Ceremony timing??

Hi everyone! I'm getting married in February but I've only just found PW! I thought you all might be able to help me. My FI talked with a priest at the church we picked back in Jan-Feb of this year about booking our wedding. We were told that they didn't set the schedule until May but that he would pencil us in. A couple of weeks ago I went to turn in our paperwork at the church and was told that another couple had been booked during our time slot!

Needless to say I was quite frustrated and since then we've been scrambling to find another church. The problem is that my FI is Catholic so it has to be a Catholic church. And it seems that most Catholic churches have Mass in the early afternoon. We had planned to have our ceremony at 2:00 and our reception is already booked for 4:30pm. The churches we have talked to so far all say they can do it between 10:00am and 1:00pm.

My question is, do you think that would be too much of a time gap between the ceremony and reception? We have a lot of out of town guests and I feel bad that they would have nothing to do for those 3-4 hours in between. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

This does happen... often guests will go back to there lodging and rest or go to movie... A group tour is a fun option as well

Sorry they did this to you at the church! Yikes that is a hard thing!

Have a wonderful wedding day,

Heather

Can you move your reception up instead?  Just a thought....

- HMM :)

Honestly, I just went to a wedding last month where they had a 3 hour gap and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After the ceremony, Ramon and I went to a little grill and had appetizers. After an hour of doing that, we went to the RH and luckily the doors were open. I really enjoyed taking my time with finding our table, looking at the candy bar, checkin out the cake ect. It allowed just enough time for us to soak up and appreciate all the detail that was put in to it and not just being rushed to your table.

If the ceremony is at 1, See if your venue will allow guests to show up a little early.

My Fi and I are having the same prob. My church wants the wedding at 2.  There's an afternoon mass, so possibly he'll let us do 3. Regardless our cocktail hour starts at 7 which is making everything more expensive. We'll need the limo/rolls or whatever longer and the photographer. Some photographers have 6/8/10 hour packages. At this rate, I'd need one from at least 1-midnight that's 11 hours.

We're trying to get the church to move back to three or the RH to start at 5:30.  The one thing I do like when I go, is that I often put on a nice dress for the wedding. Then during the gap between ceremony/hall I check in, put on my formal gown/dress, do the hair, and just relax in the hotel before the night of partying.

I would try to move the either/both times if possible. If not, your family/friends love you and they'll be there anyway. THose closest to you know your whole dilemma with the church and that you tried.

I went to a friend's wedding where this happened and it ended up working out great for us and for her because she got alot of great pics.  Your guests will manage.  If you can start your ceremony at 1 and your reception at 4:30 will only be about a 2 hour gap that they have nothing to do and trust me they will find something. 

we are in the same boat.  our ceremony starts at 2:30, and its not a full mass so we are looking at 40 minutes at the most.  Our reception/cocktail hour doenst start until 4:30.  But i figure people can figure out what they want to do by themselves. Im not going to stress about it.

Thanks for your comments! That definitely makes me feel better! I'm still going to try to find a church with a time that is closer the our reception time. That is definitely set in stone because it's a country club and they serve lunch until 3:00pm so we can't do it any earlier. Thanks for your input though! Glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem!