An afternoon wedding timeline
Afternoon is the most popular time slot for a wedding.
An Afternoon Wedding (2/3)
7:00 am – Wake up time
7:30 am – Bath time, breakfast
9:00 am – Hair and makeup starts
11:00 am – Lunch
11:30 am – Groom pictorial (including family and ento)
12:30 pm – Bride pictorial (including family and ento)
1:30 pm – Groom leaves
2:00 pm – Bride leaves
2:30 pm – Arrival, assembly and march
3:00 pm – Actual ceremony (including pictorial)
4:30 pm – Recessional (from ceremony to reception)
5:00 pm – Cocktail
5:30/6:00 pm – Program starts
6:30 pm – Dinner starts
8:00/8:30 pm – Party stats
9:00/10:00 pm – Party ends
Response rate of afternoon weddings even on Saturdays or Sundays tends to be unsurprisingly low. People expect to leave their places to unwind between 2 and 4pm. Especially true during the summertime, you cannot expect for them to go to your wedding because of the scorching heat outside. They won’t be willing to wear even semi-formal wear. Semi-casual is okay.
If you want a higher attendance rate, you may opt for an afternoon wedding falling on a weekday.
The same goes with morning weddings wherein your guests forego breakfast; your guests may forego lunch, too. Heavy cocktail is a must. The usual cocktail hour can be extended up to 1 ½ hours. Use this as an excuse for retouch, dress changes, and post-nuptial shoots. Open up the bars or stations and serve the appetizer.
Afternoon weddings must cover snack and dinner times; provide more food than necessary. Buffets are okay. A 3-viand lunch is acceptable, but this cannot be said for dinner. Aside from the basics (soup, salad, appetizer and dessert), there should be a minimum of 4 main courses.
Traditionally, dinner must be served by 7pm even when your guests arrived at the venue around 5pm unlike morning weddings where the guests expect the food soon as they arrived at the reception. This provides the newlyweds with more time for post-nup pictorials. Grab the opportunity. Anyhow, cocktails are provided to tidy up the guests until dinner. Cheese platters and taco bars can be set up.
People expect entertainment despite their high tolerance for the length of the program. Just don’t be draggy. Entertainment can be in the form of a light show or fireworks display; not necessarily a singer or band. A 3,000-ANSI projector is enough to view images even from a fair distance. Some would expect booze and bubble along with entertainment.
Further, full suits for male ento members and more elegant dresses for female ento members are expected. Jewel-toned hues are okay for afternoon weddings. Blings are also acceptable.
Only a handful of your guests may stay since the party might finish earlier than 10 pm. Some weddings end by 8pm particularly those weddings occurring on a Monday to Thursday. Be reasonable and think of your guests’ travel time from the reception to their respective homes.
Consider these:
• Beach and garden weddings can only choose between 3 and 4 pm for the ceremony or the so-called late afternoon time slots.
• Weekdays and Sunday weddings can only choose 2, 3 or 4pm for the ceremony so guests can still finish the program.
• Regardless of the type and day of wedding, 1pm or 5pm slots are a big no-no since they cut through lunch and dinner, respectively
• Lunch weddings mustn’t occur on open-air venues.
• Plan ahead and book immediately since afternoon slots go quickly.
Compared to morning weddings, afternoon weddings have fewer considerations. However, to-be-weds might have to spend more on food.
