Cocktail Hour Question

It really depends on your venue... most are held inside, but if your venue has a nice outside area you could do it there also. Once you tour your venue you can have a better idea, and the staff will tell you where cocktail hour is usually held.

Ours will be in a different area of our reception venue. We have an indoor area that we are using for dinner and then an outside area right outside the indoor one that we are going to use for cocktail hour and then dancing later in the evening

It depends on your venue. I would ask what they’ve done at previous weddings.

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Seconded. It really depends on the venue. I've been to cocktails hours that are outside and cocktail hours that are inside. Ours was outside, but our whole reception was outside.

It depends on your venue. I've been to a wedding where the ceremony was completely outside, cocktail hour was inside a barn/mingling around outside, and the reception was in a covered tent area.

For ours, we're getting married on a covered patio, and then having cocktail hour inside part of the ballroom space (it's sort of L-shaped, so the cocktail portion will be set up on the smaller side).

You can definitely ask your venue for options!

Our cocktail hour is held inside but I have seen them held outside if there's a nice outside bar area and the weather is nice!

Depending on the venue, you could have your cocktail hour in a different area/room of the venue or outside of it on a patio or something like that! You can decorate for cocktail really simple and easy too! Something as simple as high-boy cocktail tables with a linen thrown over it and some tea lights with votives!

It's typically held at the reception venue in a different location than the reception (if your venue has room for that), just not in the same space as dinner.

Mine was but I've seen cocktail hours inside too

Not a dumb question at all. It really does depend on your venue & the spaces they offer. For example, I work part-time at a country club that has space for both outside & inside ceremonies. Once it's over, the guests move to a lobby type area...which is indoors...outside of the main ballroom (where the reception is held) for the cocktail hour. Then once cocktail hour is over, they open the doors to the ballroom & start the reception.

On the other hand, I attended a wedding where the couple got married in the park, had a coffee hour in the same area right after the ceremony (in place of the cocktail hour), and then everyone drove/Uber-ed/etc to the reception which was about 10mins away.

We're skipping the cocktail hour altogether for our wedding.

There's all kinds of ways to make it work & pretty much any venue & vendor will be willing to work w/ your vision as long as you're willing to pay for it.

Ours was supposed to be in the hotel lobby but we wanted more privacy so we had them move it into the reception hall.

It depends on your venue and time of year! For my venue it can either be inside or outside on their patio, but I’m getting married in late November so definitely inside lol. I still could do it outside if I wanted though because they place heaters on the patio! Ask your venue and do whatever you think would work the best

Like others have said, it is venue specific. It is a great question to ask if it is an indoor reception that has an outdoor space. I have been to a lot of weddings with outside cocktail hour, inside reception. It works and is often a lot of fun with a bit of planning. But a few things to consider: weather, back up plan for weather, and letting your guests know. (There are tons of reasons this can be helpful, from helping them decide on which dress [or other] to wear to letting those who burn easily in the sun know they will be outside in it [I got a sun burn from a 4-5pm outside cocktail hour in July] or even helping them remember to hydrate because they will be outside).

It depends on your venue. Where I am getting married, the cocktail hour takes place after the ceremony right outside. My FSIL got married in a different venue, and cocktail hour was held in Fhe bar area and outside where she had the lawn games. But the reception room wasn’t opened until the reception.

Normally i would say they are held outside if you ceremony is also outside. If it is inside then everything is inside. but if you prefer one or the other just talk with your venue, see what they can do for you

It depends on how u feel if u have the option for outside and inside i would pick outside if it's not heavy raining or super cold.