SUNDAY MICRO WEDDING AT SPARROW CREEK RANCH

Enjoy this perfect October Sunday wedding for Vanessa and Caegan! These two knew they wanted an intimate wedding to save their budget for more important things in their lives at the moment. The SCR Sunday Micro Package was the perfect option giving them the afternoon at a stunning venue with their family and friends. Read on to learn a key strategy for an amazing wedding reception regardless if it’s a Saturday or Sunday, or weekday! We believe the power of strategy and getting most out of every moment on wedding day, and it starts with understanding the day as a whole!

Small wedding for boho country bride with her cowoby in a white jackeet and black cowboy hat. They are standing on the deck of the grove ceremony space at Sparrow Creek Ranch surrounded by live oak trees.

Why Your Wedding Reception Should Be No Longer Than Four Hours

As a wedding venue owner with over 11 years of experience, I've seen it all. I've seen weddings that go on for hours and hours, with guests getting bored and restless. And I've seen weddings that are over in four hours, with guests still talking about them years later! The four - 4.5 hour reception is the sweetspot!

So what's the difference?

It's all about energy. When a wedding reception is too long, guests start to get tired and lose interest. They start to fidget in their seats, they start checking their phones, and they start to think about going home.

But when a wedding reception is four hours long, it's the perfect amount of time to keep guests engaged and having fun. There's enough time to eat, dance, and socialize, but not so much time that people start to get bored.

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Here are a few tips for keeping your wedding reception to four hours:

Start the reception early. Don't make your guests wait for hours after the ceremony to eat and dance. Start the reception as soon as possible after the ceremony, so that guests can get up and moving.
Keep the ceremony short. A long ceremony can really eat into your reception time. If possible, keep your ceremony to 30 minutes or less.
Cut out the unnecessary stuff. There are a lot of things that are traditionally included in a wedding reception, but that don't really add anything to the experience. For example, you don't need to have a long receiving line or a lengthy cake cutting ceremony.
Focus on the dancing. Dancing is one of the most fun parts of a wedding reception. So make sure to leave plenty of time for it!

If you follow these tips, you'll be well on your way to having a four-hour wedding reception that is energetic, fun, and memorable.

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Here are some additional thoughts on why wedding receptions should be no longer than five hours:

People get tired, and once the “sitting” sets in at a wedding, it’s so hard to get people back up!!
People get tired, and after five hours, people are going to sit down… and then … it’s so hard to get them back up! ((YES I JUST SAID THAT TIWCE BECAUSE IT SEEMS TO BE A MYSTERY TO SO MANY))
With a wedding reception over five hours, you start to add in too many unnecessary “mini-events” (think bouquet toss), and the gaps in between start to feel like waiting periods rather than focused on dancing and organic fun.
Four hours is the standard “package” for most reception vendors. After four hours, you add “overtime,” essentially, to DJ, photographer, bartenders, clean-up staff, your coordinator, etc. Wedding pros have a four-hour set rate for a reason!