How to Plan Your Wedding Day Timeline

So as a Type A person and as an Enneagram One, timeline planning is honestly my favorite part of working with couples because I love building timelines that are organized and orderly! When you work with me, you automatically get a timeline built-in for you to help with your planning process, especially as you book other vendors. As far as building your timeline, here are some general tips!

Start with Your Ceremony

You’re probably thinking you should start at the beginning of your day to plan out your timeline, but this will actually confuse you more than help you! By starting at your ceremony and working outward, you start with the most important part of the day. First, ask yourselves if you’re having a religious or civil ceremony. Most religious ceremonies are about an hour, while most civil ceremonies are closer to 30 minutes. Once you solidify how much time your ceremony will take, work from there. You should aim to have your ceremony about two hours before sunset.

Work Backwards

Next, you should figure out what you want to be doing right before your ceremony happens. Do you want to do a first look before walking down the aisle? Do you want to do all of your family and formal photos before the ceremony so you can just go straight to the party afterward? Schedule in all of these things to happen prior to the ceremony if that’s how you’d prefer to spend your day. If you don’t want to do any of these things before the ceremony, you’ll work with your styling team to see how much time they need for hair and makeup, or with your venue to determine what time set up needs to happen.

Work Forwards

After your ceremony start and end times are set, figure out what you want to be doing immediately after the ceremony. What time is sunset? Do you have portraits scheduled with your photographer? Do you want to attend your cocktail hour? When does your grand entrance into your reception happen? You should also ask yourselves if you want to do the traditional events of the reception. For example, are you going to have any formal dances? Will you be cutting the cake or having toasts? These are all things you should consider when planning how much time you’ll need at your reception space. However, you don’t have to have every single detail planned out! This is where your DJ will know best and will be able to advise you on timing everything out during the evening. 

In terms of photography, most of my couples book 7-8 hours day-of coverage to encompass everything from getting ready through the main events of the reception. This really allows me to tell the entire story of the day in a cohesive way! This also applies to intimate elopements. Just because there are fewer people around doesn’t mean it deserves fewer storytelling images!

If your timeline building skills need some assistance, get in touch and let’s build your perfect timeline together!