How many hours should we reserve for the reception?

Question

Is there a standard time that people will usually stay?

Our reception will start at about 4pm

Answer 1

For my wedding we will have the site from 6-11, so 1 hour cocktail then 4 hour reception

Answer 2

4 hours is about the standard, but I would reserve your reception site for all night. That way if there are stragglers, your site manager won't be kicking everyone out. Most places charge $500 for 4 hours and $75 for each additional hour. Depends on your site too. Some sites let you reserve for the whole day (in the small town in Ohio that I live in, that's pretty much the norm) but some others might have more than one event going on and need you out by a certain time (like if you're having your reception at Madison Square Garden or something). Talk to the site. If you can, I'd just get it for the night, and that'll give you plenty of time for cleanup, if the site doesn't take care of that.

Answer 3

Usually there's a cocktail hour, then dinner. So say you have cocktails at 5, dinner would be at six. Allow time for eating and speeches, and cake cutting could be around 8, then you have the dance. Depending then on the venue and the number of hours you have booked the band, then have the dance go til 12 or 1.
Generally the majority of people tend to stay til after late lunch, the diehard dancers will stay til the end.

Answer 4

If it starts at 4 pm then I would say minimum of 4 hours but more likely 6 hours.
Because they wont be feeding people at 4.30.
So sounds like there will be a bit of a break (wine and
nibblies maybe?)
So that will take up probably an hour or two because I cant see them serving the food before 6.30 7pm. So that is already 2-2 and a half hours gone.

Answer 5

I don't know the standard, but this is what we had and it was perfect for us.

Cocktail hour from 5:00-6:00
Dinner from 6:00-7:30
Traditional Dances from 7:30 to 8:00
Open floor with DJ from 8:00-12:00

Actually our DJ was having so much fun he stayed until 1:30 for free. They finally had to chase us out of there by then because the bar in the hotel wanted to close and some of our guests were still in there.

Hope this helps, it may be too much info, but I know I was confused when I was working on my timelines. Good luck!

Answer 6

I've been to almost 30 weddings and every reception was 5 hours long. 1 hour for cocktails while the wedding party had pictures taken and 4 hours for (dinner, traditions and dancing etc.)

Answer 7

My friends had their reception on a tourist boat!
Two hundred people were "trapped" on board,
until the Captain returned the ship to the dock,
three hours later (the normal touring time)!

The "worst" part was that the buffet could only handle
two people at a time, and the overburdened emcee
had to call tables one-at-a-time to the buffet!
It took almost two hours to serve everybody!

Despite that, I'm sure that everyone enjoyed themselves!
I know *I* did, and I'm prone to seasickness!

Generally speaking, you want to schedule an hour to 1-1/2 hours for every hundred people. That way, there's plenty of time for folks to eat, and for the bride and groom to walk around to all the tables (imagine trying to do that for 500 people in just one hour!). Of course, you should ask your wedding planner and/or caterer about this!

Answer 8

Five hours is standard- one hour for cocktails and then a four hour reception- assuming dinner service. Anything more than that is too long- people have usually had enough by that time.

Answer 9

I say the average reception is 5-6 hours. Usually 1 hour, cocktail time/arrival of guest from ceremony............then 4 hours for the rest. Usually, an hour for intro/first dances/speeches, an hour for dinner, 2 hours for dancing/cake cutting/etc

Answer 10

It depends on what kind of "party" you want your reception to be...
If you just want to do the basics (special dances, toasts, cake cutting, garter/boquet toss) and that's it then I would say to book it until 8pm.
If you want to dance and drink and party with the guests I would say until at least 12 or 1am.
The way I look at it, I want my wedding reception to be like "a high school senior prom". I want everyone to come and dance and have a blast and never want to leave because it is so much fun. I want people to say "hey, when are you two gonna have another wedding... I had such a great time at the last one"! I want to look back 50 years from now and remember everything, just how much fun it was and what a great evening I had. I guess for it to be that way it better last until the wee hours of the morning!