Invitations

I would list the exact start time. If guests plan to arrive 15-20 minutes before the ceremony, and you list an earlier time as the start time, anyone arriving early would instead be waiting around for 30-45 minutes (or more). You could list something such as, "Ceremony will begin at promptly 4:30pm. Please plan to arrive a few minutes early to find a seat before the ceremony begins."

In our circles, the exact ceremony start time is listed. Guests know to arrive 15-30 minutes prior to be seated. Also other cultures within our families and friends follow the same guidelines.

This is definitely a culture thing! I’ve been to many weddings in my culture / similar cultures that started “late” & always enjoyed the anticipation build. I think factors in the “late” start weddings were culture & how difficult or easy the wedding location was for guests to reach- they might have listed earlier start times if it took some coordination to get there, parking and walking to the venue, known traffic in the area, if late arrivals would be a distraction, etc. If your venue is one where late arrivals won’t cause too much disruption even if the ceremony is already underway, then maybe it doesn’t matter as much. Do what is right for you & your guests! You can be fashionably late when you’re the bride

We put the exact start time, and we only had 3 people show up after the start time! And both sides of my family are Mexican lol!

I would put the exact start time to avoid wasting the time of the people that are punctual.

Exact start time.

Thank you everyone. I will put the exact time.

The official invite said the time people can start arriving, and the details card said the exact ceremony time. IE our invites said 12/10/22 at 4 pm and the details card said “ceremony at 4:30”.


Here’s hoping.

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