Cocktail Hour Starting Time

Ok, I am SOOO confused. My ceremony begins at 2pm at a church that is about 15 minutes from my reception hall. We are having a full mass. We were planning on starting our cocktail hour at 3:30 but the photographers and videographers I've visted have all said that I'm not leaving enough time in between for photos. I figured I'd switch the start time to 4:00 but the photographer still said I'm pushing it. I do not want all of my guests to be wandering around the country in Suffolk County on a Sunday with absolutely nothing to do for three hours, but in the same respect, I do not want me, my fiance and all of my bridesmaides and ushers to be starving and missing the whole party! Can everyone please tell me how much time they are leaving between their ceremony and the reception or offer any advice? I've given every vendor I've booked a different start time!

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

I think the only way to prevent your guests from having lot of dead time and for you to enjoy your own cocktail hour is to take your photos prior to the ceremony or take a photojournalistic approach (having very few posed photos). Most photographers take more than 1 hour for the photos - if you add travel time to that you probably need to allot 2 hours to make sure you don't miss anything.

What worked for us...

11:00 Ceremony - short version 11:30 - 12:00 - receiving line at church (just the bride, groom and mothers) 12:30 - Cocktail Hour starts We too had about a 15 minute drive. The photographers took some pictures at the church too - posed at the alter, and some of us leaving the church and getting into the limo. Ideally, I would have preferred an extra half hour - things were somewhat rushed, and most people arrived about the time that the cocktail hour started. My recommendation would be about an hour to an hour and a half between the END of the ceremony and the start of the cocktail hour. Our reception hall told us they would probably open the doors 10 min. early, and some others we looked at had offered coffe, lemonade, etc. for guests that arrived early. We fit other pictures in during part of the cocktail hour and again later during the reception.

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

I am getting married at 2 pm. Im having a full Mass also. Between the mass and the receiving line it will be about an hour and a half. Its about an hour drive to my reception, so I will have an hour to shoot photos. You can ask your hall if they will allow your guests in about an hour early before the cocktail hour. Thats what I did and it was no problem.

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

My full mass starts at 1:30PM We expect it to end by 3:00 w/pictures. The drive to our site is about an hour. We should be there by 4:00. Our cocktail hour starts at 5:00 giving us one hour before guests arrive for pictures. I don't think 1 hour is too much time to leave people. I've had longer waits than that and everyone will find something to do. It's your day and you want to enjoy it so make sure you don't rush. We want to be able to enjoy our cocktail hour with our guests. If you're willing to miss it, that's a different story.

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

I thought I had so much time in between my cocktail hour and the ceremony and I was worried about the guests wondering around too. Ceremony was to start at 3:30pm we started about 3:45 it was about 45 minutes long. The cocktail hour started at 6pm about 15 minutes away from church. We only took two pictures at church and headed off with wedding party to take our shots. With traffic and trying to leave the church we wound up getting to the reception hall at about 6:30 and we still had to take pictures with parents. So my husband and I got to enjoy about 2 minutes of our cocktail hour. I was so dissappointed. So I say add some more time in between. It depends on where you reception is but ours was at a country club so we just started a tab at the bar in the club house for those guests who arrived early.

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

We probably have the tightest time frame and we are determined to make it work, even if it means missing some of the cocktail hour for 15-30 minutes. Our full Mass is at 11:30 a.m. We have spoken with our priest, who is a blessing, and he is determined to keep our full Mass at 40 minutes (as opposed to almost an hour). We have decided to forget the after Mass receiving line, because our cocktail hour is slated to start at 1 p.m., and it's at least 1/2 hour drive between church and reception. Our photographer has been really accomodating, in terms of helping us how to plan around this tight time frame. My family will take all photos before the ceremony, so all the formal posed shots we'll have to do after the ceremony and before the cocktal hour will be my FH's family. We know that we will miss some of our cocktail hour, but getting some photos out of the way before hand makes it a little more bearable.....

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

I have never been to a wedding where they took pictures after the ceremony that did not have a long wait in between the church and reception. I think it is accepted. I have gone to hotels rooms, to a bar to catch up with people, back to peoples houses, etc... Do what makes you feel comfortable, I have never heard anyone complain. I am getting pictures taken before, to save time and also because I am having the ceremony at the hall. It saves a lot of agita. And I definitely don't believe in bad luck. Did you ever see a couple get divorced and say - it must be because they saw each other before the ceremony? So I would suggest that if you don't want to leave a lot of in between time, but its no big deal if you do leave 2 hours between.

WE shot the majority of the pix before the ceremony

We are so glad we did! No one felt rushed and we were able to really enjoy every moment of the wedding. Good luck!

Cocktail Hour Starting Time

Thank you everybody!