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One of my favorite ways that I provide a custom experience to each of my couples is to create a full wedding day timeline for them, and today’s blog post will go through my entire timeline creating process from start to finish!
Why the timeline is so important
In my experience, the wedding day timeline is one of the most underrated tools at your disposal. And, with the exception of the photographer and the wedding planner/day of coordinator, most of your wedding vendors don’t necessarily have input for your full wedding day timeline. The florist needs to know what time your ceremony starts, and then they will let you know what time they will arrive to start setting up. The caterer needs to know what time you want the food to be served, and they will let you know when they need to start prepping. The hair and makeup artist needs to know what time you need to be ready so that they can give themselves plenty of time to glam you up. You get the picture. But your photographer and your planner or coordinator are with you the whole day, and that’s why they will have more input and suggestions for your timeline than any other vendors. Listen to us. We know what we’re talking about.
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How to create the timeline
So how does one go about creating a timeline? I like to start with the ceremony time, and work backwards from there. I know it may sound romantic or poetic to get married at sunset, but there are a few things to consider before setting that as your ceremony time. If you plan on having an outdoor wedding, starting your wedding at sunset would mean having the whole ceremony after the sun goes down (other factors that can also affect the “sundown time” are buildings, hills, and mountains). Not to mention, if for any reason your wedding starts a little late, you lose even more daylight. This can get tricky with lighting – unless you consult your photographer and give very specific details regarding the lighting of your ceremony, don’t assume there will be enough light. Not having enough light causes the quality of photos to go way down, so to combat that the photographer would have to use flash, which can be distracting, especially during your ceremony. If you are planning for an evening ceremony, I recommend starting it at least an hour before sunset (or earlier if you’re planning to have a long ceremony or if you’re not doing a first look). This should give you plenty of time for your ceremony, family photos, and bridal portraits to be during golden hour. I’ve noticed a trend that ceremony lengths are getting shorter and shorter. If that’s something you’re wanting, make sure you communicate that very clearly with your officiant.
A kind of controversial topic is the First Look (I have so much to say about this, so don’t worry it’s on the list for a future blog post topic). A lot of couples don’t want to see each other before the ceremony starts, and I totally understand this. But if you’re on the fence about it the main things to consider are these: having a private first look with your spouse-to-be before the ceremony time can be much more intimate than seeing each other for the first time in front of all your guests, and doing a first look can allow you to do bridal party photos before the ceremony, allowing a much quicker transition from ceremony to reception.
Working backwards from the ceremony time, take into consideration the input from your vendors on how long their services will take, and then add extra time as a cushion in case there are any hiccups (spoiler alert, there will be!).
Now, work forwards from the ceremony. As a courtesy to your guests, some kind of entertainment should be provided for them between the ceremony and reception. This could be cocktail hour, lawn games, a dance lesson, etc. If you do a first look and bridal party photos prior to the ceremony, you can expect family photos and bride and groom portraits to take about 30-45 minutes. If not, you’ll need to plan at least an hour between the ceremony and your reception entrance. *Consult with your photographer for a more exact time frame.
Factors that can affect your reception time frames are whether or not you’re serving a full meal, how the food will be served (buffet vs. waiters), how many people will be giving toasts (and whether or not you impose a time limit on toast length), and how many special dances there will be (bride and groom, groom with his mother, bride with her father, etc.). And remember that if you want photos of your dance party and/or grand exit, you need to hire your photographer for the appropriate number of hours, depending on when they will arrive for getting ready photos.
Click on this link to download a sample wedding day timeline that will show how I structure the timelines I make for my couples and what details to include (the more details the better). Also available at that link is a family photo shot list worksheet to help that portion of your wedding day to run as smoothly as possible.
How to get the most from your timeline
Once you have created your wedding day timeline, I recommend sending it to everyone. Vendors, bridal party, family, and even guests. Now, I know you may be thinking, “why would I send my entire wedding day timeline to all my wedding guests?” That is why I suggest creating a few different timelines. When I got married, I had a master wedding day timeline for myself and my now-husband Keith, one for my vendors, for my bridal party, for our parents, and for guests. All of the timelines except for the “guest timeline” I created in a word document and emailed to everyone before the wedding so that they would know exactly where they needed to be and at what time. The guest timeline can be communicated on your wedding website, on the wedding invitation, on the program, or even verbally at the end of the ceremony.
So there you have it, an exclusive look at all that goes into creating a wedding day timeline. I know it seems like a lot of things to remember and keep track of, and that’s why I include custom timeline creation in each of my wedding packages.
*All my blog posts contain a selection of images that I’ve taken. If you are interested in booking a wedding or session with me, I am more than happy to send you a full gallery upon request!
I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook and sign up for my monthly newsletter to get exclusive wedding planning advice and access to all of my new (and old) freebies! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!
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