Your ceremony start time decides more of your day than any other number. Run my default order from the last article forward and open dancing starts four hours and ten minutes after the ceremony does, whatever time that is. So a 2 o'clock ceremony opens the floor at 6:10, a 4 o'clock at 8:10, a 5 o'clock at 9:10, and a 6 o'clock at 10:10. The venue's end time does not move to match. That is the whole article in one paragraph. As for sunset, it lands somewhere inside that night, and where it lands decides whether your portraits happen in light or in the dark. Let's do the four clocks.

Two o'clock

Ceremony 2:00 to 2:30, cocktail hour 2:30 to 3:30, seated by 3:45, entrance and first dance done by 4:00, toasts at 4:05, dinner from 4:20 to 5:20, the cake at 5:55, parent dances at 6:00, and the floor opens at 6:10. If the music ends at 8, you get 105 minutes of dancing and about five and a half hours from cocktails to the last song. If the venue has you until 10, the builder warns you that cocktails to last song runs over seven hours. The fix is to end earlier, not to leave a gap between the ceremony and the reception. The gap is the thing guests complain about most, and the time article explains why. Two o'clock is an afternoon wedding. Own it.

Sunset barely matters here. Even in mid-October (sunset 6:03), a 2 o'clock ceremony gives you daylight for every photo, and the sunset portraits, a fifteen-minute step-out a half hour before sunset, land in the table visits before the cake.

Four o'clock

This is the clock most Saturday weddings around here run on, and the math is why. Ceremony 4:00 to 4:30, cocktails to 5:30, seated by 5:45, entrance 5:45, first dance 5:55, welcome 6:00, toasts 6:05, dinner 6:20 to 7:20, cake 7:55, parent dances 8:00, floor open 8:10 to a 9:55 last song. That is 105 minutes of dancing with a 10 o'clock end and no warnings. Photos need about two hours of light after the ceremony when there is no first look, so 4 o'clock wants a sunset of 6:30 or later: mid-March into late September on this coast. On October 15 the sun sets at 6:03, and the family formals finish at dusk. In June (sunset 8:20 on the fifteenth) the sunset step-out lands in the half hour before the cake, which is the best place for it.

Five o'clock

Ceremony 5:00 to 5:30, cocktails to 6:30, dinner 7:20 to 8:20, cake 8:55, parent dances 9:00, and the floor opens at 9:10. With a 10 o'clock end, that is 45 minutes of dancing. The builder flags it. A 5 o'clock ceremony needs an 11 o'clock end to get the floor its ninety minutes, or a shorter formal stretch: a first look that cuts the photos to twenty minutes and the cocktail hour to forty-five, one parent song, toasts held to ten, no cushions. Even all of that together gets you to about 75. Ask the venue for eleven before you print the invitations. For daylight formals without a first look, 5 o'clock wants a sunset of 7:30 or later, which here is May through mid-August. With a first look, one hour of light is enough, and that opens it up from mid-March to late September.

Six o'clock

Ceremony 6:00 to 6:30, cocktails to 7:30, dinner 8:20 to 9:20, cake at 9:55. With a 10 o'clock end there is no dancing at all. With eleven, 45 minutes; with midnight, 105. A 6 o'clock ceremony is a late-night wedding, and only the venue's hours make it work. Sunset here never reaches 8:30, so without a first look the formals run into the dark on any date; with a first look, May through mid-August works. An outdoor ceremony needs to end a half hour before sunset, which for 6 o'clock means April through early September, and in June the sunset step-out lands right on your grand entrance, which is the one place it cannot go.

The clock behind the clock

Sunset in New Bedford runs from 4:14 in mid-December to 8:22 at the start of July, and it moves about a minute a day. The first Sunday of November the clocks fall back, and sunset drops from about 5:40 to about 4:40 overnight, then slides to 4:24 by mid-month. A November wedding is a candlelight wedding; plan accordingly. These times drift a minute or two year to year, so check the exact minute for your date and your venue when you print.

Pick your date below and the sunset tool gives you sunset, golden hour, last light, and the time your ceremony should end for the photos you want.

Then tap one of the four presets in the Run of Show Builder and change whatever is different about your day.

Quick answers

  • What is the best ceremony time? Four o'clock, for a 10 o'clock end. It is the only one of the four that needs no fixes.
  • Can we do a 6 o'clock ceremony? Yes, with a midnight end and a first look. Otherwise you are trading the dance floor for a late start.

Whatever clock you land on, write the end time next to the start time. The distance between them is your wedding.

Thanks! Chuck