I am so bummed about my reception

Truly, I had no idea what I was doing when I booked.

Okay. I booked a 'noon' reception (they're starting me at 11:45 for 'crowd control' since another wedding will be going on).

Mom really wants me to get married in our church (and I kind of want to also). The only thing is, I'd have to get married at 10:00AM, NO room for being late for makeup, or for dressing, church photos, etc. and I'd have to miss my cocktail hour (and so would my bridal party) in order to take pictures at the reception site.

Can I hear from some brides out there who had noon or 1pm receptions how you handled your ceremony and taking photos? This is totally bumming me out. Thanks.

I know how you feel! Our cocktail hour starts at 12noon. We originally booked hall for both the reception and ceremony. so now we are doing church. Want my church we won't compromise. Earliest wedding slot is 11 am. We do want a simple ceremony though. but still only gives guest 1/2 hour to get to cocktail hour forget about us and photos!!!!!

we had a noon reception with a 11:30 am ceremony at the hall. We were at the salon at 6:30am, at the hall at 9am . I couldn't sleep past 4:30am anyway....
(running late), yes we missed CH, but we knew that and didn't care.

No one complained and no one showed up late besides a cousin and her kids

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Posted by ravens_bride

I know how you feel! Our cocktail hour starts at 12noon. We originally booked hall for both the reception and ceremony. so now we are doing church. Want my church we won't compromise. Earliest wedding slot is 11 am. We do want a simple ceremony though. but still only gives guest 1/2 hour to get to cocktail hour forget about us and photos!!!!!

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Here are some hugs from me to you!! I thought I was going crazy thinking I was in this alone.

I can't change ... ETA

sorry -posted before I finished typing.

I can't change my date now (FI would KILL me cause I've changed it so many times already). I really don't want to compromise on the church either. This shouldn't be this hard.

My church wedding is at 11:00, our cocktail hour starts at 12:30. There is a 15 minute drive between, so I think we'll be okay.

Don't be bummed about this! This is your wedding day. (Remember, you've been dreaming about this for 20 or 30 years!) You are marrying someone you love! The best thing about being done early, is that you get your wedding night to yourselves. We'll get to our hotel around 8 and have plenty of time to just be alone and talk about what we just did.

The only bad part that I'm experiencing is that my hair and make-up people are showing up at 5. My poor BMs have to be at my house at 5am that day. Ouch! Not the end of the world. My hair and make-up ladies are terrific and neither had a problem with the time they need to arrive. (They will each have to drive at least 30 mins to get to me!)

Keep your chin up and focus on all the great things!

I am getting married at the hall, but I am in the same boat as you. I guess we will just have to make it happen.

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Posted by JLP

My church wedding is at 11:00, our cocktail hour starts at 12:30. There is a 15 minute drive between, so I think we'll be okay.

Don't be bummed about this! This is your wedding day. (Remember, you've been dreaming about this for 20 or 30 years!) You are marrying someone you love! The best thing about being done early, is that you get your wedding night to yourselves. We'll get to our hotel around 8 and have plenty of time to just be alone and talk about what we just did.

The only bad part that I'm experiencing is that my hair and make-up people are showing up at 5. My poor BMs have to be at my house at 5am that day. Ouch! Not the end of the world. My hair and make-up ladies are terrific and neither had a problem with the time they need to arrive. (They will each have to drive at least 30 mins to get to me!)

Keep your chin up and focus on all the great things!

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Thanks so much for your support! I really have to stop driving myself crazy.

Fortunately, my makeup person is a personal friend so I will tell her to get to my house really, really early and I'm sure she'll accommodate me. My hair is another story.

I'm gonna make sure I party my butt off after all this!!

Hugs all around on insane timing!
You are so right about not stressing it, comparably this is a small part of it. I would say my reception hall is about 20 min from church so the guest don't have to stand around watching pictures they aren't in. also we don't have to find someone's house for them to hang out in for a 1 hr + wait in between! There is always a bright side!

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Posted by ravens_bride

Hugs all around on insane timing!
You are so right about not stressing it, comparably this is a small part of it. I would say my reception hall is about 20 min from church so the guest don't have to stand around watching pictures they aren't in. also we don't have to find someone's house for them to hang out in for a 1 hr + wait in between! There is always a bright side!

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Hey - you're right!! Two friends of mine are serving as hostesses. I am going to have them shoo everybody to the CH right after the ceremony and tell everyone we'll greet them at the reception (moving from table to table). You girls are my sanity-savers!

Hey... if the day wedding is really bumming you out that bad... you can always do what I did.

I originally scheduled a day wedding at the Swan Club. Well... my FW came to me one day telling me 'Oh... I think I would rather have a night wedding.'

Granted... this was after the Swan Club had almost 1/2 the total cash... and we had the DJ and photographer booked.

Well we called the Swan Club... asking about this. They said the night wedding was still available and they charged us $15 buks extra a head. Both the DJ and Photographer had the 'one worker... per event... per day' deal... so switching them from day to night was rather easy.


Ask about it. But depending on your hall... they may or may not already be booked.

I'm doing an 11am ceremony at the church and a 1pm cocktail hour. The church is about 1/2 hour away...so I figured that I'll be able to take all the pictures with mom, dad and the girls before I leave the house...groom doing the same with his family and then take a few during cocktail hour.

I wanted to add two things. First, I am not sure what your religion is, but if you are Catholic, you can opt for the ceremony instead of the mass, which will shave some time off, and may give you an extra 20 minutes or so to get photos in between the ceremony and the reception.

Second, don't feel too bad about making your BMs get there early. I was a BM for my dear friend who had an 11:00 mass, but we were taking all the photos before the church, so we all had to be ready by 8AM, so we were up early! This is part of agreeing to be a BM- if they love you, and want to be part of the wedding, they will do it for you. I am also dropping the receiving line from my own wedding to give us some time to get some outside photos before it gets dark out. This may not go over well with the parents, but my etiquette book says this is fine as long as you greet all of your guests at the CH or the reception.

I didn't do this, but my photog suggested that we do the photos of just me and DH a couple of days before the wedding to maximize photo time. I didn't like the idea, but if I was crunched for time I may have thought differently. Just a suggestion and if you react the way I did at first I will understand.

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Posted by dpli

I wanted to add two things. First, I am not sure what your religion is, but if you are Catholic, you can opt for the ceremony instead of the mass, which will shave some time off, and may give you an extra 20 minutes or so to get photos in between the ceremony and the reception.

Second, don't feel too bad about making your BMs get there early. I was a BM for my dear friend who had an 11:00 mass, but we were taking all the photos before the church, so we all had to be ready by 8AM, so we were up early! This is part of agreeing to be a BM- if they love you, and want to be part of the wedding, they will do it for you. I am also dropping the receiving line from my own wedding to give us some time to get some outside photos before it gets dark out. This may not go over well with the parents, but my etiquette book says this is fine as long as you greet all of your guests at the CH or the reception.

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Wow - thanks so much! A lot of good suggestions. I have to have a pow-wow with my BM's.