Best Wedding Day Timeline Tips
Having a clear and organized timeline for your wedding day is essential if you want your day to run smoothly! I’ve compiled a list of helpful timeline tips for you to consider when planning out your wedding day timeline. At the end, there are two timeline examples of a typical eight hour wedding day, one with a first look and the other without a first look. Planning a wedding is super stressful sometimes, and coming up with the perfect timeline is no small feat. These timeline tips will hopefully help ease some of that stress.
Make sure to give yourself and the wedding party plenty of time to get ready.
This might come as an obvious tip, but you’d be surprised by how many brides wish they would have given themselves more time to get their hair or makeup done. Or given themselves a little extra time to enjoy the process of getting into their dress. You have a long and exciting day ahead! Don’t add the extra stress of being behind schedule by not giving yourself (or you wedding party) enough time to get ready.
Add an extra 10-15 minutes to your travel time.
You might be thinking, “I don’t need to add 15 minutes to my travel time when it only takes me 10 minutes to get to the ceremony/reception.” But you have to remember a few things. First, that it always takes a while to gather all your things for your ceremony. Second, the time it takes to round up your wedding party always takes a lot longer than we think. And third, the transition from the ceremony spot to the reception spot can take what might feel like forever because of all the guests that want to stop to congratulate you. By giving yourself some buffer time, you are ensuring that you stay on schedule.
Add a first look to your wedding day.
By adding a first look to your day, you’ll be able to get bride and groom couples portraits out of the way before the ceremony even starts. A first look can also allow you to do wedding party photos before the ceremony, which really helps with the timeline after the ceremony. Not to mention it allows your wedding party to go have fun right after the ceremony and you’re not worried about someone going missing before photos are finished.
Put someone reliable in charge of rounding up family members for family formal photos.
Make sure this person is either a family member or friend who knows all the people on your family formal list. The designated person can also help call off the family members' names for each photo. Having someone who knows the family will help the photographer move family formals along so that everyone can get to cocktail hour quicker!
Take into account the time of sunset.
This is essential if you want to do sunset couples photos. If your ceremony starts too close to when the sun sets, you won’t have enough time after the ceremony for sunset photos. Below is a list of sunset ranges for each month of the typical wedding season. You’ll want to make sure you look up the exact time of sunset for your wedding day so that you don’t miss it! Alpenglow is a great sunset predictor app that gives you the time of sunset and rates the quality. You can download the app from GooglePlay HERE or the Apple store HERE.
April - 7:20 to 8:00
May - 8:00 to 8:30
June - 8:30
July - 8:20 to 8:40
August - 7:30 to 8:20
September - 6:40 to 7:30
October - 5:50 to 6:40
November - 4:20 to 5:50
Keep speeches to a max of 5 minutes.
This one might seem harsh, but let’s be honest, no one really want to sit and listen to the best man go on and on about that one time him and the groom got drunk and did something stupid. Remind the people who will be giving speeches that short and sweet is best! Shorter speeches also give your vendors time to sit down and eat before the first dance. Believe me, they will appreciate it greatly!!
Plan to do sparkler exit photos right after sunset and only with the wedding party and family.
Sparkler exits can be so beautiful and fun!! But the more people you include, the longer it takes everyone to be ready and longer for all the sparklers to be lit, which cuts down on the amount of time you have for photos. Keeping sparkler exits to just the wedding party and family helps cut down on waiting time and give you and your new spouse more time for photos.
Doing your sparkler exit just after sunset (or after sunset photos) helps ensure there’s enough light for the photographer to get the best shots of you and your love. Doing it before the end of the night also helps with making sure people haven’t had too much to drink before handling fire! Safety first!!
Timeline Examples
Below are two timeline examples of what an 8 hour wedding day could look like. One of the timelines includes a first look with the bride and groom. The other timeline example does not have a first look.
With a First Look
12:00 - Photographer arrives // Getting ready
2:00 - First look
2:15 - Couples photos
2:30 - Wedding party photos
3:00 - Ceremony starts
3:30 - Family formal photos
4:00 - Cocktail hour starts
5:00 - Grand march // cake cutting
5:15 - Dinner // speeches
6:30 - Bride and groom sunset photos
7:00 - First dance
8:00 - Photographer leaves
Without a First Look
12:00 - Photographer arrives // Getting ready
1:00 - Bride and bridesmaid photos
1:30 - Groom and groomsmen photos
2:00 - Ceremony starts
2:30 - Family formal photos
3:00 - Wedding party photos
3:30 - Couples photos
4:00 - Cocktail hour starts
5:00 - Grand march // cake cutting
5:15 - Dinner // speeches
6:30 - Sunset photos
7:00 - First dance
8:00 - Photographer leaves
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