What Time Should My Wedding Ceremony Start? - Sunset Oaks

A few tips to help you decide what time to start your East Texas Wedding ceremony.

You have your East Texas Wedding Venue booked, and now it’s time to decide when to start the ceremony so you can get to work on setting up vendors and sending Save the Dates or Invitations!

Surely, lots of friends and family are giving you their opinion on this, but we’ll break down some of the most important factors in choosing when to start your ceremony!

I really don’t want to tell you exactly when to start your ceremony, because it’s a personal choice based on your wants and needs. I just want you to know what factors are involved, and I want you to be HAPPY and EXCITED about your wedding!

8 Wedding Day Considerations for setting your ceremony start time-

Your photographer will need at least 1- 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 your date + Sunset Time + Tyler, TX. Subtract 1.5 hrs, and that’s your LATEST start time.

Vendor Service Times: pull out that contracts & invoices to see how much service you’ve paid for before laying out the wedding day timeline.

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

Behind the Scenes, top secret info: Those beautiful sunset wedding photos you see? They are usually taken an hour or two AFTER the ceremony.

Guest Experience: The #1 complaint guests have about weddings is waiting for photos after the ceremony (when all the photos occur AFTER the ceremony). HANGRY guests leave earlier, so delaying dinner time past 7 pm will leave you with frustrated (or drunk and frustrated) guests. YIKES. 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 you want your photos to look like

• what some of your must-have photos are (not certain 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

• day of the week- Guest may be coming after work on Fridays and leaving earlier for work the next day on Sundays