Where to Start? Planning your Wedding Timeline
If you’re struggling to plan your big day and create a well-structured wedding timeline, I completely understand! Planning a timeline of events for a wedding can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to this task and not an event planner by profession.
But don’t worry, I’m here to help! As someone who has attended numerous weddings and gained valuable insights into how well-planned wedding days unfold, I can provide you with some guidance and a sample timeline to assist you in planning your own memorable day.
Determining Time Allocation for Each Part of the Day
The first step is to break down the day into segments and understand what will happen at each stage. Consider the following elements:
- Setting up the Venues
- Getting Ready (Bride and Groom or Groom and Groom or Bride and Bride—whichever applies to you)
- First Look (if you choose to have one)
- The Ceremony
- Formal Photos/Cocktail Hour
- Bridal Party Portraits
- The Reception
Setting Up the Venue/s
This step may or may not apply to you, depending on whether you’ve delegated this task to others. If there are any setup tasks, identify them and determine the time required for each. Assign responsibilities, create a detailed timeline, and ensure everyone involved has a copy, along with a clear understanding of their role. Remember, it’s best to delegate these activities to trusted individuals to alleviate stress and allow you to focus on getting ready for your big day.
Getting Ready – The Bride
Now the fun begins! The duration of this part of your wedding timeline depends on the size of your bridal party. I recommend consulting your hair and makeup artists to determine the time required for their services, accounting for the bride, bridesmaids, and flower girls. Sum up the total time needed, add a buffer to account for any potential delays (which can be expected), and consider hiring a team of hair and makeup artists if you have a large bridal party. This way, you can have simultaneous hair and makeup sessions, avoiding an excessively early start to your day.
After completing hair and makeup, allocate ample time for dressing up, adding finishing touches, and capturing photos of the process, including group photos of the bride’s party and family. I suggest allowing 30 minutes for getting the bride ready and at least another 30 minutes for group photos. Also, remember to include a buffer for some relaxed downtime where everyone can sit and unwind together.
Getting Ready – The Groom
The groom and groomsmen typically require less time to get ready, sometimes as little as 5 minutes. However, if you want to capture photos of the groomsmen during this process, allocate extra time for photography. It’s advantageous that the groom’s side gets ready concurrently with the bridal party, but if one photographer is capturing both sides one after the other, careful planning is essential to ensure both sides are ready while the photographer is present. Consequently, the groom’s party may need to start preparing much earlier than originally anticipated.
Once the groom and groomsmen are ready, they should head to the ceremony location a little earlier than the bride’s side. Decide how much time before the ceremony you want the groom to arrive. It’s common for the groom to arrive before most of the guests so he can greet everyone, meet with the celebrant, and experience the nervous excitement of being the centre of attention at the front.
The Timeline of the First Look
If you’re planning a first look, your wedding timeline will differ slightly. Here’s how it can work:
Once both the bride and groom are ready, they will head to the same location without seeing each other (ensure everyone knows the designated places and routes to avoid accidental encounters). The first look is a private moment for the couple to see each other before the ceremony and have a few quiet moments together. This can be a highly emotional and intimate experience, so allow at least 15-30 minutes for the first look, depending on how you envision it.
The Ceremony Timeline
The ceremony is the centerpiece of your wedding day, and it’s essential to allocate enough time for this meaningful event. The duration of the ceremony will depend on various factors, such as whether you’re having a religious or civil ceremony, if there are readings or performances, and any specific rituals you’ve chosen to include. Typically, a ceremony can range from 30 minutes to an hour.
Allow time for guests to arrive before the ceremony starts, especially if you want to incorporate prelude music. Factor in a buffer period of 15-30 minutes before the ceremony start time for guests to settle in, and make sure to communicate the ceremony start time clearly on your invitations.
Following the ceremony, it is also a good idea to set aside 15 minutes to let your guests all congratulate you. Take this time to catch your breath, talk to your loved ones and of course your new hubby/wife.
Big Group and Formal/Family Photos
If you’re planning for a group photo, keep in mind that it can take some time to gather everyone and position them properly. It’s recommended to set aside 15 minutes for this. Make sure your MC informs everyone who needs to be in the family photos to stay nearby, as people tend to wander off. Having a helper with a loud and confident personality who knows most of the guests can make the formal photo process run smoother.
Following capturing the photo of all the guests, I recommend getting straight into the formal group photos. Limit the number of group photos to a maximum of 15 to keep things efficient. Allocate a total of 30 minutes for these 15 photos.
Bridal Party Portraits
If you haven’t had a first look and taken these photos before the ceremony, here’s how to plan them into your timeline. Once the formal and family photos are done, the bridal party should move away from the other guests for their portraits. If there’s travel involved, account for the time it takes to gather everyone, get into cars, reach the destination, and return. It usually takes about 30 minutes to photograph the bridal party and another 30 minutes for the bride and groom portraits. Adjust the time as needed based on your photographer’s recommendations. Start with capturing fun and formal images of the full bridal party, then separate into the bride’s and groom’s sides for a variety of shots. Ensure you get a photo of each bridesmaid with the bride and each groomsman with the groom. Once that’s done, focus on capturing beautiful portraits of just the couple.
Consider adding a small amount of time for the bride and groom to spend together, away from everyone else, before heading into the reception. Allocate 10 to 15 minutes for this intimate moment, as it can be a special time for the couple to debrief and connect.
The Reception Timeline
Several events during the reception require consideration for timing:
- Entrance of the bridal party: Usually 5 minutes
- Dinner: 60 minutes
- Speeches: Varies greatly, but can take up to 1 hour or more depending on the speakers
- Cutting the cake: 5 to 10 minutes
- Tossing the bouquet/garter, etc.: 5 minutes
- First dance: 5 minutes
- Dance floor photos of guests: 30 minutes (usually sufficient)
- Sunset portraits: Allocate 15 minutes to venture out and capture some sunset photos at your venue, scheduling it 30 minutes before sunset.
- Sparkler exit photo: Allow 15 minutes for setup and shooting.
- Additional events: Consider the time required.
Remember to allow for mingling time throughout the reception, so don’t schedule everything back-to-back in your timeline.
Fitting Your Wedding Timeline into Your Photography and Videography Coverage
To ensure the important parts are captured by your photographers and videographers, you’ll need to consider your coverage hours. Plan a rough timeline of your day, taking into account the information provided by your hair and makeup artist and celebrant, as well as any specific venue requirements. For example, in New Zealand, ceremony start times are often around 3pm, and dinner is served around 6pm, but this can vary. Depending on your desired coverage, you most likely will need at least 8 hours, or possibly 10 hours, of photography.
If you need some help deciding how many hours of photography coverage you need, take a look at my blog post HERE that goes into detail about about what you need.
Sample Wedding Timeline (With and Without a First Look)
10 Hours of Photography Coverage:
- 1200: Photographer arrives to Groom venue to capture getting ready and portraits with groomsmen and family
- 1300: Photographer/Videographer arrives to Bride and begins with the details/dress/rings etc… End of bride hair and makeup captured.
- 1330: Dress on, followed by jewellery and shoes
- 1400: Photos with the Bride and bridesmaids, and family.
- 1400: Groom and groomsmen travel to ceremony venue
- 1450: Bride and bridemaids arrive at ceremony venue
- 1500: Ceremony begins
- 1530: Ceremony ends
- 1545: Big group photo
- 1600: Formal and family photos
- 1630: Bridal Party Photos (This is not factoring in travel time if these photos happen at a different location)
- 1700: Bride and Groom Photos
- 1730: Time aside for Bride and Groom to have together, alone.
- 1800: Bridal party enter reception
- 1830: Dinner served
- 1930: Speeches begin
- 2030: Cutting the cake/bouquet toss/champagne tower/cultural dances/other events
- 2100: First dance – followed by all the wedding guests dancing
- 2130: Sparkler Exit photo
- 2200: Photography coverage ends.
10 Hours of Photography Coverage with a First Look:
- 1200: Photographer arrives to Groom venue to capture getting ready and portraits with groomsmen and family
- 1300: Photographer/Videographer arrives to Bride and begins with the details/dress/rings etc… End of bride hair and makeup captured.
- 1330: Dress on, followed by jewellery and shoes
- 1400: Photos with the Bride and bridesmaids, and family.
- 1430: Groom and Bride First Look
- 1500: Bride and Groom Portraits
- 1530: Bridal Party Photos
- 1630: Ceremony Begins
- 1700: Ceremony ends
- 1715: Big group photo
- 1730: Formal and family photos
- 1800: Bridal party enter reception
- 1830: Dinner served
- 1930: Speeches begin
- 2030: Cutting the cake/bouquet toss/champagne tower/cultural dances/other events
- 2100: First dance – followed by all the wedding guests dancing
- 2130: Sparkler Exit photo
- 2200: Photography coverage ends.
Enlist the help of Your Photographer with Finalising your Wedding Timeline
These timeline are guidelines only as a lot of other factors effect the day and the timing of everything. So use them as a guide and tweak them to suit your day. As a wedding photographer I am always happy to sit down and help my couples fit everything in. I actually prefer to be involved in the creation of the time line becase as I mentioned earlier, it is something I have more experience in and I really would love to help my client’s get the best out of their wedding photography coverage. I don’t want them to have any special moment miss out on being captured.
Auckland Weddings have also a great blog post outlining the timeframes you need for each part of a wedding day. Check it out HERE. And if you want more help, check out Pintrest for never ending information. HERE is a board that is super helpful.
That’s all from me for now. Thanks for reading and if you need any help with your wedding timeline, please reach out. I’d love to help you nail it!
xoxo
Suzannah Maree
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