How long to have reception space

Is it going to be on a weekend or weekday?

View Quoted Comment It is going to be on a Saturday

Are you getting ready at the venue? Sucks that set up/tear down is included in the hourly cost. What time are you wanting to get married? We’re having a Friday evening wedding and the ceremony will start at 6pm (ceremony and reception at the same place). End time for reception is 11pm. We get the venue until midnight and they clean up for us but I still want to end by 11 to get ppl out of there on time.


I would do a rough draft timeline on how you want the day to go. Ask if you can drop off decor the day before or morning of as well

My venue block is technically 7 1/2 hrs since 30 mins is our ceremony. They set up 2 hrs before, 4 hr reception and 1 hour cleanup after. Do you have hired help? If so I would say get at least 7-9 hours depending on the length you want you entire reception and how long your caterer needs to set up things. (if ceremony is off site you can have at least a 5 hour reception with cocktail hour)

We only have 30 minutes at the end of the night to clean up. The way the venue sets it up is that music stops 30 minutes before our time ends for clean up. We have access to the venue all day since we are the only wedding that day so we can set up at any time during the day. I think if we were on a Saturday when they do two weddings a day we would have an hour to set? I'm not positive, but I know they make sure the first wedding is cleared out with enough time for the second wedding to set up. I've never heard of a venue that is an hourly rental. I would say give yourself at least an hour for set up. Our ceremony is less than 30 minutes, then cocktail hour, and a 5 hour reception (with 30 minute clean up). Which I believe 5 hours is pretty much the norm for receptions.

You'll have to budget time for setup - any idea how long that'll take?

Where do you plan to get ready? Hair/makeup will take a few hours and putting dresses on will take another 30mins-1hr.

Usually the ceremony is 30 minutes, but you'll need to open the space at least 30 mins in advance for guests to begin arriving and finding seats. You probably should budget a little extra time for the ceremony in case something causes a delay.

Are you doing a first look? You can skip cocktail hour if you do, which will save you an hour (assuming you do the first look somewhere other than the venue).

An evening reception is usually 3-5 hours.

Assuming you get ready elsewhere, that would be like 1-2 hours for setup + 1-1.5 hours for ceremony (could do 1 hour for ceremony and simply have a shorter reception if a delay happens) + 3-5 hours + 30mins-1hr cleanup = 5.5-9.5 hours total. If you plan to get ready there, you'll have to add another 1-3 hours for that.

I booked my venue through the weekend (thank goodness). But when I was looking at by the hour venues, my plan was noon to midnight (if we had someone else setting up).

Thank you everyone! I’m going to talk to the venu this week. I will not be getting ready there so thankfully that saves some time.