Daytime Ceremony, Evening Reception Guest Attire

Guests attire should match the formality of the location(s). Most guests can pick up on what to wear based on the location of the events. Like you said, formal would mean full suits/tuxedos for men and floor-length dresses for women. To me, that doesn't really match or fit with an afternoon at a botanical garden in mid-May (which could be extremely warm). It does fit with a ballroom, though, so I don't see any issue there. Plus, with such a long break in between your ceremony and reception, it's likely guests will go home/hotel and freshen-up and change anyway. Personally, I can say that not only would I not want to wear a floor length dress to an outdoor botanical garden, I also wouldn't want to wear it for almost 12 hours that day (yikes!). Give your guests some grace and let them dress accordingly for the ceremony - beautiful summer floral dresses, seersucker, vests/ties, sport jackets, etc.

They will need two outfits it seems?
Afternoon dressy is very different than dinner jacket/floor length gowns of a formal affair.
They have time to change, though. Just find some way to say “garden wedding” and “formal evening” for bofh events

Bear in mind that guests will only wear one outfit. People say they can and do commonly change but reality is almost no one ever does.

In time past, daytime was formal and evening was casual but that has obviously changed over the years. Pick one formality for both events.

Dress code is the least of your worries. Get rid of the 5 hour gap. You will have many people not make the ceremony for that reason and there is no socially acceptable reason to have a gap. It is inconvenient for your guests.

Why is there such a gap between ceremony and reception? I have never seen this before! I know as a guest I would attend one or the other and dress accordingly (wedding ceremony=garden party attire and reception=formal attire).

The ceremony and reception are at different venues. The latest ceremony time we could book was 1:30, and the earliest reception time was 6 ¯\_(?)_/¯ Almost everyone on our guest list will be from out of town, so for all intents and purposes it's a destination wedding. I plan on providing a list of things to do in the city for the guests to occupy their time with. I know the gap is nontraditional, but it's what is going to happen for us.

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No one will be playing tourist or other activities in between in dressy clothes. Nor do they shower/change into other dressy clothes, window shop, sightsee, nap, etc during a gap. They either be very antsy and irritated or skip the ceremony entirely.

Are you locked into your reception venue? If you look outside the box at parks department, community centers, local industrial venues, etc, they are very flexible are start times. You can also have ceremony at the reception venue which is very common and eliminates the gap.

View Quoted Comment I appreciate your input, but respectfully, I disagree. I've been to multiple weddings that have had long gaps between ceremony and reception and it hasn't been a problem. At one I took a nap, another I went to the bar and mingled with other guests doing the same. We are locked in at both of our locations.

How close is the hotel to the ceremony or reception? You could put something on on the invite to signal the attire change, but I would have to assume the majority of guests would not be planning on an outfit change, and still might not change from “garden casual” to formal.


I have only been to two weddings with a large time gap between the ceremony and reception, and both times our group chose to go to a restaurant or bar, and never considered changing outfits.

I personally wouldn’t want to change outfits for a wedding even with such a large time gap. I would wear the attire I wore for the ceremony. It’s just a hassle to pack two fancy outfits if I’m traveling. You can mention the different formality of your reception venue but understand that most guests won’t change their outfits as that’s not convenient for them, especially if you’re providing a list of possible things to do in that five hour time frame.
If attire is that important to you, I would see if you could change your ceremony venue to your reception venue and get rid of that five hour time frame.

Unfortunately, I think you are going to have two major issues with your current plans. The first one being attire. You are essentially having two events with completely different levels of formality. One is more laid back and causal and the other is formal. As a guest, there is no way I'd want to have to figure out two different outfits for one wedding especially for a wedding I'm having to travel to. I would just pick one outfit and that's what I'd wear for both. Given that the ceremony is outside in a garden, I would pick something more causal and summery which doesn't fit with the formal reception. The second issue is the time gap between the ceremony and reception. As someone from out of town, I wouldn't be impressed with such a long time between the two events even if you told me things to do in the area because that would mean I would have spend more money when I've already spent money on traveling to the wedding, booking a hotel, and buying you a gift. Also, this doesn't sound realistic for those in your bridal party. Are you going to expect the bridesmaids and groomsmen to stay in their dresses/suits for such a long time? If so, that sounds awful. Then you also have the concern of if hair and makeup will actually look good by the time the reception starts. No offense, but this doesn't sound well thought out.

I don’t think you can have two different styles of formality here. Most guests won’t pack two completely different outfits for your wedding, especially if it’s out of town. I know you want a formal reception for the evening, but I think you need to anticipate that guests will not dress formally for a garden ceremony in the afternoon and they likely won’t bring two sets of dresses/suits for one wedding.

View Quoted Comment All of this.
I have only been to one wedding that had a significant gap between ceremony and reception, which required a wardrobe change. We did garden party attire for the 2:00pm ceremony, then black tie attire for the hosted cocktail hour (6-7) and reception (7-midnight). That being said, it truly WAS a black tie affair (six figure budget, extravagant decor, insane amount of food, top shelf bar, cigar rolling station, photo booth, live bands, extravagant swag bags, etc.), which kind of made up for the high maintenance aspect of the wedding (wardrobe change, huge gap between events). If you do not plan to host a true black tie affair, I would definitely caution against suggesting that attire, as guests will expect black-tie hosting. Also, as a previous comment mentioned, you are going to want to take into consideration hair and make up (especially considering you will be having an outdoor wedding, which can wreak havoc on both). At the wedding we attended, the bride had a HMUA for the entire day/evening who completely re-did all the girls hair and makeup after the ceremony and pictures, in order to fit the formality of the formal evening affair. Also, the bride purchased two dresses for each bridesmaid- one to fit the formality of the garden ceremony and one to fit the formality of the black tie reception. As others have mentioned, I would expect a higher decline rate from guests, especially if they are having to travel. And also that they will not be amenable to a wardrobe change. If you plan to inconvenience your guests with a huge gap between your ceremony and reception, at least be gracious enough to not demand a wardrobe change as well, unless you plan to host a black tie affair (in which guests are “rewarded” for their inconvenience by receiving super expensive, top level hosting).

View Quoted Comment I'm a Catholic and it's common for us to have daytime weddings with evening receptions. I change every single time. Maybe others don't, but I certainly do

View Quoted Comment This is also untrue. I would say most don't sightsee, but they do nap or hit the bar or just watch tv in the hotel. The biggest risk of a big gap is that some of your guests will inevitably show up tipsy

I think the biggest problem with this is expecting formal/black tie in the evening. If the event has a big gap AND is a destination event, I think its unfair to expect people to travel with formal clothing. I would either do semi-formal or have no dress code and let people do their own thing.


My cousin had almost the same scenario you do. He requested black tie at the evening portion, and we all flat-out refused. I mean it wasn't a black tie wedding, but we also weren't renting tuxes and gowns to bring on a plane. At the end of the day, the men wore the same suit to both events but maybe added a bowtie to the evening portion, and the women wore sun dresses to the ceremony and long dresses (not quite black tie gowns, but nice) to the reception

Not to be mean, but it doesn't sound like you considered your guests feelings at all when you made these plans. It is a lot to expect guests to travel for a destination wedding then to add in a time gap and attire change is just too much. As a guest, I would be extremely annoyed with the couple. There is no way I'd want to pick out two different outfits and then have to travel with them. And what about the bridal party? It would seem very odd if they wore formal gowns and tuxes for a ceremony in a garden especially in the heat so they would also need to change outfits as well. The bridesmaids would also need to have their hair and makeup redone between the ceremony and reception because I highly doubt it will last especially if they have to or want to change during the time gap. I know as a bridesmaid I would definitely not want to stay dressed up during the gap. My opinion is you need to really think about what type of wedding you want because it sounds like you are going in two completely different directions which isn't going to work without inconveniencing your guests and bridal party.

FWIW if I were traveling to a wedding I would have no problem with changing for events, I’m a napper and would love a nap before and evening event.
It’s probably different if you aren’t from out of town, going back home then out again, that would probably be tiresome.

View Quoted Comment It’s not nontraditional, it’s straight up rude. Gaps are rude to your guests. And your guests are not going to go out on the town and sightsee in their wedding clothes, leaving aside the whole issue that you are going to force your guests to wear 2 different outfits.I think you have two different visions and need to pick one, frankly.

View Quoted Comment Agreed, all of this. Also, black tie optional isn’t really a thing. It’s either black tie or it’s not.
Commit to one vision, and I’m sure it will be lovely. Trying to combine two very different visions like this just isn’t going to go smoothly.

You're piling inconvenience on inconvenience on your guests. Destination wedding. Huge gap. Two different locations. Two different dress codes. A more formal dress code.


Your guests are going to have to entertain themselves during the gap, and have to be watching the clock. They're going to be worn out by your reception, and probably not have the time they need to do anything in a fun or leisurely manner.
Most of your guests are probably skipping the ceremony. What you're doing is a huge imposition.
If your venue and schedule is set in stone, I'd at least nix the dress code. Let the guests choose what they'll be comfortable in.