Timing of Reception in July...HELP please...

[rach220]

Hi girls...first of all I am the most indecisive person ever, and FI is no help when it comes to this stuff, so I'm turning to you all for advice. Right now we have our ceremony booked for 5PM. BUT I am considering moving it up to 4. Right now the night will be as follows...

 

5-5:30 Ceremony

5:30-6 pictures (I know it's not long but I don't want very many posed pics...more into the candids which we will get later in the evening)

6-8 dinner

8-10 cocktail reception

then we will probably go to the disco, or wherever else to continue with the party...

 

BUT now I'm thinking about whether or not to move everything up an hour, putting our cocktail reception at 7-9 PM instead. I was wondering if anyone knows what time the sun sets in July...because that will make a difference. I think it might be nice to have the reception at sunset...we will miss it if we wait until 8. We originally chose 5PM because we figured it might be cooler, but I guess it will be hot anytime right? Anyone get married in July that can offer any help?

 

TIA

[lolkitteh]

Hmmm... You haven't specified what city in the world your wedding will be, but you might find this link helpful to determine sunrise/sunset timings based on your dates and location city.

 

Sunrise and Sunset Calculator

[~Stephanie~]

I hear ya! I was struggling over the same thing when my WC asked what time I wanted the ceremony! I looked online at sunset times in Playa del Carmen (which is pretty close to where you are) and I think would apply to anywhere in the Riveria Maya location. In June it listed 7:30 (but I wasn't sure if that was accounting for daylight savings time).

 

I used this site: Sunrise, Sunset Calendars and Local Time

[rach220]

So I finally decided that I wanted to bump everything up an hour to catch the sunset...checked it with FI just to make sure before I did it...and he said NO.

wtf?

[~Stephanie~]

Did he even have a reason why? Seems like it wouldn't be a problem. Hell, everyone will already be there! lol. Maybe he doesn't understand how important it is to you?

[ErinB]

I will tell you from experience, that 30 minutes is not enough time for pictures. It might be for actually taking pictures, but that doesn't give you any wiggle room if anything is running behind and for everyone to come up after the ceremony to hug and congratulate you.

[rach220]

He said it will be too hot at 4:00.

IT'S MEXICO IN JULY! It's hot! Deal with it...

I will talk to him again and hopefully get my way.

 

And the pictures...I know 30 minutes isn't a lot. But I really don't even think I'll use the whole time. There are maybe 5 posed pics that I want, if that. I'm not really a fan. We will do the two of us, BM, GM, parents, then maybe a group shot. And I hear the ceremony only takes 15 minutes...so I figured I was already giving a bit of wiggle room. If it comes down to it, and we're a few minutes late for dinner, I don't really care.

[binzer]

I recommend talking to your photographer. I had a rough schedule in mind, and she totally helped me out with getting it nailed down (I had some definite misconceptions that she cleared up). Keep in mind that your planned photography time doesn't have to all be posed. After the ceremony and group shots my FI and I have about 45 minutes of time to ourselves (but it's happening during the cocktail hour so we can make it shorter or longer as we see fit). Since we'll be JUST "just married" we figure it'll be nice to have some time mostly to ourselves, so we're just going to hang out on the beach together as the sun sets, and let the photographer click away. We figure we'll also need the extra time so that we can forget about the photographer and actually get those purely candid shots.

 

Also clarify the ceremony time with your officiant or WC. My officiant in CR apparently likes to say a bunch of nice things, and it ends up being about 30 minutes (and I would've guessed more like 15).

 

I would also definitely stand up to your FI on this one! 20 years from now you guys will want to have nice sunset photos of your wedding day, but you certainly won't be sitting around saying "I sure wish it had been 5 degrees cooler during the ceremony"!

 

Anyways, GL! Schedules are a scary thing :S