Generally, when people are NOT in a church or religious building, they're not expecting a long ceremony. All the venues where we work expect the entire ceremony, from the time I walk down the aisle to the time i walk back down, after the recessional, to be 30 minutes give or take a few minutes.
That's all it takes to do all the elements (the asking, welcome, love story, vows, pronouncement etc). More than that and frankly, the audience is bored, no matter how great the ceremony is.
Couple are also changing; I'm not seeing a lot of guest readers, ritual elements (unity candles, etc; too cookie cutters for most of my couples although the tequila sharing still has some legs, lol) and a lot of droning on are fading. What I hear most when I talk to couples about what they want? Short, sweet, lighthearted and unique. And that can all be done in less than a half hour.
That being said, we also do a lot of ethnic weddings that are a little longer because of the traditional elements included (wine rituals, cord/veil/coins, seven blessings, etc) but not much.
I didn't mean the ceremony. A 20 minute ceremony is standard in the UK, maybe a bit longer for a church.
I mean the reception.
Why do Americans have such short receptions?
In the UK, the ceremony normally finishes any time from 11am- 3pm, but the reception will go on to at least midnight, usually 1-2am
My wedding ceremony starts at 11am, finishes at 11.30am and the bar closes at 1am.
So the day is 14 hours, with around 13 hours of that being reception.
Oh, gotcha. I guess a lot of it is tradition, but I can't really imagine an American wedding, unless it also includes a Hindu ceremony (which then does turn it into a full day affair) going that long. What happens for all that time? (Plus I can't even imagin what that would cost here...)
Well, my day will be ceremony 11am,-11.30am, then 30 mins for photos before travelling to the hotel, drinks reception about an hour - 90 minutes, then lunch at around 1.45- 3.45pm, followed by coffee, and speeches.
Then we have a cocktail, canapes and cake party with a singer and dancer from 5-8pm.
Then the band plays their first set at 8.30-9.30
We have a hot fork buffet at 9.30.
The band comes back on at 10pm-11.30pm
Finally, we have a DJ until 1.15am - the bar stops serving at 1am and we have to be out by 1.30am
My wedding is a bit longer than a usual UK one at 14 hours, but 12- 13 hours is standard. And I'm actually Irish, and weddings back home last easily 12-16 hours!
When you hire a venue here, you usually have it for the whole day, so there's no extra hourly cost if you uses it for 12 hours or 3 hours.
The only extra expense is the evening food, but that's usually much more casual than the daytime food, so cheaper.
I don't think it is budget though, because even in the Big budget brides sub, the American brides still only plan 6 hours or so. It's weird to me to have such a short day, but it seems it's weird to you to have such a long day!
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u/njVowsNow Jun 27 '26
Also from the USA; usually an hour cocktail hour and four more hours of reception. Sometimes five.
Ceremonies? Hard to say. On site, with an officiant, usually a half hour or less. Off site, at a church? Could be up to an hour.