Keeping the party going at the reception!

I am sure my venue let me have mine until midnight which is fine with me. I really think that it depends on your situation as well. I agree with everyone on the advice they have given you.

It depends on the person. Most weddings I go to, I leave after 1am/2am.My wedding venue is until 1am and I am totally okay with that. I am not looking to have party animals going on until 5am. That is just me.
It depends on what type of wedding party you have and the atmosphere.
I went to a greek wedding that lasted until 4/5am but I left around 2. That is just my style. I'm an old soul HAHA!

I agree, but I have decided to stock out wedding suite with booze and many of our close friends and family will have rooms at the hotel where the reception is, so we will bring the party to the hotel suite !

My venue is similar! we have the space from either 5-midnight or 6-1am and then it is an extra $500 per hour after that

My timeline is similar (ceremony begins at 3:45pm) and our party will be done by 1am (bar closes around 12:15am). Just like you said, those parties that go until 3am usually don't start until 7-9pm. It's completely up to you and your FH, but we decided it wasn't worth the extra money (as we would need to extend the bar package and pay extra time for staff).

And no worries about thinking it through out loud with us... it helps to just hear your idea out loud and get some feedback

Yeah I think it just depends on what your priorities are and what style of wedding you want. If your guests are the type to want to dance it up all night, go for it! But if you want to be able to spend some time with your new husband and not be exhausted, you probably don't want to stay up until the early morning light! Are you leaving the day after your wedding for the honeymoon? If you are, I would definitely recommend getting some sleep because you don't want to start the vacation exhausted. (especially if you're going someplace with a time difference) Some couples do a grand exit so they can leave a bit early and then the guests can stay and party so that's an option too.

Who's going to be handling the tear down/clean up for the reception? If the venue does it for you, then you don't really need to worry about it (though who's going to be picking up the stuff the next day?) but if your bridesmaids are going to be the ones packing everything up, they probably don't want to be partying until 3 am and then have to spend an hour packing/cleaning everything up.

Good morning everyone! I would prefer to start the ceremony later in th day, probably around 4 pm. I recognize that as the bride (and for the bridal party as well) it will be a long day since hair and makeup will be done that day. I ask, because in my family, when we get together for Christmas and NYE, the party is on until the wee hours, (thinking 3-5 am - we are prepared to dance until our feet fall off LOL) and even when we have friends over, the party rarely ends before 1:30-2 am. Which is why 1 am sounds reeaaalllyyy early to me. Mind you, for those parties I am thinking of, the get-together starts around 7 pm so maybe it would be different? But then again, it's a celebration so it may go on that long anyways! Sorry, I am thinking out loud (in writing lol)!!

Hi Kacy! I agree with these two wonderful ladies here. It really depends at what time your ceremony starts at. What kind of timeline did you have in mind for your wedding?

What time is your ceremony at? I feel like 1 am should be more than enough time. Our ceremony was at 3 pm and we were done by 10:30 pm. We could have stayed longer but everyone just kind of naturally left at that time. We had a friend's wedding two weeks before us and their ceremony was at 3:30 pm. Most people left early but we stayed until the end which was only like 9:30 pm.

After parties have become popular so you could always go someplace afterwards with the people who are still partying. But make sure to make some time for just you and your husband on the night of the wedding! It's a long crazy wonderful emotional day and you'll want some time to unwind and process together.

So both dance party weddings I've been to in the last few years have wrapped up around 1 am ish. Considering the ceremony was at 1pm, that's 12 quality hours of partying and by that point I'm exhausted. Most venues stop serving by 12:30 I find, so once the booze is gone it may fizzle. Remember that as the host you will also likely have to take care of making sure whatever decor you want is sent home with the right people, any leftovers are claimed, all centerpieces claimed too. It's a long ass day. That's why I laugh at the notion of wedding night sex. You'll likely be way too frikkin tired to get it on.
If you really want to go hard might I suggest an after party at another location?