So my wedding is less than a month away, and now CHCC is giving me stress about the time that I put on the invitation! My ceremony starts at 630, the original banquet mansager told me to make sure to put 1/2 hr before so ppl are on time, so I did. Now some theyre coming out saying why I put 6pm?? BC YOUR STAFF told me so! Is this normal? it makes sense to me to tell ppl to come before the ceremony starts, am I wrong?
I was told the same thing. My ceremony starts at 11:30 and they told me to put 11. They said this way it will prevent people showing up late and walking in during the ceremony or trying to walk in as I'm walking in. If the hall told you to put a 1/2 before the ceremony then I wouldn't worry about it. If the person questioning you is different than the person who told you that then someone is misinformed. I would question the person who originally told you that just for your own peace of mind.
I want to do this also and some venues I spoke with even said to do it but the two venues I ended up deciding between both had 1 hour ceremony times and said not to because they will be doing hospitality. I think for my 6:00 ceremony though they said hospitality will be 5:45 to 6:00 for people who get there early and to start right at 6:00. I'm not exactly sure and need to check-but I still want to put an earlier start time because how would the venue know?! lol I would just leave it at 6:00 and CHCC will have to figure it out!!
For Westbury Manor, they told us they can accomodate 1/2 before the ceremony so that's the time I put in there. You don't want people to be late and like the other posts they should be ready for the early birds anyway so I don't think it really matters that much.
My ceremony is at church, and when I had my invitations done, my planner said to put the church time as a half hour early. You don't want anyone showing up at the same time you're making your entrance.
I understand why a venue might suggest that, but in the end, it's not up to them to tell you what time you put on your invitations!!! And they shouldn't be giving you a hard time about it!
I think they said the same thing to me. I made my invite time earlier too, I think it's pretty customary since I really would prefer people to not be late. CHCC should be able to accomadate everyone who arrives early. I'm sorry they're giving you stress about it.
Posted by leidyk
So my wedding is less than a month away, and now CHCC is giving me stress about the time that I put on the invitation! My ceremony starts at 630, the original banquet mansager told me to make sure to put 1/2 hr before so ppl are on time, so I did. Now some theyre coming out saying why I put 6pm?? BC YOUR STAFF told me so! Is this normal? it makes sense to me to tell ppl to come before the ceremony starts, am I wrong?
Thank you!! I knew I wasn't crazy. Everyone is saying the same thing! Even when I've received invitations myself I know the ceremony won't start pron until 20-30 mins after...The man we met, I’ve never seen before, he comes out saying bc I put 6pm on invite, ppl are going to show up at 530, really? Its common sense to put 15-30 mins before ceremony starts so that people can get there before it starts. The banquet manager I dealt with told me to do this cus I had no idea, hellooo. She's gone now, so bc the contract time says 6:30, I'm 'wrong' for putting 6pm - Again their own staff advised me to this, and now I wish it was part of my email chain - I don't understand these ppl, really dude? We are dropping a S*^t load of $ here, and you want to stress this? In my opinion they’re just trying to nickel and dime us, which is unbelievable lack of professionalism and touch. They have changed my banquet manager 3 X’s: The one I signed contract with a yr ago left, so they put someone else in charge, and now I’m dealing with someone different. I was so stressed! He says we don’t want a line of cars before the staff is ready on Jericho Tpke, really dude? Seriously I almost lost it! We told him to listen to himself and hear if he made sense, put 6:30 on invite so as I'm walking down ppl come in and interrupt???
I was told a half hour earlier too. Don't let them push you around. They need to make accommodations for you.
My friend sut got married in November at the Swan CLub. They told her to write half an hour before on the invitation. I thought that was the actual time of her wedding, so I got there 15 minutes early for that time. I was hte only person there for awhile. I was annoyed, but it ended up being a good thing for her, because if it had started at that time, everyone would have been there late. Tell your close friends the correct time. Everyone else let them think it's that time--that way they get there on time. The staff had told us they told my friend to write on teh invitation half an hour early. They said that was standard. i'm definitely going to do that for my wedding. You might have 1 or 2 people annoyed, but in the long run you'll have everyone there for your ceremony.
Posted by leidyk
So my wedding is less than a month away, and now CHCC is giving me stress about the time that I put on the invitation! My ceremony starts at 630, the original banquet mansager told me to make sure to put 1/2 hr before so ppl are on time, so I did. Now some theyre coming out saying why I put 6pm?? BC YOUR STAFF told me so! Is this normal? it makes sense to me to tell ppl to come before the ceremony starts, am I wrong?
I put 5pm and my ceremony was at 5:30 but my hall did a 1/2 hr from 5-5:30 of pass h'ourdervs.
Posted by CandiRose921
I can help!
My invitation designer gave me the official etiquette associated with this dilemma, because I had the same experience! Although it may be OK to trick the FH into getting somewhere on time by saying an event starts earlier than it does (let's be realistic, we've all been there), my designer said its bad form on the invitation.
Wedding etiquette says that guests should arrive approximately 15 minutes to 1/2 hour earlier than your wedding.
So if you put 6:00 on your invite instead of 6:30, your 'etiquette-savvy' guests will show up at 5:30 and your 'etiquette-oblivious' guests show up on time. If your venue is doing a hospitality service for the half hour before, you may have etiquette-savvy guests showing up with nothing to do for a half hour.
We went with 6:30. If anyone arrives late, they're being held back from interrupting the ceremony by the venue attendants.
Hope it helps!
