How to pick the time of a wedding cermony?

TAPA2012

I am a bit lost and maybe you could give me some help.
What time is appropiate for a wedding cermony in Winter?

2rkehij30qtza5

I'd say around 1.30/2pm if your guests have to travel any distance.
Last year I was faced with a wedding in Cork at 12.30pm and it was difficult to get there on time from Galway!!

The Big Red Button

Bear in mind that, if you want outdoors photos, you might have very limited hours of daylight. So it might be an idea to have the wedding as early as possible in the day.

I know someone who got married a few weeks ago, just before Christmas ... they had the ceremony at 2pm, then dashed off straight away afterwards to get photos, while it was still bright - I've heard that a lot of the older guests were quite miffed that the couple didn't hang around to do the whole greeting thing on the way out of the church!

pwurple

Well, how long is a piece of string? Depends on what you are doing. The last wedding I was at was the start of december. It was an evening civil wedding, with ceremony and dinner in the same place. Ceremony was at 5pm in front of a roaring fire. Drinks and photos in the bar and on the beautiful staircase, and dinner was at 8. No daylight required.

I have been to a lunchtime wedding in winter, where the ceremony was at 11am, and lunch at 1 afterwards.

It really depends on your ceremony venue, and what you are doing afterwards, and if there is any distance between them.

If it is church then hotel, the hotel wedding contact will suggest the best time for them for food service, and drinks service if you are doing that... and how long people normally take for photos in the grounds. Work it back from there with travel time, shake handies time outside church, photos outside church, length of ceremony.

Vojera

Yeah, as pwurple says, it depends on what you're doing.

If you're having dinner at 6pm then there's no point having the ceremony at 11am - even with finger food in between that's a long time for people to hang around imo.

If you're doing a church wedding, how much driving is there between the church and the venue? You would probably do a church wedding earlier than one in a hotel, for example, because for the latter people don't have to move.

tatli_lokma

Also, if it is an offsite civil ceremony (i.e in a hotel or place other than the registry office) you will only get a choice of 2 time slots max and possibly only 1 time slot. It depends on what the availability of the registrar is. Its usually 12.30 and 3.30.

Moonbeam

What time is dinner at?
There is nothing worse then a huge wait between the two.

We are having the church bit at 2 and dinner at 6.
Which I think is a good gap.

Cerulean Chicken

Who is doing the ceremony for you? They should be able to advise. I was at a wedding recently with the ceremony at 12.30 and the meal was served at 7, we were hanging. The only reason they had it so early was to get light for the photos, ffs, give it up and do photos indoors! That's what we're doing. We're not doing the receiving line so that will free up some time for us, hoping to have ceremony at 1.30 (I'll be 10 mins late at the most, and that's only to give guests time to get in), out of there 2.30 (for guests, we're doing photos in church after) then dinner will be served at 6-6.30, after plenty of nibbles at the drinks reception. Just keep people fed in between and they'll be happy out

ponderousanon

We are having a Christmas wedding and the time options are 12, 2 or 4. I feel 12 is too early and 4 pretty late so we are going to go for two. Considering having some photos done before the church...

Gatica

if you have many travelling to the wedding don't have it before 1.30pm. I love early weddings cos you get to enjoy the whole day, and I don't mind either getting up early or staying over the night before. However, had numerous friends complaining about weddings starting before 2.30pm if they had to travel, e.g. Galway to Cork, as mentioned.
If you do have a wedding around 1.30pm or earlier you also risk the crowd getting annoyed if there's no food provided for them, e.g. sandwiches in between the ceremony and the dinner.
The whole thing about having an early ceremony just for photos is a bit selfish imho. I totally get why ppl do it, but if you have large crowds travelling from far, one needs to think of them too. Unless the wedding is around 22 of December, you plan to have a whole hour ceremony and be late to it. Then there's no reason why it HAS to be before 2 or 2.30pm. Just have it planned out, ceremony and then photos at such and such location, which is nearby.

lazygal

We got all family photos done before the ceremony (wedding at 3pm, I hate weddings that start early). Photographer did my family photos in my parents house, then went to the venue and did the husband's family. So after the ceremony we only needed about 20 minutes for the slightly formal photos. We didn't want rows of aunts etc so we didn't need to round everyone up. I think its bad form to impose an early start on guests, especially if there's going to be a long gap and/or drive between venues. I've had to be ready for a wedding at 12.30pm, TBH a lot of peoples skipped it, and then the couple didn't even bother providing any food on arrival at the hotel. Don't forget as a bride you'll be very rushed and have to be up quite early. Like I said, a 3pm start time as we had was nice and relaxed. It also meant no one was rushing, guests or the bridal party.

Always number 1

I would agree with most of the above but before you factor in photos after the ceremony etc; I would factor in the time it will take the bride to get ready. Breakfast/hair/make up/putting on the dress/getting photos taken then travelling to the venue and if there are bridesmaids/family members getting hair/make up done - that will add to it.
After the ceremony, if its in a church, you'll have to sign the register pose for pics, greet your guests, get more pics and thats before you head off to the venue which may be a considerable distance away...
I wouldn't make the decision based on getting photos taken in daylight because if the weather is bad (no matter what time of the year it is) you'll be getting photos done indoors.

ABajaninCork

Got married in October. Wanted the ceremony at 3, but after talking to the photographer, we brought it forward to 2.30 so that sufficient photos could be taken while the light was good. Dinner was served at 6.

I would suggest that the ceremony be no later than 2pm, especially if you're getting married Nov - Dec.

John Mason

Do you want to have outdoor photos? bearing in it will probably be raining and you wont be able take them outside anyway!!


our dinner was for 6.30pm, so we got married at 5.30pm but that was April

hoodwinked

also make sure you will have enough time in the morning, will the hairdresser have enough time to get you done if the ceremony is a 11am or 12pm? especially if you are going to them and they don't open until 9am,


worth considering what you need to get done that morning and give yourself an extra 20 minutes onto your est timeline for each thing. better to be hanging around waiting to go, (and you can get some photos in) than be rushing and late.

holding

You can always take photos before the ceremony, or at least some of them anyway. We're having family photos at 2pm, friends and guests photos at 3pm, ceremony at 4, and meal at 6. Winter wedding daylight hours.

eustie5

sometimes it depends on the church or the priest they may dictate time but I guess in the winter the earlier the better for photos.