Ceremony Length: What is Too Short and Too Long?
Selecting the right ceremony length for your wedding will ensure a significant, meaningful ceremony experience, and will keep the attention and interest of your guests at the same time. Finding the right balance between too short and too long is actually fairly easy to do when you have control over the content of your ceremony.
When you choose a customized wedding ceremony you are able to decide what elements you wish to include and can choose the target length of your ceremony, too. Readings, unity rituals, and even your vows can be selected with an awareness of length and complexity if you want to keep your ceremony on the shorter side. The Love Story segment (or homily or sermon) can easily be expanded or reduced as well.
So how short is too short and how long is too long when considering your ceremony length? This is a significant moment in your life and should not be rushed. You are making promises to each other that are meant to last a lifetime. And you’ve gathered your family and friends to share this moment with you. They may have traveled long distances and made significant efforts to share this moment with you. With all that said, I recommend that you not plan for a ceremony shorter than 15 minutes (and add a few more to allow for the entrance and exit of the parents and wedding party). Shorter than that is likely to leave everyone feeling that they blinked and missed the ceremony.
On the other end of the ceremony length spectrum, I recommend that you limit your ceremony to 30 minutes or less. No matter how interesting, creative and meaningful your ceremony is, after 30 minutes your guests are going to be getting restless, anxious to check their devices and ready to move on to the next part of your wedding day. Remember that if your ceremony is not bound by religious requirements, you’re not taking time with impersonal rituals or elements. The entire ceremony is focused on you, your love and the commitment you are making to each other, so you can cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes. Select a target ceremony length that gives you time to recognize this important moment in your life and you’ll have wonderful memories to look back on for years to come.