Wedding Planning Guide Part I: Creating Your Wedding Day Timeline.
Creating the timeline for your wedding day can be a daunting task. While many of us have likely had some experience with weddings, unless you’ve been married before or are a wedding coordinator or planner, you’ve probably never tried to actually write up a timeline. Creating a timeline requires that you be able to accurately estimate how much time you should allocate to the various parts of your wedding. How much time do formal family group photographs take? How soon before the wedding should the bride’s hair and makeup begin to ensure she is ready on time and her makeup still looks fresh? What about factoring in some time after the ceremony for hugs and congratulations?
Having photographed many weddings over the years from a variety of cultural backgrounds, I’ve gotten a pretty good feel for how long things take and where things are more likely to get behind schedule. To help you create a solid, user-friendly timeline for your wedding day, I’ve included some helpful tips below and also a few sample, starter timelines to give you a feel for how much time (in general) you can expect to allocate the various parts of your wedding. Please keep in mind that your ceremony might be shorter (if it is traditional outdoors, for example), or longer if it is a full Catholic Mass or cultural wedding that includes other components (such as a Hindu wedding), so you’ll have to adjust accordingly.
If you have a wedding planner, you’re likely in very good hands, but even so, it is helpful to educate yourself on creating a timeline so that you can effectively communicate with your planner exactly what you’d like for your wedding. If you are relying on a site coordinator (the one who handles weddings at the venue) to draw up/finalize your timeline, then you DEFINITELY need to read this! Site coordinators are employed by the venue, so their job is to get you in and out as smoothly and quickly as possible. This is great for them, but may result in your wedding feeling super rushed, so read on!
Add a 10-minute buffer to everything! Yep, 10 minutes for the hair, 10 for makeup, 10 for the ceremony, and 10 for the family group photographs, bride & groom photographs, speeches, etc. This will ensure walking to/from things, a quick restroom stop, or other small hiccup doesn’t cut into time for the next item on your timeline. For big items (like the ceremony or the speeches and toasts) where the uncertainty of going slightly over might be greater, consider increasing the buffer to 20 minutes or so. If you finish early, that just means more time for couple photographs or for the party. And who doesn’t want that??!!
This is your day! I can’t stress this enough! Of course, your family is very, very important, and all of your guests are very important parts of your wedding too, but the most important people in your wedding are the two of you! If going out and getting sunset photographs for 15 minutes during the reception is important to you, but may require a little waiting for your guests, then go for it! This is your day! Tomorrow and the other 364 days of the year, they can do whatever they want, but on this day, you get what you want!!! Your guests will survive (or you can think of some ways that they might be entertained while you are gone, such as lawn games during the cocktails, showing a slide-show, etc.). And you will have those sunset photographs for the rest of your lives! Think about what is most important to both of you and make sure you allocate time for that in your timeline. Years later, no one will remember waiting an extra 10 or 15 minutes, but you’ll be super glad you got those photographs (or super sad you didn’t).
Quick tip: Talk to your venue ahead of time with respect to timing flexibility. Sadly, some venues would seem to operate more like the DMV, booking multiple weddings in a single day and rushing couples and guests in and out, rather than providing the flexibility and experience that you deserve on your wedding day. Find out if extra time is available before you book. If not, you may want to consider other venues.
To first look or not to first look. Consider if you would like a first look. First looks are a way for the two of you to see each other for the first time on your wedding day while capturing it on camera. They do require some extra setup time as we have to get you both in position without seeing each other, then execute our game plan for how the first look will play out, but from there, you can just go right into some couple photographs. And remember, your first look need not be super staged. You can have it as formal or informal as you like. Think about how you’d like to do it and let us know. We especially love it when couples plan this out themselves! First looks are great if you know you won’t have much time after the ceremony for wedding party and bride & groom photographs and you’d like to take care of most of those before the ceremony instead or if you just want have some more time for couple photographs in general.
The downside is that because first looks happen earlier in the day before the ceremony, the outdoor lighting is often not ideal. Nevertheless, there are always options any time of day. Some couples might worry that after a first look, the groom seeing his bride walking down the aisle might not have quite the impact, but after photographing many first looks, we have not really found this to be the case. Whether he’s seen you before the ceremony or not, when he sees you actually coming down the aisle to marry him, all of those emotions will hit him just as hard! Lastly, first looks require starting everything a little bit earlier than you would otherwise.
I’ll wrap up Part I of this wedding planning guide by showing you a few sample timelines to get you started. These timelines assume that everything happens at one location. If you will be travelling to different locations for different parts of your wedding, you’ll need to add some travel time. This is where having the wedding at a venue that really gives you the whole day becomes a huge advantage.
Typical wedding timeline (without 1st look):
12:30pm – Start photography for the Bride and Groom preparations. Hair and makeup usually take about 2 hours, but we recommend giving yourself some extra time here in case you need to make any further adjustments afterwards. Having Mom and the bridesmaids go first with hair and makeup (starting earlier in the morning) is a wise choice here. This way, they can be completely dressed and ready for photographs when they help you get into your dress, shoes, and help make adjustments. The groom and the guys usually don’t take much longer than 30 minutes to get ready, but then they can spend some time together hanging out, enjoying a toast, etc. During the preparations, we’ll photograph the dress, shoes, rings, bouquets, invites, other jewelry or details, the bride getting her hair and makeup done, getting her dress on, parents/sibling portraits, bride portrait, groom portrait, groom with the groomsmen, bride with bridesmaids, gift/card exchanges, etc.
Because there is so much going on here, a breakdown for the bride might look something like this: 12:30-1:00 – photograph details (dress, shoes, rings, etc.) while the bride is still fairly early on in her hair/makeup. 1:00-1:45 – bride getting the finishing touches of her makeup/hair, candids with bridesmaids interacting, gift exchanges, all the ladies in their robes, etc. 1:45-2:15 – bride getting into her dress, shoes, final pieces of jewelry with mom, ladies helping. 2:15-3:00 – bridal portraits (close-ups, looking out window, etc.), bride with mom, siblings, bride with bridesmaids in dresses (if time).
3:00 – Bride & Groom get ready for the ceremony. This is where you’ll both go into your respective places to await your entrances as the guests take their seats. This is also a time when a few additional photographs of the bride alone or with bridesmaids and the groom/groomsmen can be captured, or you can just get some pre-ceremony alone-time in. It is up to you!
3:30 – The ceremony begins. Most ceremonies take less than an hour, but this will depend on the type of ceremony and what is included. Again, adding 10-15 minutes of buffer time will ensure that any speeches, communions, traditions, etc. that go longer than expected won’t encroach on another part of our wedding.
4:30 – Family group photographs. These are the formal groups and usually start a few minutes after the ceremony ends, before family members start heading to the cocktail hour or to the bathroom. Think about how many groups you’ll want photographs of and remember that both of you will likely be in every single one of them! Most commonly, these generally include the bride’s immediate family, the groom’s immediate family, both immediate families together, bride’s extended family, groom’s extended family, and both extended families together, and one with just the bride and groom and any remaining grandparents. You’ll want to create a list and make sure your planner/coordinator has it, along with someone in the family who knows everyone and who can help get people together.
5:00 – While the guests and family go to the cocktail hour, we’ll photograph the wedding party. This time, we’ll get the entire wedding party together (bridesmaids and groomsmen), and also the bride and bridesmaids again outdoors, and the groom and groomsmen again outdoors too to capture the post-ceremony excitement in a similar location and lighting (which is important when creating an album). This is your chance to get creative and fun with the wedding party in a more relaxed and festive way!
5:30 – Bride & Groom photographs begin. Guests, including the wedding party are all at the cocktail hour now and it is time for what ultimately often are the most important photographs of the day – the bride and groom together. These are the images that couples always display in the home, share on social media, include in thank you cards, and hand down for generations, so we want to make sure we allocate as much time as possible for these. These should not be rushed! Time constraints may prevent you from having a full hour and a half, but we recommend at the absolute minimum about 45 minutes. Remember, we’ll need to walk to our locations and walk back too, which will cut into your time for these. If you have a videographer as well, you’ll need a little more time as often photographs and video cannot happen simultaneously. Is it possible to do these in less time? Sure, but you’ll get less variety, you may feel rushed, and with all of the planning that you’ve put into your day, you deserve MUCH better than that! If couple photographs are very important to you, explain this to the site coordinator and/or your wedding planner. Remember: the bride gets what she wants! Nothing is impossible (well, almost)!
7:00 – Reception hall needs to be ready for photography. Before the guests take their seats, you’ll want the décor all set up and the room emptied of all people so that we can capture the table settings, the cake, room shots of the reception hall, and all of the room décor while you join the cocktails for a little while.
7:15 – Doors open and the reception begins. Here you’ll include things like 10-15 minutes for guest seating, your grand entrances, dinner, speeches, toasts, performances, cake cutting, first dance, father/daughter and mother/son dances, and open dancing at the end. There is usually a lot of flexibility here with regards to the order of things. You may also want to steal away at the end of the dinner portion with your new spouse for some sunset photographs. Again, it is all up to you! Your site coordinator or wedding planner can help you iron out the details here.
12:00 – Reception ends. Time to say your goodbyes to guests or meet up for the after party. Some couples like to have a sparkler, rice throwing, or other special sendoff. With respect to photography, we’ll stay as long as you’d like us to, but if you are looking to save costs, about 30 minutes of photographing the open dancing is usually sufficient, provided everyone is on the dance floor! If you’d like us to stay to the end and capture your sendoff, we’re happy to do that too!
And here’s another sample timeline with a 1st look. Notice that even though it ends at the same time, it starts an hour earlier.
Typical wedding timeline with 1st look:
11:30am – Bride & Groom Preparations
2:30pm – First look, followed by Bride & Groom photographs
3:30 – Wedding party photographs
4:00 – Bride & Groom return to hide and get ready for ceremony
4:30 – Ceremony begins
5:30 – Family group photographs begin
6:00 – Photographs of the bride & groom, cocktail hour begins/continues
7:00 – Bride & Groom join cocktail hour and reception hall is all set up and ready for photographs
7:15 – Doors open and reception begins
12:00 – Reception ends.
I hope this has helped get you started with your own wedding day timeline. Remember to convey what is most important to both of you to your wedding planner and/or site coordinator to help ensure that there is sufficient time allocated for that. Good luck and look for Part II coming soon!