since it was the wedding i attended that inspired this thread i have to share-at least it was better than 'the reception that never was'
had a co-worker whose wedding was schedualed for 5 pm (in a location that the bulk of the guests-her co-workers, had to plan because of traffic to leave home an hour or two before the ceremony to travel to), and at 6:40 the guests were all still sitting in the church waiting for it to begin
finaly at close to 7:30 pm the wedding began!

the wedding service lasted for over 2 1/2 hours

(the bride and groom gave verbal 'tributes' to family members, friends, people they had encountered during their life times, bride 'sang' to the groom, groom 'sang to the bride'; at least 4 of the 12 (each) attendants on each side did 'singing' tributes to the bride and groom

.....) and then.....the pastor announced that while the guests were invited to proceed to the reception-the event would not 'begin' until the bride, groom and the wedding party did all of the formal portraits at the church, the brides home and other locations they had chosen because they were 'running late'

.
the bride when she returned to work following her honeymoon a couple of weeks later was verbaly angry and shocked that of the 150 plus guests that she invited and had rsvp'd to attend the reception only her immediate family and the bridal party (and not all of them) to the tune of about 25 showed for the catered reception which finaly started at 11:30 p.m. with the food served at around 1 a.m.-after all she had to do her formal entrance and receiving line

(her position was 'weddings never run on time-whats 4 or 5 hours more or less?'
