I need help, OMG!

[kelaina]

Guys, I need some help here. I have, roughly, four months til my wedding (May 7th). Most of the big stuff has been taken care of (ceremony, reception, dress, uniform, BM stuff) and it's either been nailed down with a deposit or its been decided on with one of the two seamstresses (dress and BM gowns

Comments

[mahasin]

What do you expect your guests to do between the end of the ceremony 2:00-2:30 and 5:00?

[zukpager305]

my thoughts exactly! holy moley that's a long time!

[fgrovergirl]

Our ceremony was from 3-4, with the reception not starting until 6:30. That's common in my area though when you have a Catholic ceremony. We did offer to have guests go back to my parents house though if they wanted somewhere to go in between

[lissiehoya]

We're going to have the same issue. Our ceremony has to be over by 3, and the reception location is not available until 5. We're going to give guests suggestions of local sites to see in the meantime.

[doinitforjohnny]

I was going to post a general timeline, but after reading your above comment it doesn't seem to fit. Most standard timelines do not have that large of an overlap between ceremony and reception, and people are not expected to be left to their own devices.

Because hyou went an untraditional route, which is great btw, I don't think a standard timeline is going to help you.

[ordinaryfool]

I think it really depends on where your from, because almost every wedding I've been to has had a long gap between ceremony and reception

[herladyship]

Our timeline:

11:00: Ceremony starts
11:30: Ceremony finishes
11:30 - 12:30: Guests drink punch and get platters of snacks while we do pictures
12:30: We join the reception and go chat with guests
1:00: Lunch is served
2:30: Cake is cut
3:30: Bouquet toss & bride and groom exit
3:30 - 4:00: Guests left

We didn't have dancing, so it's not the best timeline help, sorry!

[itslily]

Can you do some photos before the ceremony? If you don't want to see your future husband before the ceremony, can you knock out the bride-with-bridesmaids, groom-with-groomsmen, and individual family shots beforehand, and do the husband-wife shots after? That may save some time after as to not require 3 hours of photo taking.

[neoqbacca]

We did:

5:30am- Wake up/shower (Hubby left to sleep in and shower in the BM's room)
6- Hair dresser arrives
7- Make up and flowers arrive
8:30- First look
9- Leave for ceremony site
9:30-10:30- Pictures at ceremony site
11- Guests start arriving
11:30- Ceremony
Noon- Family formals/Cocktail hour starts
1- Reception starts (didn't have an exact time for stuff like first dance and cake cutting, the band leader just called them out as they fit and it worked great)
5- Reception ends
6- Back at the hotel, DH and I took a nap
8- Dinner and drinks at the hotel bar
10- Karoke
2ish- We closed the bar :)