I suck at wedding planning!

Wellyboots6

Righty...

Ceremony is booked at a registry office for 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon.

The reception venue is approx 45 mins away from there, and we can have it from 5pm-12am. Only 1/3 of the reception guests will be at the ceremony.

Ideas please, cos all I can see is a rather disjointed afternoon/evening!

Fuzzy_Duck

I may have misunderstood, but it doesn't sound like a problem to me? Assuming it's a standard registry office wedding you'll probably be out by 4pm, and you'll be at the reception venue around 4.45pm ready for everyone else to arrive at 5pm. Or are they not coming until later?

I think I'm likely to have a substantial gap between my ceremony and reception (like you only some of the guests will be at the ceremony). I plan to fill the time by booking us in somewhere for afternoon tea before moving on to the reception venue.

Kayalana99

Have you sorted the menu out yet? I am rubbish as well and at the same stage as you but I have just sorted my caterer!

whitewing

Will you be able to photos outside the registry office?

Wellyboots6

We can't have the venue till 5, so was going to ask people to get there for 7 to give us time to set up.
It just all seems a bit of a rush, with a gap in between where I am pretty sure half the wedding party will disappear!
My parents wanted us to go for drinks somewhere, but we can't really afford that as well as the buffet etc later on.
The registry office isn't very photogenic! The venue we are going to afterwards is however. There is also a windmill on the way there we could stop at to use up time if needed, for photos. Only with it being a March wedding the weather could be against us!

74jax

We got married at four then had our night time party with food starting at seven. Make sure everyone knows they won't have food after the ceremony so they know to eat before hand. It's up to your guests what they do in between, we had drinks, got to our venue for six to get it ready and it worked fine.

Fuzzy_Duck

katy721 wrote: »

We can't have the venue till 5, so was going to ask people to get there for 7 to give us time to set up.
It just all seems a bit of a rush, with a gap in between where I am pretty sure half the wedding party will disappear!
My parents wanted us to go for drinks somewhere, but we can't really afford that as well as the buffet etc later on.
The registry office isn't very photogenic! The venue we are going to afterwards is however. There is also a windmill on the way there we could stop at to use up time if needed, for photos. Only with it being a March wedding the weather could be against us!

Ah, I see. Have you actually invited people to the ceremony yet? If not it might be sensible to have the bridal party only- that way you could have them help you set up before the rest of the guests arrive.

Wellyboots6

No invites have gone out yet, but I think we will just be inviting the bridal party to the ceremony. We are going for the smaller of the venue rooms to save some money. We are having a handfasting ceremony at the reception venue, so all guests will get to see that.

We've decided to do two invites, one for the ceremony and one for the reception. Those coming to both will get two invites. We thought that would make it clear they are two separate events and people make their own arrangements in between. Does that sound like it will work?

Mr Me has spent the day drafting out invites. The control-freak bit in me is struggling to let him get on with it and not take over. I am very grateful for his involvement however!

duchy

I think a lot depends on the guests to the ceremony.
If they are very local then it's not such a problem - but if they aren't it becomes more complicated as if they (for example) aren't staying overnight what do you expect them to do between 4 and 7pm?

I personally find weddings with a big gap a bit of a pain and tend to avoid accepting invitations for them if they aren't local TBH.

My view is that my guests are just that and as their hostess it's up to me to make sure they are comfortable and find ways a gap wouldn;'t be a pain for them.