What time do your wedding day festivities start?

[DCcook]

Hi everyone! I'm starting to think of our wedding day agenda and when we should start things off. I'm wondering what other people are planning or how your wedding day looked in terms of the timeline.

 

I'd like to have a ceremony at dusk. The ceremony and reception are all taking place on the grounds of the hacienda we booked.

 

Our photographer has recommended taking pictures before the ceremony, by about 3:30 since the sun sets around 5ish in November. So, my timeline is looking like this:

 

3 or 3:30 Pictures with my groom and wedding party

5-5:30ish Ceremony

5:30 or 5:45 Cocktail Hour w/mariachis or a trio

6:30 or 7ish Dinner starts

8:30 Dancing

 

This is where things fuzzy for me. I'm thinking we want the band (we're looking at booking a live band) to start perhaps towards the end of dinner. How much dancing time is good?

 

I envision the night wrapping up around midnight but I don't know if 3.5 hours of dancing and music is too long.

 

Also, some folks will be staying at the hacienda with us, but there is not enough space. So some will be transported to their hotels about a half hour away (we'll provide a shuttle at various time of the evening). This makes things a little dicey in terms of an after-party since some may be interested in keeping the party going even after the last shuttle.

 

What are others thinking? A daytime or evening wedding? Are you having a cocktail hour? What does your timeline look like for the day of your wedding?

 

Thanks for the tips in advance!

[Nov-09-Bride]

I think your timeline looks great! Your very organized! My FI and I have the date booked and the time but that's about it at this point! Were only getting married in January 2010 so I feel like we still have lots of time to plan out all the details!

 

In our wedding package, they have included a private rehersal dinner. Were hoping that we can trasfer that dinner to the night of the wedding. Other than that, were just going to go with the flow!!

 

Good luck and happy planning.

 

Pat & Nancy's Wedding - wedding website by mywedding.com

[DCcook]

Thanks! I don't feel all that organized, especially since I don't even have my website up and running like you do (looks great by the way)!

 

I appreciate the feedback on the timeline! I'm still fiddling around with it and am on the lookout for how others are organizing their big day. We'll see...

[TATrisha]

I would definitely do the pictures before the ceremony if you are getting married at dusk. That's very smart.

I think your timeline looks really good though. My only suggestion is I would definitely have the cocktail hour go until at least 7 and then dinner will go until 8:30. Then you'll have the first dance type stuff that will take you until around 9ish. Then you can have the DJ play until 11:30... but if the party is rockin' ask if he'll play another 30 minutes?

[beachbride2009]

Yo are lucky you don't have a deadline of time...unfortunately our resort has us shut down at 11pm! So we will probably move the party into a cantina in Puerto Morelos which is only 5 mins away if there are a lot of party animals!

 

We're also getting married in November and our ceremony is at 4pm (hopefully only 20 mins!) so we can get photos done right after, before it gets dark and while our guests are enjoying a cocktail party before sitting down to dinner. We're having a TTD photo session the next day so we cn get lots of shots then too if we miss them the night before!

 

Yours sounds lovely at a private hacienda!

[beachbride2009]

Yo are lucky you don't have a deadline of time...unfortunately our resort has us shut down at 11pm! So we will probably move the party into a cantina in Puerto Morelos which is only 5 mins away if there are a lot of party animals!

 

We're also getting married in November and our ceremony is at 4pm (hopefully only 20 mins!) so we can get photos done right after, before it gets dark and while our guests are enjoying a cocktail party before sitting down to dinner. We're having a TTD photo session the next day so we cn get lots of shots then too if we miss them the night before!

 

Yours sounds lovely at a private hacienda!

[beachbride2009]

Yo are lucky you don't have a deadline of time...unfortunately our resort has us shut down at 11pm! So we will probably move the party into a cantina in Puerto Morelos which is only 5 mins away if there are a lot of party animals!

 

We're also getting married in November and our ceremony is at 4pm (hopefully only 20 mins!) so we can get photos done right after, before it gets dark and while our guests are enjoying a cocktail party before sitting down to dinner. We're having a TTD photo session the next day so we cn get lots of shots then too if we miss them the night before!

 

Yours sounds lovely at a private hacienda!

[DCcook]

Thanks for the feedback, ladies! I think the suggestion to do the cocktail hour through 7 is good and wrap up dinner at 8:30ish and start the dancing around then.

 

beachbride2009, I hope you get the pics you want after your ceremony. That's what I was initially planning, but our photographer strongly suggested doing the pictures with enough daylight. In the end, I don't mind switching it around.

 

The hacienda is beautiful...my only concern is that it's about 30 minutes away from anything else and not everyone is staying there. So it will be hard to keep the partying going for everyone. Hopefully, it will go okay. It's great that you have a nearby cantina to go to!

[beachbride2009]

I'm going to check in every couple months to see if the 3pm time opened up...hopefully!

Hopefully your guests will carpool in a taxi...it's wedding and worth the splurge!