What are your timings for your wedding day?

Doesn't sound too rushed to me! My only question is what guests are doing from 5-5:30? If they leave at 4:30 and have a 20 minute journey, will they end up mingling in the car park?

Aside from that I'd say it's fine, the only thing that may be a little rushed is getting everyone a drink in half an hour before the meal - but that depends on your numbers obviously

Thanks laura! I think with the bus I'm thinking we'd probably need a bit of time to organise everyone on the bus, and also hopefully if we arrive early they would at least let everyone hang out in the garden! I'm going to speak to the pub about it this week when we meet with them. Yes I am slightly worried about the drinks part, going to ask their advice on that too to get an idea. We've gone for speeches before the meal so everyone can relax and enjoy their food!

Weve bee bee to some weddings where an earlier start has felt like a lot of waiting around but then at others it's been lovely to have time to mingle. I guess it just depends on locations / weather/ refreshments and company etc. What were your timings?

Ours were a bit different because we had an earlier ceremony and were able to get to the reception venue earlier, but it may help:

Ceremony midday
Finished 1pm, few photos at church, got to reception venue around 2ish and did couple photos
Others drove to the hotel to check in. Coach brought them to the reception, they arrived about 3:30
Canapes, drinks, outdoor games & photos until 5:30
Meal until 7:30, evening guests arrived at 8, first dance at 8:30
All over at midnight

So we had much longer for drinks and canapes, but certainly didn't need it, it was just a bit of a bonus really. I would say if you are allowed into the garden a little earlier then that'd be fine The rest of your timings match up with ours - 2 hours for the meal etc so it sounds good to me!

Is it a nice scenic drive to the venue? Could you ask the bus driver to drive around a bit till it's time to go to the venue? Or at least take the long route there?

I ended up early for the church so the driver took us on a 10min circuit so we weren't sat outside!

We were wondering about having some outdoor games too but I'm not sure what to have. What games did you go for?

We had nought & crosses, jenga, croquet, quoits... I can't remember any others, that might be all. All in 'giant' garden form, they went down really well We found ours on eBay.

Halfords and Laura Ashley have garden games on offer...we stocked up on loads at the weekend....giant pickup sticks/cards/tin can alley...

Hi Mizzi1904,

I think outdoor games are a great idea, we are planning to do them for ours. Agree with the above suggestions, and you should also have a look on etsy.com/uk and type in 'Cornhole' or 'personalised cornhole.' I think this is a US game but it's really simple and addictive. It's basically two wooden boards with a hole in each, and you set them out opposite each other with a distance in between, and you have to throw beanbags and try and get them in the hole. Etsy do bridal ones that you can have personalised with Mr & Mrs or whatever you want.

Georgie