Gap Between Ceremony and Reception

I recently ran into a planning situation where a Bride wanted to have her ceremony at 3pm but not start her cocktail hour at the reception site until 6pm. Knowing that the ceremony was going to last no more than an hour, I was left to determine what the guests would do for an hour and a half. Well to be absolutely honest, it is normal to have this break since many churches do not allow the Bride to have a Ceremony later than 4pm. The key is to make sure that your guests are aware of this break. The time to advise your guests of this would not be the day of the wedding, but ahead of time on your invitations. If you have out of town guests attending the wedding, you might consider arranging some sort of entertainment for those guests in function space at the selected reception venue. A great idea would be to have caricature artists, henna tattoo artist, fortune tellers, dancers, or any other form of exciting entertainment. If the break will last for two hours or more, I would suggest providing your guests with an "out of towner" kit prior to their arrival that gives them information about a variety of activities they can do in the area.