Arrival Time vs Ceremony Time

I put "ceremony time" on ours, assuming people will know to be there by then! We plan on starting 5-10 minutes late anyway just in case. I put on our wedding website for guests to please arrive 10-20 minutes early if they can.

You are correct! Most adults know to arrive 15-30 minutes early to a wedding.

Our ceremony will begin at 5, so we are putting 5 on our invitations. In my opinion, the people I'm inviting are grown adults and should know better than to get there right at 5 out of common sense and courtesy. I've seen some people on here mention a 5-10 minute buffer, but most guests will know to show up at least 10 minutes early. I definitely wouldn't have them arrive 30 minutes early though. Some guests will out of their own will and if some show up late, they can take a seat in the back or wait until everything is finished.

Our ceremony was at 6 and we put 6 on the invite. We knew our families would come on time. A chronically late friend, reached out to me and asked if it starts at 6, so I told her doors close at 6 so get there before. Since she asked, I let a few other chronically late friends know to get there early. It worked out, very few people missed the ceremony!

I wouldn’t worry, most people should arrive before the ceremony starts. If anything, you can personally message some people that are always late and let them know.

Don't freak out - your invitations are correct.

I understand where your officiant is coming from to LIE to your guests and tell them earlier to ensure no one misses it/ enters late, but if they miss it that's unfortunate and their fault, and if they come late doors will be closed and they will miss it. Also, if you reprint the invitations, what about the guests that will come at 5pm thinking its at 5:30pm and they are sitting around until 6pm? IMO, don't reprint your invitations. Perhaps spread the word and add a note on your website that "Ceremony will begin promptly at 6pm, please arrive earlier than 5:45 to witness it" or something...

I put the ceremony start time on the invitation but I put "please arrive early enough to find your seat before the ceremony begins promptly at 4:30pm" on the details card.

Hi Jacqueline! I'm definitely on team "print the actual start time"!! You can always start the ceremony a few minutes late if people are still trickling in, and late people will be late no matter what - there's no need to punish the people who know to show up 20-30 minutes early!

Yeah don't worry I wrote ceremony time 6pm also assuming that adults know that they should get there a little early. The people taking the shuttle from the wedding will get there at 5:45 and I'm planning on starting 10ish minutes late to give people time to get there.

We put 15 minutes early on the invite because 85% of the people we invited are late to everything. Our venue provides snacks and champagne for guests that arrive early so we figured it was no big deal, there will be a place for them to hang out and have refreshments.

The time on the invitation should be the ceremony start time, so you are fine. It is annoying to those who arrive in plenty of time to find out later that they were lied to and the couple never intended to start at the stated time. Reward the people who arrive on time by starting on time. People who are habitually late can quietly take a seat in the back.

I put 5 even though it won't start till 530. But they will be entertained by live harpist.

We put our ceremony time as 2:30 & are planning to walk down the aisle by 2:45. I’m not a fan of the 30 minutes prior simply because I would be the one waiting for at least 45 minutes for the ceremony to start.