What time should our sunset wedding ceremony start?

March 21, 2009 11:43 AM

How can I determine at what time the midtown Manhattan skyline will be lit up at sunset on June 20th, 2009?

My fiancee and I will be married on June 20th of this year. The ceremony, weather permitting, will be held on a terrace that has a gorgeous view of the midtown skyline, including the Empire State Building.

Assuming clear skies, what time should we plan for the ceremony to start so that the ESB looks like this in our photos?

posted by dansays to science & nature (10 comments total)

Any way you can hold off for a month?
posted by zerokey at 11:45 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

Actually, from the EXIF data from the photo you linked:

Date and Time (Original): 2008:06:30 19:11:16

So, roughly 7:10pm (not sure of the deviation year to year)
posted by zerokey at 11:50 AM on March 21

Double checked against charts here and compared against the EXIF. 7:10pm on the dot.
posted by zerokey at 11:54 AM on March 21

I saw the EXIF, but wasn't sure if the time was set correctly or if it accounted for Daylight Saving Time. After a bit of clumsy number crunching on my part, I reason that the top of the sun should be at about 16 degrees above the horizon at 7:10. That sounds about right.

Thanks!
posted by dansays at 12:25 PM on March 21

Also consider the location of your ceremony. If you're not right where that photo was taken, it may not look like that. Also, in that photo, if you look carefully (and are familiar with the viewing position), you'll note that the sun is not reflecting off of the Empire State Building, but a building nearer the water that perfectly blocks the ESB from that particular viewpoint. (The building can be seen here, the one with the red light at the top to the left of the ESB and to the right of the New Yorker building). I do not think the older ESB has the same reflectivity as some of the newer buildings.

You should also discuss this with your photographer. It will take a lot of skill to get people in the foreground exposed correctly with such a background, without losing the background.
posted by miscbuff at 1:36 PM on March 21

You might also take into account that every wedding ceremony I've ever attended started 15+ minutes later than planned. That said, you will doubtless have a gorgeous wedding whatever time it commences!
posted by judith at 2:03 PM on March 21

If the ceremony occurs around 7:10, such that, say, a 20 or 30 minute ceremony straddles 7:10, then you're talking about finishing up the ceremony at 7:20 or 7:25. That's pretty late. Your guests are going to be very hungry. Don't plan on a receiving line after the ceremony. Do your pictures beforehand. Don't have a cocktail hour. Even if you trimmed everything as much as you could, I'm not sure you'd be putting forks to mouths much earlier than 8:15. No one's going to be paying attention to how pretty the skyline looks -- they're going to be wondering when the peanut chicken skewers are going to come around again. Even if you had the ceremony climax at 7:10, and you're on time and you really do end then, that's pretty close to wedding-guest-mutiny time.
posted by incessant at 3:25 PM on March 21

incessant: many people eat dinner late in New York.
posted by rikschell at 3:39 PM on March 21

Yeah, I have to agree. 8 p.m. is the normal time to sit down to dinner around these parts.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:13 AM on March 22

Eating dinner late is one thing, but eating dinner late at a wedding is entirely another. I've been intimately involved in planning more than a few weddings in NYC, just so you're aware I'm not talking out of my ass here. Talk with caterers and wedding planners before you decide on the time, dansays. I have reason to believe they'll suggest an earlier eat time might be favorable.
posted by incessant at 2:32 PM on March 22