Timing is EVERYTHING!
You have picked your perfect day, all your vendors are in place now it comes time to figure out what time should we start? I can’t stress this enough… the time of day you decide on for your wedding can make or break your party, so timing is everything! I have been DJing for over 20 years and one common theme, if I can make a generalized statement, is the later the reception, the more fun the crowd is. I know there are exceptions to the rule but typically it’s the case… why though?
First and foremost, you need a dark dance floor if you want people to dance. Of course, there are always going to be people that would be comfortable dancing at noon standing in line with strangers at Starbucks to whatever comes on, but most people will only dance in the shadows. If you make your whole dance floor a “shadow”, aka make it dark, then people who don’t like to be in the spotlight (everybody) can come out and have fun and not feel self-conscious. Having your reception later in the day or at night lets that naturally occur without having to do extra work to darken a room in the middle of the day.
A second reason later weddings are better is the food. A reception set to start at 2pm might have its advantages, but the disadvantages to the party far outweigh them in my opinion. When it comes to food, 2pm is a weird time to eat… it’s either a late lunch and your guests are starving, (hungry people get hangry) or they ate lunch before they came and a lot of food is going to be wasted because your guests are already full.
Another benefit to starting later in the day, you have all day to get ready instead of having to get up crazy early. Your guests get that luxury too, if they have to work that day, or have other plans they can have time to get stuff accomplished. It’s also people’s last plans for the night. Often at mid-day weddings I see people leave even though they are having a good time because they made plans afterwards, or have told a sitter a certain time. This can happen at later weddings too but it’s less likely.
There are a few things to think about when it comes to picking out what time you should have your reception, Here is a link to why I think Friday night weddings are the best, but regardless of what day you choose, I would strongly suggest making it start as late as possible.
