Does it really matter?

[larussel03]

So, our church time for our ceremony is 4:00, then a 50 minute Byzantine rite wedding ceremony, then about a 30-40 min ride to the reception hall. My day of coordinator said that the start time of the reception should be 5:30, and that with the hour addition we want, will take the reception to 11:30.

We kind of wanted it to go to midnight...

Does this half hour really matter, or am I getting too concerned over a small detail? I was thinking of moving the ceremony half an hour, but then I have to relay this to limo, flower and photography people, or delaying the start of the reception half an hour but then that would make everyone wait around for 1/2 hour...

Should I just leave everything as is and end at 11:30???

ETA: and for those who are married--did your ceremony start right on time?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I would just go with the 11:30. Chances are it will run over anyways (ours did). Our ceremony did start on time.

 

[Fancy605]

I agree. I think that the reception will probably run til midnight. My wedding coordinator friend says that she usually says, "okay, we''ll end at this time" knowing it will take 30 min to wrap everything up and head out. It''s likely your coordinator is anticipating the actual ending at 12:00, and just said 11:30 so that things would be wound down and actually be ready end by 12:00

 

[larussel03]

I'm also worried that if the ceremony ends up being longer than an hour with music and everything, that people will not arrive until later. When I spoke with my coordinator originally she said that they understand that catholic ceremonies are long and sometimes unpredictable timewise, so they can officially start when everyone arrives...I am worried that people will not show up until closer to 5:45, I guess...and I don't want the cocktail hour to get cut short.

Timing stuff always worries me...

 

[Tacori E-ring]

It will be perfect! Don''t stress over the stuff that is beyond your control

 

[akw94]

Sweetpea, I think it will be ok. If they said that it will start when people get there, I don''t think your cocktail hour will be cut short. It would just go from one hr from when people get there, or am I confused?
Like others said, they probably account for it running a bit over so 11:30 should work out just fine. I''d try not to worry too much about it.

 

[basil]

Why is it important that it go to midnight?

 

[larussel03]

Date: 6/30/2007 11:38:42 PM
Author: basil
Why is it important that it go to midnight?

Oh, I dunno...I just thought it would and then when little things change I''m like "hm...was that important to me" haha. It''s been a while since I''ve done any wedding planning, and now the detail-y things are starting to come up that we have to decide on since all the big stuff has been decided.

I think that it''ll end up being just fine, I worry that people will get there a little later than the coordinator thinks, but I talked to her and she said they''ll start the cocktail hour when people arrive. I just don''t want to have any photo time go over and delay dinner or have everyone miss a fraction of teh cocktail hour.

As Tacori said, I should probably not bother to stress over things like this that are truly out of my control though

 

[So_happy]

I''m thinking you should go ahead and have it start at 6pm, even if you''ve now decided that ending at midnight is no longer important to you.

In case your ceremony is running 15 minutes late or guests decide to stop off for a quick latte before the reception or they get a bit lost finding the reception venue or.............you get the idea. The half hour is your buffer. My caterer and my coordinator both suggested that I build this extra 30 mins into my timeline, as well......and I actually did NOT want it but now that I do have it........I do feel better about it. It feels as if we can actually relax a bit and I won''t be as "c''mon people, we''ve got a schedule to keep here!! (lol)".

If all goes perfectly and guests need to wait for 20 minutes for the reception to start, then all went perfectly and they wait for 20-30 minutes!! Not a huge deal.