Timeline and Pictures

If you're not doing a first look, another thing that some people do is to get some family photos done before the ceremony (so like...you with your family and you with your bridal party, etc. and same for his side). That cuts down on the number of photos you need afterwards. A 2 hour cocktail hour is definitely on the lengthy side. I would maybe do 1.5 hours max.

What time is your ceremony and reception? Anything more than an hour wait in between is too long. Your guests are there to see and celebrate YOU

Sometimes I’ve seen cocktail hours go an hour to an hour and a half.

Wow two hours seems SO long for a photographer to need! We had an hour and a half long cocktail hour and it was awesome. We did a first look and all bridal party and family photos before the ceremony, but cocktail hour is almost always my favorite part of the reception, so we wanted to extend it.
For ours, what helped make the time flow well and not dragged out—live music (we had a violinist play a very eclectic list of songs!), a bunch of passed apps and stations for food and a variety of tables that made mingling easy.
I like the idea of a photo area for yours! I’d tell your photographer they need to figure out a way to only take 1.5 hours.

I would not do a cocktail hour longer than 1.5 hours. Include heavy apps.

View Quoted Comment Yes, of course my photographer is planning on all of that too with the getting ready photos and pics with my party and family members, etc. I went to a wedding that had like a 4 hour gap in between. This is a little different though since it is the same location for both things. I just want to get enough pictures ya know?

View Quoted Comment Sometimes guests also come to just let loose and have a good day lol. All jokes aside of course they want to be with us. I would even love to enjoy some appetizers and mingle during cocktail hour too, but without a first look that really isn't an option.

View Quoted Comment We don't have a set time yet, that's why I am trying to work out the photography before and after. We are thinking at about 5-5:30 and then dinner at 7? Possibly. I also don't want dinner to be too late.

View Quoted Comment I think our photographer will be fine with it. I mean they will make it work if we request it. I look at it a little differently though. I have done plenty of regular photo shoots in the past that are easily 2 hours long. Considering it's our wedding day and photos are a major factor for me that lead me to questioning if we could make it work. Plus, we won't have a first look. So, I wonder if you didn't would you have felt fine getting all your couple pics (and both sides of the bridal party) in under two hours?

View Quoted Comment We took about two hours for our engagement shoot so I can see it happening, but I think even though I will want a ton of great photos I will also be thinking about my guests and food haha

I have only been to one wedding that had a cocktail hour that was over an hour long, and guests were pretty bored and irritated by the time the couple finally showed up. A lot of people complaining behind the couples’ back and lots left right after dinner. To this day, that is still the first thing I remember about their wedding. I would definitely try to keep your cocktail hour as close to one hour as possible. You want to be a gracious host to your guests, and you don’t want your wedding to be remembered as “that wedding”.

View Quoted Comment Lol very true. Engagement sessions are typically longer than your couple photo session during a wedding day. You can also plan and ask your photographer to break it up too like with a first look, photos after the ceremony & possibly sunset/magic hour

View Quoted Comment Woah. That's sad to hear. I personally wouldn't want to talk negatively about about people I am there to support though and would hope people coming to my wedding would feel the same. Also, I feel like guests have different access to information nowadays like a timeline so they know to expect and can be less cranky about it. How long was that cocktail hour and did they not have anything else going on? Most of my guests are close friends or family that would converse and get along well. Also, thinking of doing a fun photo station / setup.

View Quoted Comment Wow! This floors me! Was there nothing for the guests to do? No food or cocktails or music? At what point did the couple show up compared to how long the cocktail hour was?

View Quoted Comment It’s hard to say, but I do think we would have been fine with an hour cocktail hour and forewent a first look, but our photography style was a bit different. We wanted our day captured naturally, and very minimal posed photos. I’d say the first look, bridal party and family photos (keep in mind we did have two photographers) took about 50 minutes?

View Quoted Comment The cocktail hour was about 1 hour & 40 mins. There was no form of entertainment during cocktail hour, if that’s what you mean by “anything else going on”. There were drinks and appetizers, but the apps were gone within the first 30-45 mins, which left people heavily drinking to kill the boredom. It was in a small town and the couple were high school sweethearts who have been dating for 10+ years, so 90% of the guests all knew each other and got along, etc. It was just that over an hour and a half of just sitting there chatting was incredibly boring and no one had any idea how long it would be before the couple arrived or when dinner would be served. There were a lot of drunk people and cranky children by the time they finally did arrive (which likely contributed to why people left right after dinner- to get bored kids out of there, and to “sleep it off” after getting inebriated during cocktail “hour” then putting food on top of it). Out of 150+ guests, there were maybe 50 an hour after dinner.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for clarifying. We will definitely have some music and make sure the timeline is included in invite suite if we do 1.5 hours. Thinking of doing a photo area that may help also and upping the appetizers 👍🏻 Also, we have a smaller wedding with only a few kids in the bridal party coming.

Our photo time was 1 hour.
30 mins for family/bridal party and 30 mins for bride/groom photos. It did mean that I couldn't ask for every single people combination for family/bridal party (we had 11 family and bridal party photos total on our requested shot list). We got some other more informal family group shots during the reception.

Our bride and groom photos were amazing and we have a ton of them. We just got our photos from the photographer back and I definitely feel there are more than enough bridal party and family pictures.