Reposting my Q from BHB

Kristina2009 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 01:57 PM

Reposting my Q from BHB

Ladies - I need some advice.

I am getting married at a church in NYC which is about 30 minutes (with minimal traffic) away from my long island reception hall. This is for May 2009.

I am having trouble deciding when to start the wedding mass. Our cocktail hour starts at 7pm and we have use of the bridal suite after 5pm. We also plan to find a picture site for in between but I don't want people getting bored either (although I do want them to make the cocktail hour)

I was thinking either:
1. 2pm
2. 2:30pm
3. 3pm

Please help!

Thanks!

Ann 52409 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:10 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

I dont know how long your ceremony is so I would tell you that I think the ceremony should end at 5:30 to leave an hour for pictures and a half hour for traffic and not have your guest waiting to long while you are taking pictures

longislandlibrarian Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:15 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

my church is the same dostance from my RH (30 mins) and we start Cocktail hour at 7pm! and we are having 230 church!

Kristina2009 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:17 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

Thanks ladies. I am probably having a full mass so I am thinking it will run about an hour.

Glad to see someone else was thinking of leaving a long spacng in between. I am just worried about my guests having a lot of downtime!

novia26 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:18 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

I vote for 2 or 2:30 because ceremonies hardly ever start on time, so I would place an earlier time for the late guests or anything else that may come up.

Ann 52409 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:26 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

If you have it at 2 and it ends at 3 what are your guest going to do for 4 hours

Kristina2009 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 02:47 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

I am definetely a little worried about that. I am having a large wedding so I think over half my guests likely will not attend the ceremony (unfortunetely that has been the case for all my friends and my sister when she was married). For my sister's wedding my parents opened up their home for drinks and snacks to the guests that attended the mass. (I think maybe 30 people took them up on it).

Really not sure what to do - I am thinking in May the traffic could maybe the ride between up to an hour and I also want to leave time for pictures at a site and at our hall.

LegoBride Posted: Dec 30, 2007 03:03 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

We are having the same issue but we decided on 2pm and our guests will come to the church relaxed and then they have time to get ready before the reception - many will be traveling from Brooklyn to LI so they are happy to get ready in between

MrsDtoBe09 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 03:16 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

Posted by 09BridetoBe

I their home for drinks and snacks to the guests that attended the mass. (I think maybe 30 people took them up on it).

That's what my parents did for my sister... she had a 3:00 church and 7:00 cocktail hour

Alexandra1028 Posted: Dec 30, 2007 03:54 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

i would say 2:30

CMS Posted: Dec 30, 2007 04:15 PM

Re: Reposting my Q from BHB

Wow..that's a tough one. Unfortunately, you never know what's going to happen traffic-wise. All you need is one accident or stalled car to back everyone up from hours.

I'd say go with the earlier Mass and simply accept that a lot of people may decide to not go to the ceremony.

I had 3 friends get married in New Jersey. For two of them, we got stuck in traffic and missed the ceremony, so we had even more time to kill before the reception started. So, unfortunately, for the third Jersey wedding we simply decided to go to the reception only.