Your Wedding Day Timeline
Do you know one of the first things that I do after a couple books with me? I ask them about their wedding day schedule. Why? Well I have a secret to tell ya. Great photography comes from having the time to get the photos you want and need for your wedding day. The schedule of the day is super important and ensures we can be in the right place at the right (sunlight) time to make magic happen. That’s why today I wanted to share some tips about how to create your own wedding day timeline!
There’s a lot that goes into choosing your wedding vendors, and its not just the products that they deliver. It’s hard to know what to look for when you haven’t done this before!
That’s why going with people who have experience is such a great way to ensure that the experts can take over for you and make sure that your wedding day goes smoothly, and you have time for all the moments that you’ve dreamed of.
So let’s talk about some of the most important things to account for when planning your wedding day schedule.
Who normally creates the timeline?
It’s usually your wedding planner or coordinator, and then I highly recommend sending it over to your photographer so they can check the times for photography and make any changes they need. If you don’t have one, then that duty typically goes to the photographer. Otherwise you’ll be the one planning it and may not have as good of a reference on how long each event may take.
The 3 events to base the entire schedule off of:
1. The ceremony
This will of course be the first time that you choose, and will affect the entire rest of the day. I usually recommend making it around an hour and a half before sunset time. (MAKE SURE YOU DON’T CHOOSE A TIME AFTER SUNSET HAPPENS, especially in winter!) That way you’ll have time for family photos, bridal party photos and couples photos before heading into the reception.
2. The First Look
You get to decide if you want to have a first look or not, but either way it will shape when you want to put the rest of the photography times. If you decide to do a first look then you can have more time together before hand, as well as getting more photos out of the way if you want to spend time at your cocktail hour. I still recommend doing some couples portraits afterward as if you’re in a location that you can see a sunset. If you don’t want to do a first look then you just need to make sure that you have enough time after the ceremony to do all the group photos you want!
3. Dinner
You don’t want to keep your guests waiting for too long after the ceremony, and make sure it’s at a comfortable time for everyone. You also want to make sure that the caterers will be ready at the correct time to serve everyone so you want to keep everything as on schedule as possible for the reception to start accordingly! From there the events will just start falling in line for the rest of the evening and the DJ usually will run the timeline from there!
I hope you picked something up to help you in thinking about planning your own wedding day! I have created countless timelines for my own couples and think it’s one of the BEST ways to ensure you’ll have an easy and successful celebration that everyone will enjoy!
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Rae Marshall is an Oahu Wedding Photographer based in Hawaii and also specializes in engagements, family, maternity, senior portraits, fashion, headshots and more and is available for travel to the surrounding islands.
- Rae Marshall’s Wedding Galleries
