Time between ceremony and reception?

Hi ladies! I got engaged a few weeks ago and just booked our reception venue (Chateau Briand) for next October. We will be getting married at a catholic church, but haven't been able to meet with them yet because of our schedules.

Question before we go speak to the priest... how much of a time difference between the ceremony and reception is ok???

Our reception is 8:30pm to 1:30am (I think it works for our plan of a PARTY type reception)... but in mid October the sun sets at 630pm.

If we do a 5pm reception, we're done by 6pm, still time to take a few pics in front of the church before the sun goes down... BUT, the reception venue is only about 30 minutes away (less than 45 with traffic). If people head out of the church by 6:30pm, they'd be there by 7:15pm. CB said people could be there as early as 7:30pm for a welcome reception before the CH. Will my guests be too upset about the wait in between??? I haven't been to that many weddings so I don't know!

I would do what you are comfortable with. My ceremony is at 3 and my Ch starts at 7 (6:30 for the pre welcome-also a CB bride) so the break in between will be 2.5 hours...neither one of us wants to see the other before the ceremony so this is the way we are doing it.

Good Luck and COngrats!

Kismet, don't you just love CB??? We just booked today and although I'm nervous about having booked such a big thing, I really loved the place!

Everyone else, please post your thoughts about the time difference. Thanks!

I think it's very common now to have a lapse between the church and reception. My church is at 3 and my reception is at 7 - it's about a 45 minute drive, so people will have at least 2 hours to kill. Almost every wedding I've been to in the last year has had a 2-4 hour gap.

Just a tip - when you go to the church, don't tell them you booked the reception first. According to the church, you're not supposed to do that, the mass/ceremony is supposed to be the priority, so that should be booked first. Some churches get very sensitive about this.

It really depend on if you and FH want to see each other b4 the ceremony or not. if you don't mind you can have the 6pm ceremony.

I didn't was DH to see me so we had our ceremony at 3pm and the CH didn't start till 5:30pm....nobody was upset everyone was at the church and then showed up the reception as well and we had plenty of time for pics

bottom line do what makes you happy...it's YOUR day

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Posted by kismet8601

I would do what you are comfortable with. My ceremony is at 3 and my Ch starts at 7 (6:30 for the pre welcome-also a CB bride) so the break in between will be 2.5 hours...neither one of us wants to see the other before the ceremony so this is the way we are doing it.

Good Luck and COngrats!

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This sounds reasonable!

You should be fine time wise! Also, an 8:30 reception is good for people who can't take the day off work for whatever reason.

Definitely don't tell the church you already booked the reception, they are testy about that!

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Posted by Soon_2_B_Mrs_Miller

Yeah we booked our church time to be 2:00pm and our reception to be at 7:00pm. We wanted some time for nice pictures and plus we are going from Brooklyn to Long Island.

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Our church is at 2pm as well with Cocktail Hour commencing at 7pm. We're having a full hour ceremony so my photographer figured we won't be out of church until after 3:30pm. We also want some pictures at a separate location and also pics at the reception hall.

We're in Queens so we will probabaly hit traffic on a Friday evening as well.

Do what you feel is comfortable to you.

I am not sure if you will be able to get a 5:00 ceremony, most churches hold a 5:00 mass on Saturday nights and want to have the weddings out way before then. Ours is at 3 and cocktail hour begins at 7:10 (to be exact).

It s a 45 min drive from our church to our RH, so people will have some time to kill. There is a bar inside out RH where people can hang out if they would like.

I would say you should leave yourself atleast 2 hours so you aren't rushing.

My ceremony is 2:30-3:30
My CH starts at 6:30

I think having a gap is fine. But I want to caution you with your schedule. I would leave more time than 30 minutes for 'outside' pictures before the sun goes down. I think you are cutting it close. I would move ther reception earlier. Things always get delayed. My own aunt was 15 minutes late to my ceremony with my Grandmother..we had to wait and ran a little late the rest of the day.

i have a big gap! Not happy about it but it gets dark early and i wanted pics outside if weather permitts!

ceremony is at 3
CH is at 8