Invitation time vs. ceremony start time

Wedding timings may start a few minutes later so your ok. Once you get to your destination and meet up with your wedding party, the walk in should be good to start.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I am just going to start the ceremony at 4:00pm and hope everyone comes on time .

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Fair enough! Hope all goes well Erin!

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Yep! I work as an event coordinator, and I know that you have to be AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE with people. Again, I'm not super worried about my family, since we've had a ton of weddings, but with how complicated mine is going to be, I'd rather avoid any confusion.

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Very True! Sometimes you have to spell it out for people!

Our invitations said that everything started at 4. Since we had transportation picking people up we knew that everyone would arrive early.

Most people know that if an event like a wedding is starting at 4 then they need to be there a bit ahead of time. I don't think you need to change your time to have a buffer zone.

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Yes, BUT - and I hate to say this about my family - my philosophy when dealing with people, especially large groups of people, has been to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

I also have a bit of a special case, since my ceremony will be private, so I need to do TWO invites - one for people who are attending the ceremony and one for people who are not.

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That's what I'm going to do too so people can prepare! Although if you already said 4pm on the invite, most guests should know that's when the ceremony starts, not when to arrive.

My invitations also say 4 but I'm giving a 15 buffer just so people can take their seats, say hi to each other and of course traffic. I think if you know your guestlist well enough that is key. But I think it's a good idea to give a bit of a buffer time

I wouldn't move it to 4.10 and leave it at 4.

Most people know that if the ceremony starts at 4PM to get there a bit before to sit.

You'll have guests starting to arrive about 30 minutes in advance. The groom/groomsmen should be there about an hour in advance to greet people.

The majority of people that see an invite with 4pm ceremony start. will be there 10 minutes before. so I personally would stick to the 4pm start time. and if you are a couple of minutes late starting. no biggie (also common)

I'm going to make it VERY clear on my invitations: Please arrive by ____, Ceremony starts at ____, Reception starts at____, etc.

My invitations say 5, that's when the officiant will start the ceremony. I'm hopefully assuming that my guests will all show up early and be seated by 4:45pm as that is the schedule we were given. but the official ceremony will start at 5:00pm.

The time on the invitation should be the time you plan on starting your processional. That’s really the start of the whole ceremony. People should know to arrive before that time. In my experience most people arrive about 10-15 mins before the time listed on the invitation.

My ceremony starts at 4 as well, so we're hoping for processional by 3:50-ish so we can start on time