POLL: How long is your ceremony+reception?

How long is your ceremony and reception?

My ceremony is 2pm-3pm
Pictures at the church from 3pm-4pm
One hour break from 4pm-5pm
Reception from 5pm-10pm

We had a 45 minute church ceremony and about a 4 hour reception. After all of the standard reception events (entrance, toast, cake, etc.), only a few people danced and they eventually left. Most of my guests were pretty reserved so I didn't really expect them to party all night :). That's ok, my DH and I were pretty tired after 4 hours already.

Our ceremony was about 30 minutes. We had a mini reception after our ceremony and that was about 1 to 1.5 hours. Our reception was 5 hours (including cocktail hour).

Ceremony alloted 30 minutes
Cocktail Hour: 1 hour
Reception: Up to 5 hours, but prob'ly will be 4.

rosy - what do you mean by a mini reception? Was it at your ceremony site?

Srini- yes, it was at my ceremony site. Since I did have a gap between my ceremony & reception, we served dim sum, fruit and refreshments at the church's meeting room.

Margaret, do you have things for people to do between 3 and 5pm? Can they serve cocktails at the reception or something? You don't want your guests loitering around bored for two hours...

I know =( The gap is a huge problem because Saint Mary's only allows ceremony at 2pm, and Yank Sing can only start setting up around 3:30pm.

Some of the things you can suggest to your guests are: Ferry Building, Chinatown, Downtown, Japantown, Lombard Street, Ghiradelli Square, Pier 39, or Fisherman's Wharf.

The church is really close to Japan Town... maybe that will be ok?