Setting the Time

Since the wedding would take place at our home church and on a Sunday our time to decorate was limited by the fact that late service got out at 12:30 PM. We wouldn’t be able to go in and decorate until the service had concluded and the congregation had gone home. Additionally, the reception was being held at our sister church across town. Again, we needed to wait until their congregation was done with the room before we could begin decorating. With these things in mind, here are some other factors we considered when choosing the time to begin the ceremony:

Late afternoon wedding starting at 3:00 PM followed by an early “light” dinner.

PROS:

• Plenty of time for celebrating at the reception and for clean-up afterward. We might get home before 9 o’clock.
• A light dinner would be less expensive than a full dinner.
• Dress could be casual or semi-formal.
• Most guests would get home before bedtime so they could be well rested for work or school the next day.
• Should it rain, guests would not have to drive in the rain at night.

CONS:

• Major concern: very little time to decorate both the sanctuary and reception hall and get dressed and be ready for the ceremony – talk about added stress!

Early evening wedding starting at 5:00 PM followed by a buffet dinner.

PROS:

• A fair amount of time to decorate and get dressed and be ready for the ceremony and still have some semblance of sanity.
• Guests would be served dinner at a standard hour so, hopefully, no one would be “starving” during the ceremony.
• Dress would be semi-formal.
• More than enough time to celebrate and clean-up and still be home at a decent hour.

CONS:

• Should it rain, guests who don’t like to drive in the rain at night might be prohibited from coming to the reception.

Evening wedding starting at 8:00 PM followed by a dessert reception.

PROS:

• Plenty of time to decorate and get ready. 
• A dessert and punch reception would be less expensive than a full dinner.

CONS:

• Not much time to celebrate afterward since people would have to work the next day. 
• Greater risk of being exhausted before the wedding even starts. 
• Although a small concern, we did consider that formal attire is traditionally expected at an evening wedding which had the potential of being more uncomfortable and possibly more expensive.
• Small risk of guests not eating dinner beforehand and arriving at the reception hungry only to be disappointed by nothing but dessert. 
• Clean-up could go well past midnight. 
• Should it rain, guests who don’t like to drive in the rain at night might be prohibited from coming to the wedding at all.

Considering all these things, the decision to have an early evening wedding was a natural one, and my daughter was determined not to be late. Barring a catastrophic accident, she would be stepping down the aisle at five!

We had limited time to transform this sanctuary into something lovely for the ceremony.