What time?

[karnerblue]

The contract from our (hopefully) venue says the reception would be 6-11 p.m. (cocktails at 6, dinner at 7), which sounded alright to me -- ceremony at 5, then. But now, I'm hearing concerns from my fiancé's family that that might be too late for their grandmother and might not match up with the flower girl and ring bearer's eating schedules. A 4

Comments

[aniline]

I think your current schedule sounds fine. It depends on your guests, but I would assume that the majority of them typically eat dinner around 7 instead of 5.

[champagnexdream]

I don't think your last option sounds too early at all. 5:00 is a pretty standard dinner time!

[gracie_x]

I think either option is okay, but typically for events dinner starts later so it should be expected! I think you need to do what is best for you and most of your guests, our ceremony will be at 1.30 but the wedding meal not until 4.15, so we're expecting guests will need to bring their own snacks for kids and will plan on having an early lunch/brunch/big breakfast to fit in with the day, it's your day - surely people can adjust their eating schedule slightly for you!? (I understand kids etc, but they should pre plan snacks) I think if anyone wants to come enough they will sort themselves out around you!

[sailorgarnet]

6-11 is fine. Most venues allow for outside food for children, so your FSIL can still feed the kids when she wants if she has to.

If people leave early, no worries, some people do that anyway.

[sailorgarnet]

P.S. we could always do an after party or something. TO THE RUCK! *cough*

[eightydollsyell]

this idea makes sense ;)

but in general I was going to say basically the same thing as SB, feed the kids early.

[amiyuy]

We did a 2pm wedding, 3pm reception, 3:30pm dinner, cake around 4:30, reception ended at 8. It was great, especially since our day started soooo early that we were getting tired by that point. Also the family that had driven a couple of hours were able to then drive home at a more reasonable time after staying for the whole (or most of it) rather than having to leave the wedding early. This included the grandparents and family with children. Several groups left around 6, but that was fine as we made sure to get all the main events done early so that they wouldn't miss anything and a lot still stayed.

[arwen_17]

i'm not the OP but i take comfort in knowing i'm not the only one having a reception that's ending earlier! :)