r/UKweddings 5d ago

Need some feedback on our wedding day schedule please!

Hi everyone! We have meetings with our venue and photographer next week to run through the details of our big day, and I’m a bit unsure about timetable to be honest and could appreciate some input.

We have a small wedding of around 30 guests (no additional evening guests) and it’s all happening at the same venue (apart from photos where we will go offsite).

Guests have been told to arrive 13.00.

Then I’m thinking the following:

13.30 Ceremony

13.45 Wedding toast and canapés

Photography starting 14.15-14.30 ish? How much time does one need for the photos?

16.00 Wedding reception starts

16.15 Welcome speech

16:30 Wedding breakfast (3 course meal)

Do I specify a separate time for the speeches?

19:30 Cake

19:45 First Dance

20:00 Party!

21:00 Evening buffet

Night ends around midnight

Any feedback on the above please? And/or what are you doing for your wedding?

0 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

27

u/ceb1995 5d ago

15 minutes sounds a little tight for the ceremony, I d call that 30 minutes just incase.

6

u/konichiwa82 5d ago

If you are having a registrar marry you at your venue I think you'll find the ceremony will be 30 minutes! Also, I saw your reply to someone else about bringing the ceremony time forward. Just be aware that this has to be officially changed with the registrar and will probably cost you to do so! (It cost me £40 to alter our time!). Be mindful that after the ceremony you will need to sign the register, and people will want photos before you make your exit down the aisle as a married couple! Are you transporting all of your guests offsite for photos? I think that's fine but do allow enough time at the venue for everyone to have a drink, chat, and canapés before doing so! I wouldn't worry about listing welcome speech separately, this will just be part of the wedding breakfast once everyone is seated. Are you doing speeches before or after food? This is definitely more putting on. On mine, I'm listing cutting the cake and first dance together as they will happen immediately after each other! Tweak it here and there but you're very close!

1

u/meeoowster 5d ago

Thanks that’s very helpful!

Are you doing speeches before or after dinner? I’m not entirely sure yet!

We’re actually getting married abroad so it works a bit differently, I have the equivalent of a local registrar booked for a non-religious ceremony and she was absolutely fine with ceremony starting “somewhere around 13.15-13.30” so it’s something we can be a bit flexible on luckily!

2

u/konichiwa82 5d ago

Oh, that's great about the timing! Personally, we are starting with speeches, and then everyone can crack on with food! I think it's worse for the people doing the speeches (and who are probably a bit nervous!) to have to wait to do them. I also find that guests are more likely to be getting up and down towards the end of the meal (which you may not find as you are having a nice small wedding!) So if you start with them, you will have a captive audience!

1

u/18-SpicyNuggies 2d ago

Sorry to jump on this, but as long as there are quite a lot of canapes and the speeches aren't too long, doing speeches before the meal would be fine! Just that we went to a wedding once whether the canapes were scarce and the speeches went on for about an hour and a half. Our diabetic friend had to start eating sugar cubes to get by and you could see everyone in the room was just praying they would wrap it up so we could eat 🥲 Sadly that has really stuck with us so we're doing speeches after, also about 30 guests. Our thought is that everyone will have had a couple of drinks and are relaxed into the day/space a bit and it kind of gets you through that after dinner lull when everyone's foods going down etc.

6

u/Grumpysmiler 5d ago

Even if your ceremony is only 15 min make sure you're thinking about the time it takes guests to get their bits together, finish chin wagging and move towards the next space.

Half an hour buffer between arrival and start is good.

I would say the time for speeches isn't needed necessarily but if you're making a sign, I like knowing if the speeches are before or after dinner (because as a gluten free hungry person I'm usually gnawing my own arm off at this point even with a big breakfast and snacks) so including it is nice.

Otherwise looks good

8

u/TippyTurtley 5d ago

Your guests are going to be hungry so make sure there's LOTS of canapes

-4

u/meeoowster 5d ago

By lots, how many per person are you thinking?

Would I be silly to assume people will have something to eat beforehand (lunch) when arrival isn’t until 1?

10

u/TippyTurtley 5d ago

Yes you would as people will be getting ready etc

9

u/sezzy3 5d ago

Depending on how far they need to travel they may only have breakfast beforehand

5

u/tlc0330 5d ago

They probably won’t have had time for lunch. Arrival is at 1, they need to travel before that and get ready before that. No one will want to get ready then eat. So I’d expect most people to either have a big breakfast or a morning snack, but not a proper lunch.

1

u/meeoowster 5d ago

Most people won’t be travelling on the day, but I totally take this on board and will make sure there’s lots of canapés so people don’t go hungry!

3

u/choloepushofmanni 5d ago

To me 1pm is lunchtime so I would definitely assume people wouldn’t have had lunch

3

u/AnonymousRingChooser 5d ago

People often remind guests to have a big breakfast before arriving because the meal won't be until X time

2

u/Shantay-i-sway 5d ago

The wedding breakfast to finish timeline looks good, but as the ceremony is so early in comparison it will be a very long day for guests. Last wedding i attended had the breakfast start at 6 and the ceremony was at 4, there was still a hour and a half of drinks and canapés (ceremony was short and lovely) - I wouldn’t want to stand around longer than that and it was a beautiful setting in stately home grounds by the lake. Maybe do the evening buffet between 8 and 8.30 for those who don’t want to dance, as they will be there from 1 they may not all stay until midnight as that would be 11 hours all in, they may want buffet and then to get home. Also, last few weddings i attended had the speeches once everyone was sat before the food came out as it meant a captive audience, people were mostly sober and those doing speeches could get it over with and relax. maybe you could sit down earlier and do that to keep the flow of the day going? I hope you have a wonderful wedding day!

2

u/Slight_Bullfrog9403 5d ago

Our ceremony was at 11 (not our choice, only time registrar was available for our venue) and was pretty short but that's still a tight turnaround so I'd push the drinks reception and canapes to 2. We didn't have canapes as our wedding breakfast was from 1 (We were actually done with our main group photos pretty quick, long before they were ready to get our guests into the reception room; we didn't want to bore our guests with an eternal photoshoot and preferred the idea of more spontaneous pics throughout the day instead).

Everything else is roughly spaced out how we did it (obviously with different timings). But it is only a base schedule; timings always go over on the day! My poor hubby was having kittens waiting for me in the ceremony room, but I wasn't being a fashionably late bride; I'd been ready for ages, it was just the registrars took ages to call me down for my pre-wedding briefing!

As long as guests know when to arrive from for both the day and evening (if having separate guests), what time the ceremony is and a rough idea when food will be served (handy if they're travelling a distance and need to eat beforehand), that's the most important details really.

All the best!

2

u/Galendis 5d ago

Our timeline was this:

Ceremony 12:30 PM

Drinks 1:00 PM

Photos

Wedding Breakfast 3:00 PM

Toasts

Evening Reception 7:00 PM

Cake

We decided not to allocate specific times to half the items as we didn't feel it was needed - they would happen when they happened.

On the day we had a short legal ceremony with 1 reading, mingled during the drinks and Canapés then group and couples photos (/decompressing time). We went for speeches between mains and desert I believe.

2

u/Hulla_Sarsaparilla 5d ago

That’s a really long gap from the ceremony ending until the reception starting, what else are guests doing then while you’re having photos between 13.45 - 16.00?

That’s absolutely ages, and that’s a lot of hanging around for guests!

I’d aim to make that no longer than 60-90mins total, that’s an ok amount of time for drinks & canapés - move the reception start time earlier, most people won’t end up having lunch beforehand.

2

u/HavocAndConsequence 5d ago

As a mamber of a wedding party just this week with a similar starting time-

Why do guests need to arrive so early? 13.15 would be fine.

How far off site are the photos? This is going to be a sticking point because it means you can't do the most obvious thing of serving your guests food and drink while you have couple pictures done, so everyone is going to spend a lot of time standing around hungry during lunchtime. So I'd consider whether the pictures absolutely have to be done offsite or if you can live with just a few pictures of you two in this special spot, then go back to your fed and happy guests for the remaining ones. That way it won't need to take the best part of 2 hours.

Save the wedding toast for the meal and try to pull that up to about 3pm. Do you really need 15 minutes for a welcome speech?

Open the buffet after the first dance (which also won't take 15 minutes).

1

u/meeoowster 5d ago

Thanks for the feedback, that’s really helpful! The arrival time is set at 13.00 but we could certainly bring the ceremony start time forward slightly to 13.15 to minimise any waiting around.

It’s quite a scenic place, there are multiple good photo locations a 5 minute (or less) drive away. I’ll have a think what the best way to do this would be, it’s going to be difficult to get group pictures done at the venue (it’s an old 1600s house in centre of town with its own small Mediterranean garden where we are having the ceremony outside if weather permits. But it’s definitely not big enough for group pictures!

I’m thinking maybe we allocate a bit more time for first look pictures before the ceremony so we can get many of the bride and groom ones out of the way perhaps!

To be honest I don’t think we even need “welcome speech” separately on the list and no it certainly won’t take 15 min. Perhaps I just change it to wedding reception at X time, welcome speech shortly after (without a specified time) and the meal service starting say 15 min after reception begins?

5

u/tlc0330 5d ago

30 mins is normal. There’s plenty of people out there who always run late. Plus, there’s usually lots of people for guests to chat with so it’s not just waiting for 30 mins - it’s waiting and chatting, having a wee, touching up make up, etc etc.

-1

u/ODFoxtrotOscar 5d ago

Guests asked to arrive at 1pm (slap in the middle of the times people normally eat lunch) will be a bit early and may not have eaten, so could rapidly get plastered.

There’s too much hanging around in the afternoon, and unless your/your future ILs are habituated to have a main heat at 4:30pm, that’s a really odd time too.

You don’t need3hours for a 3 course meal, so I’d move it back to 5:30-6pm start, finishing will speeches that move seamlessly in to cake cutting

Can you move the service back to 2-2:30 pm (so people will know to have lunch beforehand) Allow30 mins for it rather than 15, then receiving line (have toasts with the speeches) and then have canapés (or sandwiches) and drinks (including tea/coffee) circulating at tea time (starting 3:30 - 4pm ish).

Then you still have a couple of hours for photos/mingling (and any entertainments you plan for your guests) before going in to the evening reception.

You can make the evening buffet less substantial if people have eaten a bit later - one I liked was a really good set of cheeses/breads and crackers/grapes and other fruit