Wedding timings for late afternoon wedding

If ceremony is at 3 then factor in 2 hours for this and photos/drinks etc, You could have food at 5, normally give 2 hours for food and speeches, then start evening at 7.30 as venue may need time to turn room around and also gives your day guests and yourselves a bit of time to freshen up, or buffer for an over run. I would say invite evening guests for 7.30.

All that said, your venue will be best placed to advise on timings as they do this all the time. It will also depend on if your ceremony is at a different location as you need to factor in travel time. Personally I would also say think hard about a later start time, as it all goes so fast, if it were me I would have ceremony earlier just to allow you time to really enjoy the day and it be more relaxed as the later start means you are cramming in and rushing. If you were not having a sit down meal and just an evening buffet then later start is good, but if you want the full on meal and reception I would start earlier

Hi


Our wedding is starting at 2.30pm. This is the rough timetable given by the hotel.Ceremony 2.30pmDrinks reception 3.15pmDinner at 5pm or 5.30pmWe aren't having evening guests. Hope this gives you an idea 🙂Sinéad x

View quoted message Thanks Sinéad, that's really useful.

View quoted message You make a good point about the day going so quickly! Will factor that and weddings always running late into my timings!

View quoted message No problems enjoy the planning xx

Hi, we’re getting married next month and our ceremony is at 3:30pm. Our caterers and venue worked with us to create timings for the day, which are: ceremony at 3:30pm-3:50pm, canapés/drinks 3:50pm-5:20pm, 3 course sit-down meal 5:30pm (with speeches in-between the main & dessert), tea/coffee at 7:45pm. The evening bar opens at 8pm and we’ve asked evening guests to arrive at 8:30pm, with evening food served at 9pm. Good luck with planning!

View quoted message Amazing, thank you!

View quoted message You’re welcome, hope it helps a bit I forgot to say, we opted for the later ceremony due to registrar availability - but it turns out there are lots of benefits to the later start time. Most of our guests have to travel on the day so they won’t be in a rush and they can check in to hotels/accommodation before the ceremony, our suppliers/hair/makeup/photographers don’t have a super early start, we get plenty of time to get ready with bridesmaids/groomsmen (and have prep photos taken), and our guests won’t start drinking too early in the day!

View quoted message Those are really good points!!