Wedding day timings.

[torsie24]

I would love to hear how all of your wedding day timings look/looked.

We are having a hard time deciding if ours is practical.

Ideally we want the 2.30pm ceremony (WP) then our reception to follow and then dessert party after that.

BUT on our wedding day the fireworks will be at 10pm, and our planner suggests we move to the 5pm ceremony. We don't want to not start our day until 5pm though....

If we were having a DJ and dancing at the reception then it wouldn't be an issue, but I think a DJ for 30 people would be a little awkward...

Did any of you have a 2.30 ceremony and 10pm DP? Did the cocktail hour, meal, speeches and dancing fill the time between without feeling strung out?

 

[weedee]

We were having similar timing issues because our wedding is at 2:30 pm at the WP and the fireworks are also at 10 pm that day. If your ceremony/cake cutting last until 4 pm (like they say it should) and you do family pictures plus bride&groom portraits for 1-2 hours while your guests are at a cocktail hour (or whatever), then you can start your reception anywhere between 5:30-6 pm. We're planning on our simple dinner reception for 25 people at Citricos to last about 2-3 hours when all is said and done. So that should put you around 8:30-9 pm. So it's a bit early, but your guests could always hang around relaxing, socializing, possibly dancing (I do think a DJ for 30 people might be weird), and drinking until the 10 pm firework show.

We decided against a DP for other reasons, but we are hoping to use this exact plan to just catch the Wishes fireworks show after our dinner reception at Citricos in the GF without a DP!

 

[torsie24]

Thanks Wendy. It does sound pretty do-able.

 

[pezaddict231]

We had a lot of problems with the timing thing and it was seriously stressing me out. DF wanted an evening wedding at the GF. I wanted a Dessert party. We are doing a Wishes wedding and will have around 75 guests.

This is our timeline:

5:00 pm - ceremony at WP
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - pre-reception at White Hall Patio
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm - reception - dinner / cake / dancing
9:30 - 10:30 pm - Dessert Party at GF Marina
10:30 pm - 12 am - reception - more dancing

In order to do this we are extending our reception by 1 hour. I went through pretty much every combination with Disney and this was the best option.

We could have also done:

2:30 pm ceremony
3:30 - 4:30 pre-reception
4:30 - 9:30 reception (also extended by 1 hour)
9:30 - 10:30 DP

But DF didn't want the wedding to end that early and I thought it might just be too long. While I don't like paying for a room that's not being used for an hour in Option 1, it is not so different from having a viennese hour that closes the dance floor which is fairly common where we live.

With an Escape wedding since you have fewer people and Disney isn't as involved in the planning of the reception you have more flexibility it seems. It wouldn't be such a big deal for 10-15 people to just hang out at the bar or beach or whatever.

You can try asking too but I found that it is not really an option to start your pre-reception later for a Wishes wedding, they do not want your guests milling around with nothing to do. For us, we definitely can't tell 75 people to just hang out for an hour while we take pictures. I think you'll see most people that had breaks in the day had big breaks where guests could go back to their rooms or to the parks or something.

Will your guests not want to dance? I don't think it's weird to have a DJ for 30 people if you have people that like to dance.

 

[BecBennett]

Your timing is pretty much what I want, 2:30pm ceremony, pre and reception, followed by DP.

I really don't think it would be strung out. Most weddings - if not all - that I've been to have been around a 3pm ceremony, followed by a 5pm or 6pm reception that goes until 11pm, and it always feels that the final song comes too quick!

We're having an Ipod set up as apposed to a DJ, it's more a cost thing then a awkward thing...