So far the plan is to get married at 2pm in the church then have the evening party start from 6pm at a different location near by. But I've recently started thinking of having some kind of arrival drinks/drinks reception at the party venue as we will be having pictures taken in the park opposite straight from the church, (but this could be a big maybe depending on costs of extra drinks and food etc, venue is booked from 9am til 1am already to allow the decorators to go in and dress it ready for the party).
I'm still trying to work out how to fit in the reception drinks in between the ceremony and the party as I'm not sure if its acceptable to have my guests from 2pm right through til midnight+ for the whole thing or if people expect to have time in between to freshen up and come back lol! We are inviting both people who are local and people who will have to travel a good some hours and stay overnight in a local hotel close to the party venue. Most of these are my OH's family who will more than likely be staying a few days anyways.
Assuming everything goes to plan and on time (wishful thinking I know!) I've allowed an hour for the church, 1-2 hours max for photos (250 guests on the list so far!) which would then leave 1-2 hours spare until the party?
Do arrival drinks/receptions (without food) last that long or should I be thinking of feeding them a light buffet as well given how long I'm hogging them for if this were to be the final plan? We are providing a huge buffet for the evening party already and given that the ceremony isn't until 2pm, should I assume that guests have had lunch beforehand? Or is 2pm-7-8pm (when buffet will be opened) a long time to go without food? The drinks reception would be roughly about 4pm or 5pm depending on how long all the photos take?
And if we were to have a drinks reception, how do I segway into the evening party? There's a possibility that I could hire an additional, smaller room upstairs in the venue (dependent on cost and availability), as I wouldn't want to spoil the room that is being dressed for the evening party. I want people to be in awe of it when the party starts, silly I know lol! Although saying that I don't know if all my guests would even fit in the smaller room upstairs so they may have to be in the main room for the drinks reception anyways :S
My head is spinning from all this confusion!

For those of you who haven't seen my wedding dairy, here's a link to it in case it may help you with any advice you can offer:

EDIT - LINK HAS BEEN REMOVED

Any and all advice, tips etc would be really appreciated <3

Is it considered normal for it to be a whole day affair then? It is called "wedding day" for a reason I guess lol!
Another thought I've had is have the timeline from the op but instead of waiting til 7-8pm to open the buffet open it as soon as the party starts and get all the speeches/toasts out of the way during the drinks reception. So instead of waiting upto 6hrs for food it would only be upto 4hrs.
Does this sound more plausible? Plus I wouldn't have to fork out more money on food and drinks as we were providing arrival drinks and a toasting drink for during the party anyways! :D

I wouldn't say that's hogging, it seems normal.

Thats normal for the whole day. I think its a good idea to have toasts during the drinks reception and then the buffet maybe 6.30/7pm you could always put nibbles out aswell like nuts or someting. This is what we are doing as canapes are £8.50 a head!!!

Oh yeah, you get them the whole day lol!

The only thing I'd be slightly concerned about is the lack of food; your ceromony starts at two, so guests will probably be aiming to get there for around half one, after factoring getting ready and travel time, personally I wouldn't have eaten lunch....no one wants to feel bloated in their posh frocks!

also, unless otherwise specified, guests might expect that they would be fed between the ceromony and evening buffet. Four and a half hours on your feet mingling without something to nibble on can be tough going if you've not had lunch..particularly if alcohol is involved, or there are young children.

. If the buffet opens at six, you buffet might be demolished by your day guests before your evening guests who might wish to eat later get a look in! Of course, not so much of an issue if you have the same set of guest for the ceromony and the night do.

Could you maybe get some cheap nibbles in for the drinks reception, or even when the photos are being taken?

That's a very good point! I hadn't thought about the children! That's pretty bad of me considering I have 3 of my own aged 23 weeks, 5yrs and 9yrs haha!

I think maybe I could have a mini buffet at the drinks reception maybe before the speeches? And then open the evening buffet closer to 8pm as originally planned. That way guests have had food 2-3 hours after the start of the ceremony which is more reasonable and then the evening buffet will last longer lol!

Plus there will only be 2 alcoholic drinks max per person at the drinks reception as that's all we are paying for, drinks for the toasts. Then the two bars will open from 6pm where guests will buy their own. We might be having some sort of cheaper or low alcohol champagne or fizzy wine etc for toasts as we don't have enough money to booze up the masses on top of everything else and I don't want people drunk too early lol!

We're inviting all of the guests to the whole day as I couldn't pick who I wanted to which bits etc lol.

If I'm now having a drinks reception and an evening party, when do we cut the cake?
After or before the speeches or during the evening party?

I'm clueless lol!