SpinOff: What time are you telling your guests to arrive?

They are adults. I just tell them when it starts.

Ceremony starts at 4pm. Musicians start playing at 3:30. Our wedding is a weekend-long affair, and all events are happening at the hotel where everyone is staying. I'm assuming everyone will be there before 4.

I put the real time on my invitation and plan to literally start the processional at that time. As one of my good friends said, "you shouldn't have to lie on your invitation to get be people to be on time, they have problem not you".

I just went through this with my wedding planner and she had us put 5pm on our invitation. Our ceremony is starting at 5:30pm no matter what. The guests will have a flavored water station while they wait and we will have the dj play some music. Our wedding is also at a hotel on the intercostal and the bridge does go up every so often so it did make the nervous if someone were to get stuck there not knowing that would happen.

We told our guests what time the ceremony would begin and we left it up to them what time to arrive. This was particularly important for us because the layout of the church precluded anyone from entering after the ceremony had begun.

It wasn't an issue but I was worried it would be. Try not to stress out.

We just put our ceremony time on the invite. We are going to tell people that the shuttle from the hotel to the venue will likely only make 2 trips prior to the start of the ceremony and provide the estimated times (they are 15 minutes away and that is why we opted for the 57 person charter bus). We will add this to our website and include cards at the hotel to be distributed at check-in so that people don't think they can hop on a shuttle at 4:45 pm to get to our 5:00 pm ceremony on time.

Thanks ladies, I really appreciate all of your suggestions & input!

Since we have still quite a bit of time before we have to send out invites & whatnot I think I'm going to just continue to advise guests on arriving a little early to allow for unexpected and hope for the best. If my Pastor continues to insist on us putting 9:30 on the invite (we have several more meetings with him) I will probably take it into account, after all he's been doing this for YEARS!

My ceremony starts at 6:30pm on a Saturday. We are actually providing a shuttle for guests from the hotel to the venue (so they can enjoy our open bar!). I also included driving directions, drive time, and suggested arrival time on our wedding website for anyone who won't be taking the shuttle.

Our ceremony starts at 3pm... we didn't tell people what time to arrive... they can figure it out.

Our ceremony starts at 3:30 but we are probably going to put that people be there at 3 so that we can load everyone up the chair lift and everyone can get seated before the ceremony starts. Depending on how many people we have, it could take the whole 30 minutes to get everyone up the chair lift. I think its an 8-9 minute chairlift ride too.

Our ceremony is starting at 11:30. My family is usually late. I told them if they put off arriving to last minute I will drop kick them all the way to their seat in my wedding dress and then walk down the aisle ON TIME. Lol naw they'll just look weird scurrying in late, so it's on them

Dear Jade, we play a lot of weddings and what I have noticed is that usually people ask their guests to arrive 30min prior the ceremony time. For example if you are planning to have your ceremony to start at 5pm write 4.30pm on the invitations.

When we are hired to play we always start playing 30min prior the ceremony and the guests usually start coming in right around that time.

I hope that helps

We will likely start our ceremony about 10 minutes past the hour. That gives guests time in case of any last minute issues with sitters arriving late, traffic, directions, etc. I was nearly late to a wedding once because we misjudged travel time and my SIL was late to a wedding because of a hairdresser I recommended (I felt so bad for that).

A 10 minute window should be enough, anyone else can wait in the entrance of the church until the ceremony is over.

I hate it when weddings are intentionally later than the time stated on the invitation. I arrive anywhere from 15-30 minutes early, am in my seat, and ready to go. The wedding party should be also. The overwhelming majority of guests are there on time and shouldn't have to cater to those who can't be on time (unless there is a really legitimate emergency).

When I was in the Army they taught me backwards planning. Example: my mission is to take my platoon and overtake a hill that is 57 kilometers away. I am supposed to hit that target exactly at 0800 hrs. My planning STARTS at the time I am to hit the target (which is also known as when you walk down the aisle) and works backwards.

0800 - hit target

0740 - move platoon into positions

0725 - secure vehicles and move towards position

0500 - 0725 - travel time

0450 - board vehicles

**** - one last maintenance check on vehicles

this goes on at least 24 hours prior to the mission

You include meal times, travel times between all points, bathroom times, sleep times, etc.

For my 4 daughters weddings it would look something like this:

5pm - wedding starts

4:30 pm - bride and BM's are out of sight in bridal room

4:20 pm - bridal party arrives

4:00 - 4:20 - travel time to wedding venue

4:15 - bridal party boards transportation to venue

2:00 - 4:10 - all pictures prior to ceremony, including first look

1:50 - 2:00 - 10 minute buffer to timeline

1:30 - 1:45 - bridal party travels to picture location

1:25 - Bridal party boards transportation to picture location

This continues on until what time to get out of bed and the day before is also planned this way.

I planned the day before the wedding and the day of the wedding using that method. No one was late, no one was rushed, we had time for a nice relaxed lunch, and all 4 of those girls walked down the aisle right on the dot of the start time listed on their invitations. Since the VIPs for family pictures were given the schedule of where to be and when there were no issues with them being late. If they were late for pictures they weren't in them.

I was really sad when my BFF was late for my DD's wedding last Summer. She is the best person on the planet but is ALWAYS late. We started without her.

I am a logistics freak and my girls got so sick of hearing "logistics is everything!!!" but in the end they were thrilled with what those logistics produced.

I realize I went a bit off course there. The topic was intentionally starting at a different time than on the invitation, and I went into planning so the wedding doesn't start late due to poor planning. I will see posts on different boards about "If I get hair and makeup done at 11pm, will that work out for my 5 pm wedding?" Well, since your logistics are unknown, a forum wouldn't be able to answer that!

Stepping off soapbox now. Sorry, it is just one of those things I get crazy about. Logistics. It's everything!