol.
Tbf we may put on another spread but it all depends on funds as its tight as it is lol - been waiting to marry this man for almost 16 years (been together 22 years, he originally proposed back in 2007 lol)
I've clearly drifted and told you my lifes story🤣The only people who aren't local are hubby sister and family and they're going to stay in the same hotel for a couple of nights.
I suppose a 3 hour break would be ok but I wouldn't know what to do with the time lol. Wish we could predict the weather haha

View quoted message That makes sense but if you invite everyone to everything then you really must have more food than just a buffet at lunch time. Your guests will be ravenous by the evening!


Your other option is not having a traditional party, doing lunch, speeches, mingling and games and wrapping things up around 6 or 7pm

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I agree, having an earlier finish time might be best if you can't afford to feed your guests twice. I know it can be really hard balancing the wedding you want with the wedding you can afford, but having enough food is vital. Guests won't remember a lot of the trimmings in a few year's time, but one thing they will remember is feeling hungry! (I went to one wedding over 10 years ago where they under-catered on the buffet and my table was the last to go up...literally all I can remember about that wedding now is how hungry I was!)

I’m going to be completely honest and say from my experience if you can, change the date. I got married 1st time round at 9.30 and it was such a disjointed day. Guests went home and came back in the evening. People were drunk and left before the evening. I really didn’t enjoy the day at all. It’s too long a day as well. Just my experience and I hope yours is different but it’s such a special day you want it to be perfect.
I hope yours is x

Could you do the legal bit at 10am with only a couple of people? Siblings or a couple of good friends? Then do a ceremony with a celebrant at 2/3 which all family and friends could come to?


I know you have a photographer but you could have the bronze package one for the legal ceremony and have your friends or another photographer to join you later in the day?
I think you may find it challenging to keep all your guests entertained throughout the day. I went to a wedding at 9.30 and left by 4pm as they wanted us to go away and come back for dinner and a night out (I had other things planned for the evening, which the couple were aware of, however it was an extremely long day). I also attended a wedding at 10am, got sent away at 1pm and told to come back at 6pm. I ended up leaving at 10pm as it was such a long day.

View quoted message We already changed the date, they didn't have an afternoon slot and we don't want to rearrange it again 🙈


Thanks for the wishes, keep your fingers crossed for us 🙏🏻🤣 xx

I agree with poster who says do the legal bit on another day; then have your blessing ceremony later in the day of your big celebration. In all honesty I would not want to attend a wedding where my presence is required for more than 12 hours! Even the waiting around at regular weddings has me baulking, and it's something I've tried to be mindful of for other guests when planning mine. Everyone wants to be there to celebrate with you, but no one wants to be just hanging around; if they are it might be all they remember from the day (I've certainly been to a few where the poor time management stands out!). Definitely consider doing the legal bit another day, then you can have a lovely relaxed blessing.

As a guide, this is my day;


11am ceremony11.30-1.30 reception drinks & photography1.30-4.30 wedding breakfast6pm-1am evening reception
For us there's only an hour and a half bef9re the evening where people will need to entertain themselves.
Hope this helps x

View quoted message This is a very long day. What are you expecting guests to do in the 2 hours you have photos and 1.5 hours in between the wedding breakfast and party. Do you really think your guests will take 3 hours to eat?


I think you have a lot of time to fill here - what else have you got planned?

View quoted message The photos - everyone will be having family photos taken as well as our wedding ones - just a thing my family does. There's a lot of us so it will take time.
I've no idea how long it'll take them to eat so that's why I was asking for help lol

View quoted message It really won’t take 3 hours to eat. I was at a wedding on Saturday and it probably took 1.5hours WITH speeches. 6pm is also very early for the disco to start especially if you want them to go until 1am.


I’m sorry i’m really not trying to be negative but I would really encourage you to think about how your guests will experience this day and what kind of vibe you are after - you want people to come away from your wedding feeling like they had a blast!

View quoted message The photos directly after the ceremony is also during the drinks reception, and include all the group photos.


The time frame given to me for the wedding breakfast is from my venue, I trust their judgement as this is what they do every day.
There is a bar available and plenty of places to sit and relax for the between part after the wedding breakfast.
Most of my guests are adults and perfectly capable of keeping themselves entertained for an hour. Some are staying at the venue and so they also have the option to head off to their room for the wait.
If there was a 3 or 4 hour wait between, that would be different but with chatting and catching up with people I'm sure they're going to manage 🥰

I would do the legal/registrar bit on another day (can be any day!) just the two of you in the legal office and then have a celebrant for your actual ceremony which you can make at whatever time you want on your wedding day. They can perform the whole ceremony exactly like a legal one if you don't want people to know you did the legal bit separately and you can make your ceremony more personal instead of just saying out loud the legal jargon.

I personally don't think it's a big deal of 'this exact spot is where I officially officially said these things to the other person for it to be legal by the government.' Your wedding day is the day you decide that you got married, doesn't matter when the registrar stuff is. I just would prefer my family and friends to have the best experience/day ever over that. Obviously please do whatever you want, I just don't think you should put that much weight on it to make it easier for yourself.

I'll have to ask what timeframe she's allocating for us. Thankyou x