Timeline for december wedding

We got married last Sunday.

2pm ceremony

2.30pm Arrival drinks and photos (we got some with the sunset behind us - can't wait to see them when we get the photos through from the TOG!)

4pm Hog roast

6.30pm Casino (2 hours) and DJ

8pm Cake cutting

10pm Fireworks and supper buffet

Midnight finish

Do you have a drinks reception included? They take a little while. I would say you want at least an hour and a half between ceremony finishing and the next thing. I also think your cake cutting and speeches need an hour, depending on whether you're being seated before or after your speeches and whether you're having a receiving line. Everything takes a little longer than you think!

I was MOH at the weekend and the timings for that were roughly:

1pm ceremony

Half 1ish drinks reception and photos

3pm receiving into dinner, then dinner and speeches

Half 5/6ish a chance for people to mingle, check in and they had some games to play (bar billiards etc)

7pm cake cutting then first dance

Dancing and games until midnight.

Hope that helps ☺

Depending on the venue you could organise entertainment like a fun casino, close up magician or something like that.

But to be honest at a lot of weddings I've been to, people just mingle. Don't feel like you have to entertain your guests for every minute. A bit of mingling time for you and your partner would be great too. One thing I regret at our own wedding was not being able to spend enough time with family who'd traveled a long way. A bit of 'free' time would have really helped us.

The time doesn't really matter, it all depends on your photographer and what they can cope with.

I photographed a wedding yesterday at 3pm. We had time to do the big group shot before it went dark, then did the bridal portraits at sunset. After that we did the group photos inside the hotel using studio flash.

The sit down time for the meal was 5pm and I was done in plenty of time!

Okay I feel a lot better, we have arrival drinks, toast drink and drink with meal included. I am glad, I haven't booked my photgorapher yet but want to find someone who does photograph december weddings, all the sites i've been on local to us they have summer phtoos throughout the portfolio ... which i don't get, it's scotland, it isn't sunny that much! ha, thank you everyone, feel more at ease and didn't realise everything takes so much time ha! A receiving line when is that usually done?

And congratulations on your recent wedding

Its a known fact that photographers only show bright sunny photos?? partly because they look nicer than a dark winter wedding does and partly because some photographers cant handle the winter lighting that a winter wedding brings so be careful who you book. Try to look at the photographers blogs for winter weddings.

I know a few photographers in Scotland that know what they are doing if you want some recommendations but obviously it depends on your budget.

Any recommendations for winter photographers would be good, can only find nice summer ones online ha!

I would highly recommend these photographers and they know how to shoot a winter wedding.

http://fnsweddings.co.uk/
http://davidho.co.uk/
https://www.ianarthur.co.uk/
http://www.martinpettinger.com/

All different pricing, hope you find the right one?

Where are you in Scotland Christy?

One of the things many photographers recommend these days is to ask for three gallery log in passwords to real weddings supplied to previous brides. So when you do that just ask for three winter weddings. If the photographer only sends you summer galleries back (or refuses access completely) you will know not to book them!

Thanks I'm in fife and thanks for the tip I didn't realise I could ask to see the online galleries of weddings.

I think you already have the advice you need, but just to chip in with some more timings. We did:

12.30pm Church Ceremony

1.30pm Drinks reception and photos at reception venue

3.00pm Wedding breakfast

5.00pm Coffee in the bar and time to mingle

7.00pm Evening reception

In practice, a lot of our evening guests started arriving between 5.30 and 6.30, so we did a lot more meeting and greeting then. Didn't seem to be a problem having a lull - my grandmother went off for a nap so it was actually quite a useful break for her - everyone just mingled and carried on the festivities.

Ahh... was wondering re location as I have family in Aberdeen who we rarely get chance to visit!

With the gallery access you'd be asking ones where you already know they are in your price range & available etc. Ask something like "I'd love to see some real weddings just as you supplied them to previous brides. Please could you select me three recent galleries and send over the passwords? Winter weddings similar to mine if possible."