Timings for the day

Personally I'd space the ceremony and meal out a bit more. It's be nice for guests to mingle, have a drink and perhaps some canapes. In your instance, perhaps a meal at around 5pm?

We didn’t get a lot of choice with ours - timings are largely dictated by the caterer. We’d have to pay more to have the meal later and the caterer stay longer, which we don’t have the budget for.


Bear in mind that you may need more drinks (and canapés if you’re having them) if you extend the time between the ceremony and the meal. We have been recommended 2-3 drinks per person for an hour and a half. If your venue has a bar though, people can buy their own drinks, so this may not be an issue.
If you’re not having canapés (or other food) after the ceremony, it might be better to have the meal sooner as people will start to get hungry. If people are arriving for a 2pm ceremony, they are likely arriving from 1pm and may not all have had lunch.
Also, think about when you are doing the speeches. If you are doing them first, this could delay the meal longer.

If your wedding is at 2.pm, a civil ceremony will see you outside with drinks by 2.30. I would say that 90% of my weddings will then have a 1.5 hour gap before the meal. So 4pm meal

But people never factor in the time it actually takes for guests to

Wait for everyone else

Have a last fag

Go to the loo

I would also advise against a traditional receiving line as this would add at least an extra 20 mins to people getting in to the room.

When it comes to the wedding photography I find that with 1.5 hours gap you have to be very time conscious and "on the ball" but an extra 1/2 hour takes all the pressure off. A perfect compromise would be 1.3/4 hours so for you

call everyone in at at 4.15

aim to start service at 4.30

2.5 -3 hours (with speeches )

finnish 6.60 - 7pm

But at 7 I would normally expect your eve guests to start arriving so there will be no gap to even catch your breath after food.

So I would suggest that you have your ceremony at 1.30, which would give you extra time after the meal to chill and relax with your day and arriving evening guests.

View quoted message That was what I was leaning towards but the venue said they always do 2 hours. I then started to worry that 5 would cut into the evening too much but I think it would be better at 5! Thanks for your opinion!

View quoted message That makes sense. Our caterer is the venue so theoretically no reason we can’t but they’re very strong on the 2hours between ceremony and meal idea.


I was thinking that a 2pm ceremony people would most likely have ate lunch or a late, large breakfast at least as that’s what I’d do- either eat first if local or travel there early enough to get something before it starts but maybe some people wouldn’t.
Yes we are thinking of speeches first so meal starting at 4 makes that in between section even tighter. Maybe something between what they say and what we wanted might be better, like 4.30 maybe.
Thanks Charlotte, some good things to bear in mind there

View quoted message Oh wow, thank you. That’s really interesting insight. Can I ask is that with first dance and cake cutting taking place after evening guests arrive too yes?

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The ideal timings are if you could finish the meal and speeches for 6pm and have your evening guests arrive from 7pm and that way you get an hour to chill a little.

Also if your time slot after the ceremony was too short then an hour between end of meal and start of eve guests will give you some extra time to catch up with chatting to some of the day guests properly and some nice photography in the changing light .

I would then suggest a first dance between 8 and 8.30 with a break at 9 pm if you are having any evening snacks. Most of the time the cake is cut almost on the dance floor so that the evening guests get to see it too then as everybody has gathered to see that then they are already there to see the first dance directly after.

Give the speech makers a heads up to please do not make them long as they will be before the meal.

I have seen a speech in-between each course - but this is rare. Or the starters first and then all the speeches but this depends a lot on what your food is and if that idea will send your venue into panic.

I would ask if you can move the ceremony time to 1.30 but keep the 4pm food. Given that you hopefully want to enjoy the sunshine and chill.

View quoted message Wow thank you so much, this is so helpful! Will definitely have a look at doing that. Sounds like a great structure

I doubt if your guests will be eating a late breakfast - they will be ready by 4.00 pm.

View quoted message Yes i expect so, does seem to make sense from looking into it more. Thanks