How long was your ceremony?

For those who already got married...how long was your ceremony? And in retrospect, was it too long or short...would you have incorporated more readings, ceremonies...

The reason I'm asking is b/c i want to incorporate a few cultural traditions in my ceremony. I emailed my tentative ceremony to the officiant that i will be using (John Fagan), and he said it might be too long (est. 40 min).

Any advice...

We had a civil ceremony there at Dreams (well, the Mexican judge's standard, not sure how widely used it is) and we actually really liked the verbage (attached) they had standardized and it lasted roughly 30 minutes (including our Moms doing a unity candle ceremony in the middle) which was good for us. If the traditional additions that you want mean that much to you both, I say just let the officiant know that you want it to be part of your ceremony and go with it. good luck!

WEDDING CEREMONY2.doc

Ours was about 20 to 25 minutes. We went with whatever the minister usually says, it was beautiful. We also did the sand ceremony. It was perfect for us. I would say it is your wedding and if you want extra readings, you should have them! 40 minutes isn't bad, a traditional wedding here would be at least that, if not longer.

We used the civil ceremony (legal) at Dreams Cabo and added a sand ceremony and my dad & brother sang a song. Our ceremony was just barely 20 minutes, even with these add ins. I'm not sure how Claudia's was 30 minutes- that seems amazing to me considering the almost 10 minutes my sand ceremony & song took up and we still barely came in at 20...

I think ours was like 15 minutes. It included the greeting, some words on marriage, vows, ring exchange, sand ceremony and hand blessing. It sounds like a lot for a little time but these things don't take 5 minutes each...plus there is only so much you can do without it being boring....well imo.

I was once at an outdoor wedding where it was really hot and the thing dragged on and on. All I could think about was when will it end, I'm thirsty...lol So try to consider that too. Our minister suggested brevity and it worked well for us.

In retrospect I wouldn't have made it shorter or longer....we got our 15 minutes and it was great....lol

Hmmm well i got married in October and it was soooo freaking hot! We cut it down to a 20 minute ceremony because we were freightened with the hot weather and our grandparents in th heat. Some people even had a bit of heat stroke (myself maybe included) So we kept it short. I'd check out what Los Cabos is like near the end of October.

I have no idea how long our ceremony was, but John also asked us to trim it down.. he said because it's Oct and not too hot it was ok. I did cut it back and I'm glad.. even though I was oblivious, our guests were still sitting in the hot sun. (The fans came in handy).. one suggestion.. make sure you have someone speak to the minister and tell him how to pronounce your last name.. we did all our cooresponding via email and he got pronounced it wrong..

Matt didn't see him until about 2 minutes before the ceremony started.

Other than that, he was GREAT!

I think ours was about 20 minutes. But I don't think it would have been so long if the priest had an easier time reading english. In his defense, he received the ceremony we had written minutes before the ceremony. He was sweet and tried his best, but it was a little bit brutal.

thanks, all good points to take into consideration. I'm just scared that i won't feel like I'm getting married if it's so short...