Timings advice please - 12 or 2pm ceremony?

I agree that it sounds a bit tricky, but I think you'd be best with the 2pm service. 12 is quite early for you to get ready etc without being in a rush and is also quite early for your guests, particularly if they are travellibng. Also, it's an awkward time with eating. At least if the service is at 2, your guests can eat some lunch before they arrive, but if it is at 12 and they have to wait until the wedding breakfast to eat, they will be starving! Could you not have dinner at 5?

I am getting married at 2:30 PM on April 5th. The Registrar is coming to the hotel to marry us and we are having the ceremony and the reception in the same place - no moving about for my guests.

The reason I opted for a later wedding was for a number of reasons, really -

a) so that the guests travelling from far and wide on the morning of the wedding will not have to rush and get up at a ridiculous time, and also, so that they are not obliged to arrive the night before, thus having to spend yet more money on the hotel (some are travelling 100 miles on the morning of the wedding).

b) it gives me more time to spend with my family (mum, dad, sister) in the morning before I fly the nest for good

c) a few of the male guests - and, it could be argued, a few of the female guests, would get stuck into the bar the minute they arrived at the venue, and would end up being steaming drunk before the evening do started

d) the DJ is booked until 1AM - giving me plenty time enough.

However, we are not having an official photographer as such, so there will be no standing about and posing for photos, we have got an ad-hoc photographer who will be taking natural photos as the day goes on, so that is not an issue.

It really does depend on your circumstances.

One thing that a lot of couples say after their wedding is that the day just goes to quickly. This was certainly the case when I got married. You have to weigh this up with time needed to get ready but if you can get ready for 12 then I would go for that.

Personally, I would go with 12pm. I don't think there is much wrong with getting into your dress at 10.30, as you then have an hour to chill out before having to leave at 11.30.

One thing all the OM's say is how quickly the day goes - the earlier the service, the longer the day is (in a good way).

I think 12 might be a touch too early, I would go for 2. IME, most ceremonies are around 1/2pm mark

I know I'll sound a bit food-obsessed now, but I think if you go for the 12pm slot, then you'll need to think about providing your guests some extra food. If I went to a service at 12, given that I'd always aim to get there about 11.30 anyway, and may have travelled too, it would be too early to have a proper lunch. If we didn't eat until 6pm I'd be starving!

I think this is true for the bride and groom, etc, but all the guests might not feel the same way.... It depends on your cicrumstances and what is going on during the day, e.g. whether you'll be having entertainment, drinks reception, etc, but it can start to feel like a long day for your guests. I love weddings and am very social and quite happy being left unentertained to catch up with people, but I have been to the occasional wedding that has had parts of the day that have dragged a bit. I'd rather my guests went away thinking that the day went by so quickly because they were having so much fun, rather than thinking it was quite a long day and dragged a bit at times.

Where are you having the post-ceremony photos? 3.45 until 6pm is along time for guests to be milling around before dinner. I know it will go by quick as a flash for you but we actually changed our timings to shorten the period between ceremony and dinner after going to a wedding the week before ours and we noticed how everyone except the bride and groom seemed to get a bit bored.

This was winter though so if you can hang around in a nice outdoor space in summer it might not be so bad (unless it rains of course!)

I'd go for 2pm. Guest get bored, it's a fact. Once the meal and speeches are out the way all people are doing is hanging around for the evening part to start. Unless you want to pay out for something to occupy everyone in the lull inbetween Id go for the later option

We had a 12pm ceremony but started the evening reception at 6pm, so a bit earlier.

I also got ready at the venue so there were no photographer timing issues.

I'm wondering with your situation I might actually go for 2pm and I normally say as early as possible.

Exactly this! I have been to alot of wedding where it has got boring. Such a shame. I got married at 3pm. Best decision ever. And I didn't feed my evening guests. Sweets and cake only. They were only there for 4 hours max from 7.45pm so no need to.

Our Ceremony is at 3:00 as did not want the morning time to be rushed.

So I would op for the 2pm ceremony in your case.

I would always advise people to get married as early as possible as the day just flies in. I got married at 12.30 and this was my rough timings if it helps.

Woke up 7.30am and had some breakfast

Hairdresser and MUA arrived at 8am to start for me, 2 BMS and my mum.

TOG arrived at 10

Got into my dress at 11.30

TOG and BMS left at 12 to head to church.

I left with my Dad at 12.15

Ceremony and photos took until 2pm

Arrived at venue 2.30

Canapes and drinks served while more photos were taken

Called through to reception room at 4pm

Speeches 4.15

Meal served just before 5pm

Meal finished before 7pm

Band started 8pm

We had a four course meal and there was plenty of time for the band to set up so it's more than possible to have band start at 7pm if you would prefer?

ETA if you're worried about the timing of the TOG before the ceremony then I'm sure 30 mins would be ok rather than the 45mins and he can take extra photos after the ceremony if need be. I know that only buys you 15 mins in the morning but I'm just using that as an example of where timings can be flexible.

So did I! I did however feed my evening guests but it was cheap enough to. The day flowed perfectly

Hey all, I'm a newbie on here.

We have the same choice of timings for our church ceremony, we went for 2pm.

Main reason was that it would give guests who are travelling from afar time to get to the church. Also I couldn't bare to rush in the morning - I'm slow moving as it is when it comes to getting ready, and on my wedding day I know I would procrastinate even more, so 2pm seemed to be the best time. Guests can also feed themselves before the ceremony (there are plenty of shops near the church) so I'm not worrying too much about people going hungry. I'm thinking of putting little "order of the day" sheets in with the invites (nothing too detailed, just key timings) so people should know what to expect.

We have also gone with having the ceremony at 2pm - not because of the church, but because of our venue - they do either 2pm or 4pm arrival.

My initial reaction was to go with a 12pm church ceremony and 2pm arrival at our venue, but when I thought about it, as others have said, that would be a massive rush to get ready (i am notoriously late for everything!), and it would leave quite a long gap between end of meal and beginning of the evening do, whereas the later ceremony would mean we can go straight into the evening after the room turnaround.

I have been to weddings that started as early as 11, and don't really remember being bored at any point, but really really hungry!! 12 is a really awkward time for guests eating before hand, whereas for a 2pm ceremony they have loads of time to eat before they come, which was another factor that swayed us!

But go with what's important to you, guests will always find a way around things - I remember my family all eating cereal bars in the car on the way to a reception after the service!?

Our ceremony is at 11am!

I want to get the most out of the day as I possibly can seeing as we are paying for it ?

If guests get bored they can go over to the zoo (which is across the car park from the hotel) ?

I'm having mine at 12, mainly cos its a catholic ceremony and these things are meant to take a while! I'm not too worried about getting up early as I can imagine being pretty excited. Also I'll get more wedding day

however, I did go to a wedding in May last year that wasn't until 4 and it was lovely, very relaxed, no quiet bits, whole day flowed really nicely.

Do you know what time your evening do can go onto?