Wedding day timings

Lollie79

Hi Everyone,
I hope all your planning is going to plan
I'm after some advice about the timings of my wedding day as i have no idea what timings to have and need to sort this soon so we can see how much food and things to book.

Anyhow im getting married in a catholic church and having a full service we get married at 1pm. The reception venue is approx 15-20 mins drive from church, once we have done the family/group photos at the church we are going off for a few photos just the 2 of us while our guest make their way to the venue.

My questions are
How long should i allow for the photo taking?
Is it acceptable to just serve canapes to guests when they arrive at venue? We will be having a buffet for evening reception.
What time will we start the speeches?

I should mention we are going for quite informal, hence no sit down meal. I'm worried about whether canapes will be enough to keep our guests going until evening buffet.

Any suggestions would be grately appreciated
Lollie

sugarwalsh

Hmm, expect a lot of very drunk people if you are not serving them until the evening!

If you think about it - a guest will be getting ready and possibly travelling to your wedding in the morning - I would expect most of them will not eat 'lunch' but probably a late breakfast. I would expect to get some kind of lunch if ther service is at 1 as there isn't really time to get ready and have lunch before.

Is there any way you can move your buffet to a late afternoon slot?

Timings wise 1pm - 2pm wedding (My experience of Catholic services are they are longer?) 2-3pm photo's (I think more than an hour is rude, less is better really) 3.30 arrival at venue. I personally would then serve food asap. But then I like food!

How does that work in with what you had in mind?

Megan

RainbowDrops

How long should i allow for the photo taking? At least 2hrs

Is it acceptable to just serve canapes to guests when they arrive at venue? We will be having a buffet for evening reception. Considering that the guests will have only had a chance to have a light lunch before the early Ceremony, then will have been in the CHurch for at least 1.5hrs for a catholic service, they will definately need a substantial amount of food if the meal ios not until the evening.

What time will we start the speeches? That's kind of up to you. Traditionally they're done after dessert

fawny

Hi,

What will your guests be doing once they arrive at the venue, until the evening do & buffet start?

julybride81

what about an afternoon tea instead of waiting all that time, not sure what kind of venue you have but you could prearrange cake stands with scones etc possibly...?

RainbowDrops

fawny wrote: »

Hi,

What will your guests be doing once they arrive at the venue, until the evening do & buffet start?

Good point - it's a long time for guest to just wait around - is it not possible to either push back the ceremony time, or bring forward the buffet?

Lollie79

Hi,
Thanks for your replies

We were thinking
1pm-2pm - church/ceremony
2pm-3pm - photo's

Guests will start heading to venue
Serve canapes for around 3.30-4pm (depending on how long it takes people to arrive)
We will arrive for 3.45-4pm

Speeches and toast for around 5ish

This is where the problem lies for me, my OH wants to serve canapes such as miniture fish and chips, where as i would rather serve burgers/hotdogs and chips than canapes as i think its more substantial and means that people wont be starving by the time we serve evening buffet for around 7.30.

We are on a budget and i know OH is thinking about the cost but to me for the sake of saving around £1.50 per person i would rather feed my guests more.

Hope this makes things a little clearer
Lollie x

lfcdream

I would say make your timings quite flexable, things always run over at weddings. Ive worked as a videographer for a few years, and we were given times, but it rarely ran to plan. Just dont worry too much! and enjoy your day!

stir_crazy

Hi, I'm going to agree with some of the previous posters and say that as your wedding is quite early, the guests probably wont have had a big lunch, and so would be quite hungry by the time they get to the venue. I would serve them the more substantial food if its going to be in your budget.

Idiophreak

We got married at 3 for this reason...allowed our guests to lunch beforehand and for us to serve a single meal in the evening. Your photos will take as long as you want them to - just be mindful that I've been really bored at a couple of weddings where the bride and groom have disappeared off for hours leaving us standing around waiting for them to come back. As a rule, the more food I've had at weddings, the better I've enjoyed them.

minerva_windsong

Could you get guests to the reception venue earlier? I would say it will probably take about an hour to do the photos at the church but if you only want a few shots of guests or a big group shot of everyone then maybe if people start going to the reception about half past two and you could serve the canapes at 3? If you can stretch to the bigger food items I'd do that as most people probably will have a late breakfast rather than lunch before a one o'clock wedding.

I would say an hour is about right for the ceremony but best to allow an hour and a half just in case of overrunning.