"please arrive by:" on invites?

Traditionally, you put the time that the ceremony will start. You shouldn't have to tell your guests when to arrive. That's their problem if they are late.

If you put 5:30 on the invites, that's when you start walking.

My ceremony starts at 5PM, and that's what I wrote on my invitations. On my Wedding Website, I put a little note "We kindly ask you to arrive 15-20 minutes early to mingle with the other guests before the "I do's!""

I think it's pretty common knowledge that if the invite says 5, the ceremony starts at 5. I wouldn't put 5, then actually start at 5:15 or 5:30 - don't leave you guests waiting and sitting that long. I also wouldn't tell them when to show up. What are they going to do for 30 minutes? Sit awkwardly and wait?

I wrote something like "Ceremony to start at 4:30" and all the guests arrived earlier than that.

You should put the time the ceremony begins. Guests know to arrive before then.

In my experience, the time you put on the invitation is the time the ceremony will start. Therefore, guests know to be there and be seated by that time. No need to add extra time info.

I'm putting:

Seating begins at 5:30 PM

Ceremony begins at 6:00 PM

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AGREED. I know some people like to say 5pm on the invite, and start at 5:15/5:30. I had a friend do that, and some of us were standing around for an hour...

We put 5:00 PM implying our ceremony will start at 5:00 PM. I'm usually annoyed if couples put an earlier start time than the actual start time, because we always arrive 10-15 minutes early.

The ceremony start time not guest arrival time. My stepsister recently got married and put one time on her invitations but the ceremony didnt actually start until a half hour later. It was incredibly confusing to those of us in the bridal party who had dates coming but didnt know what time the ceremony actually started. That, and guests were there for close to 45 minutes just standing in the lobby area without anything really to do.. it isnt a great idea to put one time and have ceremony start at another time. I like one of the comments above about stating something maybe on your wedding website asking/reminding guests to be there slightly earlier than the time listed since that is the start of the ceremony

You can also say "ceremony begins promptly at 5:30pm".
Not sure about your guests but apparently (our photographer said this) guests generally come 30 mins early in her experience.

Like everyone else said, this should be your ceremony time. We did an FAQs page on our website and my answer was "If you know us, you know we're the kind of people that show up early to everything! The ceremony will begin right at 11:30." There was probably a more formal way to word it, but our whole website has a really laid back vibe haha.

Thanks everyone!

You're really just supposed to put the time the ceremony actually starts and then they can arrive early if they want and if they're late it's on them. Our ceremony starts at 11:45 and that's what time I wrote on the invitations. You can add a little side note that asks them to arrive early, but that's completely up to you.