How Long Was Your Cocktail Hour?

[modernsparkler]

Kind of a silly question, but I have heard of anywhere freom 30 - 2 hours for the cocktail "hour". We want to visit with guests during that time and enjoy the moment and were hoping for an hour but it might need to be cut to 45 minutes to fit a few other things in. Any thoughts or suggestions from your experiences?

 

[emeraldlover1]

Its our favorite part of weddings so we are having a 2 hr. coctail hours.

 

[sunnyd]

They need to turn our room from ceremony to reception, so however long that takes. I''m thinking an hour?

 

[CDNinNYC]

Ours is scheduled for 2 hrs which I think is a bit too long for what we need, so we may shorten it a bit.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Ours ended up aroud 1.5 hours, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Of course, it depends on your venue, the amount of food available, the weather, etc...

 

[Rhea]

45 minutes. It was perfect for our 40-50 person wedding.

 

[Sparkalicious]

As far as I understand it, ours should be for about 1 hour.

 

[modernsparkler]

hmm... I would love ours to be an hour... might have to make some adjustments to the timeline!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Our "hour" was 1.5 hours!

 

[palomablancabride]

We had a small wedding and the cocktail hour was about 45 minutes.

 

[Elmorton]

It was just about an hour (maybe a smidgen more). After the ceremony, we took about 40 mins of pics and then it took a good 20 minutes for the bridal party to get to the reception (5 min drive) and to the reception room (our reception was in a theater, and to get to the stage entrance, we all got a little lost!).

 

[kittybean]

My cousin just had her wedding, and hers was about an hour. I''m planning the same for mine--maybe even a little shorter. I always am starving at weddings, so I like to stop milling around, sit down, and EAT

.

 

[Pandora II]

Mine was 2 hours - 4pm to 6pm - and I served English Cream Tea (scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam and a selection of sandwiches) with Champagne or Pomegrante & Elderflower Cordial.

To be honest I could have easily done a 3 hour one and no-one would have minded. The weather was gorgeous, the grounds and ruins at my venue big enough for people to go off and explore and I''d laid on croquet sets so people had something to do.

I went with 2 hours in case it rained and everyone was cooped up inside.

80% of my guests were from OOT and so lots knew each other so they wanted time to chat - maybe if everyone sees each other all the time that is less of an issue.

It''s worth remembering that it normally takes 15 minutes to get everyone moved inside for the reception meal, so if you only have 40 minutes that doesn''t give people much time once they''ve managed to get a drink.

That said, I did go to a wedding in the US where the bridal party disappeared off for 4 hours to take photos after the ceremony and no one had bothered to tell anyone, so we were all dropped off by coach outside the reception place and couldn''t get in for 2 hours. They then had a 2 hour cocktail hour which pretty much no-one was in the mood for by then - especially as the bridal party only turned up at the very end of it...

 

[elrohwen]

I believe ours will be 1 1/2 hours. I''m all for mingling and hanging out, so I''m glad it''s going to be on the long side.