What time should my wedding ceremony start?

GREAT QUESTION!

Here are a few tips to help you decide

You are ready to start booking your vendors for the wedding. Lots of friends are offering their opinion! But there are a lot of factors to consider.

Twin Lakes don’t like to tell you exactly when to start your ceremony, because it’s a personal decision between you and your fiancé. There are so many factors that are involved, we want you both to be Excited about your wedding day!

Considerations:

Bar service what time would you like it to start and what time you’d like to end?
The ceremony is mostly around 30 minutes depending on the weather sometimes 20 minutes.
Family and couples pictures around one hour.
A buffet for 100 people usually takes an hour.
Most guests like to eat no later than 6 or 7 PM.

6 Things to know before you decide-

Your photographer will need at least 1.5 hrs. of natural lighting to take couples photos, family photos, and bridal party photos. Yes, seriously! You can choose how to divide which photos to take before and after the ceremony.

Sunset Time & Time of the Year: Google https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/ropesville-tx/2023/1sunset

Reception Length: Including cocktail hour, the average reception lasts around 4 hrs. before the majority of guests have left.

Top secret info: Those beautiful couples photos you see? They are usually taken hours BEFORE the ceremony (a first look) or an hour or two AFTER the ceremony. Those perfect photos of the bride?

Guest Experience: The #1 complaint guests have about weddings is waiting for photos after the ceremony (when all the photos occur AFTER the ceremony). That’s one of the reasons we encourage cocktail hour with snacks, opening the buffet during photos, or providing some cool games or entertainment during this time.

Okay, now you know all the factors involved, what’s next?

You should sit down with your photographer and talk about:

what do you want your photos to look like
what some of your must-have photos are (not just poses, but who you want photos with)
what photos you’d like to take BEFORE the ceremony (will you do a first look?)
time of year- sunset time
Lastly, don’t let this stress you out! When in doubt, start 2 hrs. before sunset time, and make sure all your vendor arrivals and departures are working together.
That’s it!