Do you start your wedding ceremony on time?

When do you invite your wedding guests to arrive?

• Ceremony start time is?

• What’s parking like onsite?

• How many guests invited?

• Beverage or appetizers served before?

• Temperature outside?

• Do your guests have a tendency to arrive late?

Do you start the ceremony thinking of your guests, the venue or as the bride?

Recently I had a conversation with a bride whose officiant canceled on her, (it was a friend of the family) this was a week out and I was already booked for the evening. I mentioned to her that her start time would work for me and I’d be able to get to the next location without any problem.

Her response was “well I plan to start 20-30 minutes late”.

When I heard that I was startled. She intentionally plans to start late when her guests will be waiting a good 30-45 minutes on the ceremony to start. Where there were no beverages or appetizers being served in this backyard wedding.

Now place yourself in this scenario as a guest - how would you feel?

This “wait for the bride” is an old school philosophy and I can tell you that a venue won’t allow it. If you state your start time to your guests is 2 pm then guests usually arrive 10-30 minutes before the ceremony start time with the expectation your ceremony will start at 2 pm. Then go into the cocktail hour afterwards where the couple and families take photos together.

Please note as well, if your guests are always late, then give them an earlier time frame to arrive. I had a wedding in 2022 where all the guests arrived 1 hour late. If I had another ceremony booked that night I would have left. That is incredibly disrespectful.

So when planning your wedding ceremony in a backyard or at a venue, think about who you are inviting and how you can make this a positive experience for all.

PS … this wedding started on time because the Event Planner, Venue, Photographer, DJ, musicians and myself were on the same time schedule and the couple was ready and before photos were complete.