Reception

Ideally, there shouldn't be a gap between the ceremony and reception longer than the amount of time it takes to travel between the two. To give the couple more time to take pictures, a cocktail hour usually serves as a buffer between ceremony and reception to give guests something to do while they couple and wedding party take photos.

View Quoted Comment That makes sense. Thank you Hannah

There should not be a gap longer than driving time between the two. Otherwise you will have guests skip the ceremony or reception. Some people say a gap is unavoidable but that means they have to give up on the all inclusive venue and look for blank slate venues that are much more flexible with start times so that there is no gap.

Are you planning to have a receiving line after the ceremony? If so, then you may want to bump the reception to 50 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes afterwards (depending on how many guests you're looking at). You could also factor in a buffer for people who drive over to find the place, park their car, etc.

View Quoted Comment I actually don’t know what a receiving line is. Very new to this process I’m sorry if it’s a silly question but what is that?

View Quoted Comment

Hey, no worries! We were all new to this at some point

If you do a receiving line, at the end of the ceremony you, your new spouse, the wedding party, and your parents will walk back down the aisle, and then you'll stand towards the back of the church, usually near the exit, and say hi to your guests and thank them for coming (i.e. "receiving" them) as they leave. It's only a minute or so per person, but if you figure there's 100 or so people to thank, the time adds up. Receiving lines are totally optional, but if you plan to do one then it would probably be a good idea to factor it into the start time for your reception.