12:00 Ceremony Timeline Help

Plan for the reception to start one hour (for travel time) after the end of the ceremony. So, if your ceremony is one hour long, then your reception would start at 2:00. If you need time to take photos, then you can use a cocktail hour format for the first hour of the reception.

Then, think about when you want the party to end, and work backwards from that time, fitting in whatever other reception elements you want to include (e.g., cake cutting, speeches, dancing, etc.).

Would it be weird to eat around 3:00? We cant be noisy past 9:00, so I am ok with it not being a late night. Maybe I am overthinking this!

Yes it would, don't leave a weird hour hanging in there. Start cocktail hour at 3pm, then serve an early dinner with dancing after.

I don't think so. It's the mealtime that makes sense for your start and end times. I think it's most important to ensure there isn't any longer of a hosting gap than is required by that extra long travel time to your reception site.