Wedding Day Timeline

Planning a wedding can be really overwhelming, so I wanted to create some resources to help my brides and grooms stress less and enjoy their wedding day. One of the keys to having your wedding day be smooth, stress free, and enjoyable is creating a great wedding day timeline. If you hire a wedding planner, they may make one for you, but it’s important to look it over and make sure it includes everything you want and need.

Wedding Day Timeline

I want you to enjoy every minute of your wedding day. It should flow effortlessly and evenly. Consider the following when planning your wedding day and give more time to the areas that are most important to you.

• Details:  30 minutes to 1 hour. Shoes, jewelry, veil, perfume, invitations. You put a lot into looking your best today and incorporating every significant detail.
• Getting Ready: 30 minutes to 1 hour. The Bride and Groom. You may just want the final touches, getting into your dress or putting on your tie and cuff-links. Or you may want these last moments with your friends, as a single woman, before your father gives you away.
• First Look / No Look: 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Whether you see each other or not, before the ceremony, you may want to take a quiet moment together, without all the commotion. You can take this time to talk, hold hands, exchange gifts, pray, or let your emotions show in private.
• Wedding Ceremony: 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. Depending on your beliefs, your ceremony may be short and sweet.  However, if you are having a Catholic full mass more likely it will be 1.5 hrs with communion.  Or if you are Jewish readings in both English and Hebrew, etc.
• Family Portraits: 1 hour. Regardless of if you see each other before or not, we do intimate family portraits (parents, siblings, etc.) before the wedding ceremony, separately, so that the big family photos afterwards of both sides are quick and easy. This lets your guests enjoy more of the cocktail hour. Plan on 30 minutes before the ceremony (15 minutes per side) and 30 minutes after the ceremony.
• The Bridal Party:  30 minutes. Family members aren’t the only important people in your lives. Make time for those friends who have celebrated with you from the beginning.
• The Newlywed Couple: 1 hour to 1.5 hours. The most important people! Don’t jam pack your day so that these photos are cut short. We want to capture the gorgeous setting, your amazing attire and of course the love you share.
• Wedding Reception: 2 hours to 5 hours. Of course you want pictures of your first dance, the cake cutting, and parent dances, but you may not need those blackmail party pictures of your drunken guests. 😉 Most of the main events are done after 2-3 hours but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything still worth photographing.

Sample Wedding Day Timeline

There are few moments in live more special, joyous, and unforgettable than your wedding day. On your wedding fay, there will be so many extraordinary details and intimate moments that need to be preserved to share and relive for the rest of your marriage. The images from this day are for your family to treasure and tell the story of the beginning of your lives together.

This sample wedding day timeline is based off of a Colorado summer wedding with a 5:30pm ceremony WITH a first look

Before Your Ceremony

• 1:30-2:30pm: Detail shots of your dress, jewelry, shoes, vows, rings, tie, watch, pocket square, and other mementos like your something new, old, borrowed, and blue.
• 2:30-3:15pm: Getting into your dress, your parents seeing you for the first time. The groom dressing and hanging out with friends.
• 3:15-3:30pm: First look between the two of you, if you chose to see each other before the ceremony.
• 3:30-4:00pm: Photos of bride, bridesmaids, and bride’s immediate family.
• 4:00-4:35pm: Photos of bridal party and some couples photos.
• 4:35-5:10pm: Photos of groom, groomsman, and groom’s family.
• 5:10-5:25pm: Ceremony setup photos, reception setup photos (if done) and guests arriving

After Your Ceremony

• 5:30-6:00pm: Ceremony.
• 6:00-6:20pm: Large family portraits.
• 6:20-7:00pm: Portraits of the newlywed couple.
• 7:00-8:00pm: Dinner, Ring Shots, Cake Photos
• 8:00-8:20: Toasts and cake cutting.
• 8:20-8:30pm: Sunset photos of newlywed couple (while cake is passed out)
• 8:45-9:10pm: First dance and parent dances
• 9:30 and on: Bouquet toss, garter toss, and open dancing. Plus anything else because you are MARRIED and it’s YOUR NIGHT!

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER!

Don’t run off just yet!  There are a few more things that can really effect a timeline as well as other details to make sure to communicate:

1. Transit time: Are you going from one location to another?  And if so, realistically how long does that take (and to herd 20 cats) to the next location?  Because time travel still isn’t here yet.  Also, if your guests are being transported (such as on a gondola or bus) to locations you need to account for that.
2. Which photos are you doing where: Are you doing bridal party photos at the hotel? Or venue?  If you are doing detail and bridal party photos, you should have your florist deliver the flowers where you are getting ready or else you won’t have those pretty flowers for your photos!
3. Are you doing a receiving line (greeting every guest after the ceremony)?  I hope not, lol.  It’s a time suck.  Better to do that during the reception going table to table during dinner.
4. First looks don’t actually save much time so don’t feel pressured to do one.  Really it maybe gets you another 50 photos (including the first look) and saves 15-20 mins
5. Put in a few time bubbles (15 mins) for inclement weather or other hiccups.  Sometimes you need to do a “pre-cocktail” to delay for storms.

Do you have any other suggestions?  Anything I’m missing?  Let me know in a comment below!