~30 minute gap between ceremony and cocktail hour

What do people do for the 30 minutes in between? Go to the tavern? I think you'll have a heck of a time getting people to come back within 30 minutes if they head to a bar.

Could you not move your ceremony back half an hour or the cocktail hour up half an hour? Is there a reason for the gap? I think it should be avoided if at all possible.

View Quoted Comment Agreed. Also, how many guests are you inviting? Will the tavern have enough staff to handle your entire guest list if everyone heads in there? I’m not sure why you’d need to push the ceremony back for weather. I assume you’d just move it inside. As someone from New England, if you’re getting married in Vermont in December, you have to be prepared to move inside anyway. I love my family and friends but I’m not standing outside in 10 degree weather to watch anyone get married.

You should really either have the ceremony at 3:30 and start cocktail hour at 4 or start the ceremony at 4 with cocktail hour starting at 4:30.

Why is there a 30 minute gap when everything is on site? Seems inconvenient for your guests.

30 minutes is too long if they don't have to travel anywhere. I wouldn't want to go from a ceremony to checking in, I'm the kind of person that would take care of that beforehand. If you're expecting guests to grab a drink at the bar you're either going to overwhelm the staff or have a difficult time getting guests to your reception. I would definitely shorten the time in between.

Since your having a destination wedding a lot of guest will probably be taking pictures during that time and mingling also If your photographer has a second person they could set up a spot to take some group pictures. 30 minutes is not that long some guest might not even notice

I had a 1.5hour gap but we had 2 locations with a 30 minute drive.
That said, I think if everything is in the same place there really shouldn't be a gap.

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So it is at a resort ... the hotel is on the 1st floor, basement floor (i guess), has the tavern, right outside of that is where the ceremony is... 50 ft over to the right is where the cocktail hour/reception is

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I see! I guess in my opinion, if there isn't a hosted cocktail hour in the wedding venue space, it will be really hard to rally everyone for the reception if people just break off into random areas for 30 minutes not knowing where to go or what to do.

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My other concern is that the place said they will "try" to have all rooms ready before their normal check in time, but there's no guarantee (ugh!). Their check in time is at 3pm. People are driving about 5-6 hours on average to come up to the wedding so I wanted to give that buffer in case people were late and couldn't check in prior to ceremony

Everything is on site at our venue and whenever our ceremony ends, cocktail our begins-which ultimately will lead to more dancing at the reception and/or some buffer room if things get delayed. If that’s not possible at your venue, move your ceremony back. A half hour is an awkward gap. You can’t do much in 30 minutes so most people will just stand around waiting.

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Well we had a hard time with the open bar charges, if we went over a certain time limit (5 hours) they then increase the fee by $10/person which would add another $1k+ to the bill as there are also weird taxes in VT as well so you then get hit with the state and alcohol taxes on top of that. (something we didn't realize until after booking)

With everything being at the same venue I would try to keep things to a tighter schedule to avoid people wandering off.

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Another tough detail to throw in here, sunset is at 4:15 in Vermont. So the LATEST we can do our ceremony is at 3:30pm.

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Then I would move the ceremony back or the cocktail hour and reception up.

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Pushing the ceremony back if the roads by chance are bad or what not, I am not sure. There are a lot of variables in this mix I'm just doing my best to keep my head above water. It's certainly not going to be 10 degrees the first weekend of December, that is what NE and VT see maybe Jan-March. I am from New York.

We would move the ceremony inside if weather was uncomfortable and truly bad. Wasn't looking for opinions on the fact we are getting married outside. Strictly advice on how to handle the gap, if its really not that big of a deal, or what other people have done personally.

View Quoted Comment You included info about why you had the gap and I commented on that info. It may not average 10 degree temperatures but higher elevations absolutely can get that cold, even in the beginning of December. I’ve never seen a gap at a wedding where everything is at the same location and as a guest it would confuse me if I was told to go find somewhere to hang out for 30 minutes.

I don’t understand a gap when everything is on site and would be confused by it as a guest. Despite all your comments, I still have no idea why you would plan for this gap. I don’t understand how it relates to the bar timeline at all (close the open bar after 5 hours...5 hours is a good long time, this shouldn’t be an issue). I haven’t seen any reason why you wouldn’t just start the cocktail hour and reception earlier ?

Gaps are annoying and inconvenient when at 2 different sites , but...at least understandable. At the same site, it doesn’t make any sense, and it WILL be an issue. Either people will stick around waiting for something to happen (getting impatient when it doesn’t), or they’ll wander off and only slowly trickle back in, throwing off all your start times— probably a mix of both, realistically. I for one wouldn’t go somewhere else and come back, I’d just sit there waiting. As would most of my social circle. So why not just start the cocktail hour right away?

If it helps— my timeline was similar: we had a 3:30 start time for our ceremony. Cocktail hour immediately after. So, started at 4. We too paid for 5 hours of bar service. That started at 4 and ended at 9. It was fine— that’s a normal length of wedding party, and how long all our vendors were hired for (not only did bar service shut down at 9, but, so did the dj, and so did all the catering service). It was a fine normal length of party— but if we wanted to hang out after we could— just without all those services . It was a residential area and all needed to be packed up and gone by 10. We just moved the party elsewhere for an after party (well, those that wanted to keep it going — MANY people had already headed in for the night— they’d already partied their little hearts out!) ....But just because we had to pack up and out for our circumstances doesn’t mean you do— your party may be able to keep going strong, just that your open bar will be done. Many weddings close the bar an hour before the event ends — probably because in a lot of cases they’ll only allow for x number of open bar hours or that’s all the couple pays for — I’ve also seen open bar closed during dinner (though I’m not a fan of this one as a guest) to get the extra bar hour later. The last wedding I went to, the open bar shut down after their hours were up, but there was a cash bar in another room that anyone was welcome to go to after the open bar hours.

As a guest I would be a bit confused by a gap when everything is at the same venue. However, you will have some guests taking photos with you (I assume) and others checking in as you mentioned, then maybe just do a consumption bar tab in between. That way guests don't have to open their wallets and will be fully hosted - something I strongly believe in, especially with a DW. Not sure how many guests you will have, but I think it would be difficult to rack up $1,000 in drinks in 1/2 hour so you would be saving over adding additional time to your drink package.