How long for reception/bar?

[Shells]

Do you put a timeline on the wedding reception? like 5-10? We are haveing ours at either a golf club or community center.... Plus haveing either an open or limited bar. So I was wondering if we py for an open bar for five hours till ten and people are still partying.... what to do?

[Relaxed6-20-09]

We have a time limit on our location, but if we decided that enough people are still there and want to continue the party, we can pay an extra $500, and we are opting to make it a cash bar after the 4 hour time limit...that way we will save money.

So, it's up to you one how long you want it to be an open bar or if it will be a limited bar. I haven't told anyone that it's an open bar, so that they will come prepared to pay after the 4 hours.

[sandy03]

We have a timeline for ours and if people ask about the time for the reception I have been telling them that we are planning to make our grand exit at 5. I'm assuming most people will probably head out as soon as we leave and the few that do stick around will be gone within half an hour.

In our case we really needed the time for all the vendors because our reception isn't all being handled by the same people/place.

[gwenshack]

We had a set time for our reception. Started at 6 and ended at 10. We knew people would probably want to continue the party so we had arranged to go to a bar once the set reception time was over.

[FutureKelley]

We are planning on the reception ending at 9pm, but if the party is still going by then... well... we don't have to be out until midnight. ;)

[HisDelightfulFaerie]

Check on the rules of the place first. A lot of places need you out by midnight or when you pay for the rental you're only getting 4 hours and each hour is extra.

[tangled_poison_ivy]

Our reception is going to start at 7 and end at 11, and we're pretty sure no one's going to linger too long, since we're making it a dry reception...

[SkippyNXC]

i'll echo what others say it depends on your location. The place we picked only does 1 wedding/day so we can stay all night long if we want. He said he's had wedding after party's going til 4am n the guests order pizza and keep partying LOL

[EarlyBird]

yah we have a limit from our club, out by midnight. then we have made arrangemtns with the local bar to go there till 2am for the people staying on site :)

[tk93]

Ditto what everyone else has said about checking the time restrictions at the venue. Our hotel also has a 1-wedding/weekend policy, but due to union rules events cannot last more than 5 hours. Our cocktail hour starts at 5 and the reception ends at 10. We have to clear everyone out of the ballroom at 10 with no option to extend the party for additional costs. We're taking the after party to other bars/lounges in the area.