Question for married ladies~how long was your wedding day?

[KLC77]

Hi ladies,

I'm just wondering how long your day was from the time the ceremony started to the time the official reception ended (not including if you went to a bar or club at the resort afterward)? Right now our ceremony is scheduled to start at 4pm which means if we have a dj for 5 hours he would be leaving at 9pm. Part of me thinks this is fine and part of me thinks its not long enough. So, I'm wondering if those of you who are already married could tell me what you did? TIA

[Kat81]

I'm not much help because I didn't get a DJ but I know that it kinda depends on the people going. I mean are there a lot of partiers and young people? Or is it mostly family? We had our "reception" until 9 then we all headed to the lobby bar and partied until around midnight.

[*Heather*]

This is a good question Kelly - I think our reception is going to end at 10:30, but I'm considering ending it at 9:30 instead, and heading back to our hotel to party the rest of the night (where it's AI and drinks will be free!!) I'm interested to see what the married ladies on here did!

[nathanielthompsonphoto]

Hey Kelly! Does the DJ need to be there for the ceremony? Is he doing sound set up for the ceremony? if not, you can have him start later to stretch the time. especially if you're having cocktails and hors d'oeuvres after the ceremony. Maybe have him start at 5 and stay until 10.

[KLC77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nathanielthompsonphoto Hey Kelly! Does the DJ need to be there for the ceremony? Is he doing sound set up for the ceremony? if not, you can have him start later to stretch the time. especially if you're having cocktails and hors d'oeuvres after the ceremony. Maybe have him start at 5 and stay until 10.

I was thinking of this as an option as well, but if he's there for the ceremony then I know I don't have to worry about the music for that. I figure the fewer things I have to worry about on that day the better.

[KLC77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kat81 I'm not much help because I didn't get a DJ but I know that it kinda depends on the people going. I mean are there a lot of partiers and young people? Or is it mostly family? We had our "reception" until 9 then we all headed to the lobby bar and partied until around midnight.

I think we have a pretty mixed group. I was thinking along the same lines as what you did, heading to the lobby bar if we wanted to continue the celebration and then people could head back to their rooms if they wanted to.

[tvt]

Our ceremony started at 4:30 and we left Las Caletas at 11pm. But then we had an hour boat ride of more music, drinks and dancing. So total I'd say 7ish hours total. 4:30-12:00. And then a large part of our group continued on at the lobby bar.

[jessyg20]

At first, I paid 3hrs for a DJ. Then I realized it wasn't enough. We almost forgot we had to take into consideration the DJ has to pick up his equipment and carry it to the the reception area after the cermony. This can take up valuable time, time you're paying for!

 

Instead, I made a CD of all my Ceremony songs. I paid for the hotel's sound system and had my WC play the CD. I gave her a list of the songs, in order, and we discussed how I wanted them played and when to fade. She did a great job. It turned out perfect.

 

Then, we hired the DJ for the reception, that's where you need to get you're money's worth. The DJ played a CD I created with our entrance songs, first dance, mother/son song, etc., then he played music during the dinner. It took almost 3 hours until he could play party/dance music. At that point I realized we need him longer. So we kept him for 5hrs from start of the reception though.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KLC77 I was thinking of this as an option as well, but if he's there for the ceremony then I know I don't have to worry about the music for that. I figure the fewer things I have to worry about on that day the better.

What is your actual wedding schedule? What happens after your ceremony? Is their a cocktail hour? Are you going to be taking pictures or something while your guests are doing something else?
If so, maybe you won't need the DJ at that point & can hold off until its time for dancing.

For instance my ceremony was at 4pm, the dinner reception was at 6:30pm, and then the dancing part of the reception where I paid for & had the DJ was from 9pm to 11pm. At 11pm the disco opened up to the general public. So my guests were dancing from 9pm til about 2am when the disco closed.

I know you said its something you don't want to have to worry about, but maybe you could put some songs on a disc, or use an Ipod & have that playing to entertain the guests until its actually time for dancing. Then you'd get a full 5 hours out of the DJ. Maybe you could designate someone trustworthy to be in charge of the Ipod for you....giving you 1 less thing to worry about!

[2bebridejamaica]

I would agree with everyone else on this one ... make a CD and let the hotel deal with it .. I would hate to see your money wasted on set up's and moving around with just not enough time for what you had planned.

 

Our wedding was at 3... or I should say 4 because of the hurricane.. I used a CD thank goodness because otherwise I would have been paying a million more for more time. By the time we joined our cocktail hr started it was almost 530. We had that then dinner... all in all, I think everyone started to move back around 9ish .. maybe sooner we had some young ones with us and alot of people were exhuasted. Everyone else up and going was at one of the bars till bout 1130 or so.