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Civil ceremony timing

  • 20-11-2014 12:25pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    My fiancée and I are planning our wedding at the moment and we're looking at having a civil ceremony and reception in the same hotel. When chatting to the hotel the coordinator said he recommends an early ceremony so that we have lots of time to take photos and chat to guests etc, we thought this sounded lovely so were planning a 1pm ceremony and guests called to dinner at 5 30 ish.
    However I'm wondering now if that's too long a time from a guests perspective, seeing as it's all one venue? Does it make way too long a day out of it? I love the thought of having lots of time before dinner to mingle but I don't want the guests to have cabin fever by 7 pm! Thanks


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 13,149 ✭✭✭✭fits


    We are thinking 3pm. Will be too late if its sunny and too early if raining but..thats what we are going with.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    We had ours at 3pm. It was great as there was no rush on the morning. We didn't want to spend hours on photos and had plenty of time to mingle with our guests before dinner at about 6pm.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,637 ✭✭✭Milly33


    It depends what ye want really if you prefer it at one then go for one.. I must say though unless you have something there to entertain the quests then there might be some bored faces..

    Were the same as above have it booked for 3,but we are both evening people and I hate rushing so that time suits us...


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭pampootie


    Thanks for the replies! I don't really want to spend ages on photos and we'll be taking them quite near the venue so I might push the ceremony out to 2 or 3 pm. All the civil ceremonies I've been at have had the ceremony and reception in different locations so I'm not sure how the day goes when it's all in one!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,601 ✭✭✭kandr10


    Bear in mind the ceremony is short also. If you had it at 1pm just put out loads of food . The benefit of having it all in the one venue is not having to travel and waste time so to speak so a later time takes better advantage of that. Assuming it's midweek people might be able to do a half day in work also if it was 3pm.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    One of the reasons we went for 3pm was because it was a Friday wedding so people could work in the morning. We had a drinks reception with food straight afterwards, during which we slipped out to do photos, and then had our speeches during this before dinner. I found the day was long enough and I loved the relaxed morning getting ready.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭pampootie


    We're a Saturday so there should be few enough guests who might need to work the morning. I'll have a good few guests coming from the UK though, presumably they'll arrive Friday night so they might appreciate a bit of time in the morning so it's not too rushed! Definitely looks like 1pm might be on the early side


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,353 ✭✭✭pooch90


    We had all ours in the same place, ceremony booked for 2.30 but ended up being about 2.45.
    Lovey not to have a mad rush in the morning and people not starving by dinner time


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,671 ✭✭✭PhoenixParker


    One option to consider is to do the photos first. Its rare here but increasingly popular in the US. (Google "first look wedding photos")

    You can then move from ceremony, at say 4pm straight to drinks reception and dinner. It helps the day flow more smoothly but its not for everyone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 440 ✭✭biddywiddy


    One option to consider is to do the photos first. Its rare here but increasingly popular in the US. (Google "first look wedding photos")

    You can then move from ceremony, at say 4pm straight to drinks reception and dinner. It helps the day flow more smoothly but its not for everyone.

    We're going with something like this for our Church wedding. The church is right across the street from the hotel.

    We'll have bridal party and family photos at about 2:30pm or 3pm. We're getting married NYE so if it's not raining, we'll have some daylight at that time. Else we'll do them inside. Ceremony at 3:30pm, drinks & canapes at 4:30pm, dinner at 6:30pm.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,652 ✭✭✭CaraMay


    I think 1 to 530 is a loooong day for
    guests. Plenty of time having the ceremony at 3


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,856 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    pampootie wrote: »
    Hi all,

    My fiancée and I are planning our wedding at the moment and we're looking at having a civil ceremony and reception in the same hotel. When chatting to the hotel the coordinator said he recommends an early ceremony so that we have lots of time to take photos and chat to guests etc, we thought this sounded lovely so were planning a 1pm ceremony and guests called to dinner at 5 30 ish.
    That leaves the guests tooling around for about four hours. As a guest, I'd be pissed off. (And, by 5:30, quite possibly pissed in the other sense, too.) Don't do this.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,023 ✭✭✭Meathlass


    Don't forget OP, it's in the hotel's interest to have the ceremony as early as possible as that means guests are in the premises buying drink for longer.

    I'd go with a ceremony at 3pm.


  • Registered Users Posts: 155 ✭✭berrecka


    pampootie wrote: »
    We're a Saturday so there should be few enough guests who might need to work the morning. I'll have a good few guests coming from the UK though, presumably they'll arrive Friday night so they might appreciate a bit of time in the morning so it's not too rushed! Definitely looks like 1pm might be on the early side

    Just so you know - Civil ceremonies cant be performed at weekends. Mon-Fri; 9-5 only.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,637 ✭✭✭Milly33


    I was going to ask have you booked it already, because as Berrecka says they don't really do them at weekends.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭pampootie


    Thanks for all the replies! Sorry, I keep saying civil ceremony but it's actually a humanist ceremony we're having. Definitely going to move it til later, the more I think about it the worse 1pm sounds-everyone would be hammered and/or bored by dinnertime!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,159 ✭✭✭stinkle


    We had a 3pm humanist ceremony OP. I'd never been to one before so was kinda unsure how it'd all flow but it wasnt all that long - according to time stamps on pics it was just over 20 mins. Things tend to run more smoothly too when it's all in the one spot/close by - our dinner was bang on time, and we had plenty of mingling time with guests before and after photos were taken. Didnt feel rushed or anything.

    Don't forget some people staying at your venue may have arrived early and already checked in before ceremony begins, and if the bar is open can hit it then too cos no need to drive anywhere! So having it all in the one place removes a lot of interruptions that are par for the course for other weddings and cause delays.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,652 ✭✭✭CaraMay


    I think the one I was at was at 3 and took max 30 minutes (lots of music). There was tea, sandwiches etc lined up after it so people wouldn't be starving by dinner time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 266 ✭✭nearzero


    Just had my wedding - humanist service at 4pm and dinner and 6.30! It was fantastic and the feedback from all my guests was that it was fab not to be standing around for hours at a wedding with nothing to do! So I can highly recommend it - our photographer did a great mingle style of photos aswell after a few more formal ones so cant wait to see them!

    Each to their own but when its in the same venue - keep it tight so you can keep the flow - we had great craic at ours :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,296 ✭✭✭Gatica


    Yes, if ceremony is happening on the grounds, then you need to think about all that buffer that would normally be there between guests leaving the ceremony venue, usually church, travelling at least half hour to the hotel, and getting into the hotel/parking etc... Now you won't have that problem so you don't need that natural gap.
    We had ceremony by Spiritualist Union on the grounds of the hotel at 2.30pm, it was over an hour travel for lots of guests, so we didn't want to set it too early so they had time to get ready without getting up before sunrise. Also although I was a bit late down to the ceremony (trouble getting dress on), we did the meet and greet after, we did photos on the grounds and dinner started at 5.30 because the coordinator said guests were getting hungry (you really need to take that into consideration - we did lovely canapes but there wasn't enough to actually fill people up, something I wish we'd done different).
    There was plenty of time there for mingling anyway, for us and for guests. If you have an early ceremony and they don't need to travel, then they'll need to get all their feeding at the location, which you'll need to provide as you've essentially forced their hand to be there. Also, depending on how many people know each other, they may start getting bored if they're not trying to catch up with their mates they haven't seen in years. The nice thing with having dinner earlier at 5.30, is that the dancing starts on time and you get lots of partying in :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 981 ✭✭✭flikflak


    color_girl wrote: »
    Just had my wedding - humanist service at 4pm and dinner and 6.30! It was fantastic and the feedback from all my guests was that it was fab not to be standing around for hours at a wedding with nothing to do! So I can highly recommend it - our photographer did a great mingle style of photos aswell after a few more formal ones so cant wait to see them!

    Each to their own but when its in the same venue - keep it tight so you can keep the flow - we had great craic at ours :)

    Yep, us too. Had our ceremony at 4.15pm (it finished around 5pm) and then food from 6.30pm. It was all in one venue.

    Who wants to hang around from 1.45pm (assuming a 1pm start for the ceremony) until 5/6pm for dinner. What the hell are you supposed to do for 3 or 4 hours?


  • Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 26,928 Mod ✭✭✭✭rainbow kirby


    biddywiddy wrote: »
    Ceremony at 3:30pm, drinks & canapes at 4:30pm, dinner at 6:30pm.
    Shift this earlier by around 30 minutes and you've pretty much got our timeline. Saturday humanist ceremony.


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