All posts in Weddings

We are involved in several weddings every year and during the planning process we are often asked for help from the bride in planning their timeline. If we are not asked we make it a point to provide our thoughts on tweaks to the timeline that will give my clients the best experience from a photographers point of view. This timeline is typical for the weddings I shoot and I’ve experienced that it runs very smoothly and that the bride and groom seem to enjoy their day and be most stress-free when their timeline is closest to it. Think of this as a starting point when planning your day since there are so many variables that could come up.

My model is built around a sunset time of 6pm to serve as an example. It also assumes that the bride and groom have decided to see each other before the ceremony for portraits. I really believe this route is best for a number of reasons and will go into detail on that topic in a later post.

With all this said, here is what I would consider an ideal wedding day timeline (based on a sunset time of 6pm):

3:00 – bride & groom’s first look/ portraits
3:30 – bridal party portraits
4:00 – family portraits
4:30 – completely done with portraits – bridal party freshens up while guests arrive
5:00 – ceremony (perfect light for an outdoor ceremony is one hour before sunset)
5:30 – cocktail hour (if you do your portraits before the ceremony you can enjoy your cocktail hour with your guests or take a few more portraits – up to you!)
6:30 – dinner reception

And here is a good starting point for a reception timeline:

6:45 – grand entrance/ first dance/ blessing
7:00 – dinner (allow guests to eat without interruption for 45 minutes)
7:45 – toasts/ special dances
8:00 – open dancing
8:30/9 – cake cutting/ more open dancing

When planning your getting ready schedule we recommend that you count backwards from when you will see the groom and start portraits (3pm in the above model) to find out when you should start getting ready. Make sure to plan in time for hair, make-up, eating lunch, transportation, getting into your dress (at least a half hour – brides typically underestimate this) and hang-out time. It’s better to plan in more time than not enough. Oftentimes each element takes longer than you expect and you also need to leave room for the unexpected. So make sure you start early!

The key to enjoying your day is having a great plan ahead of time. That way the day will run smoothly and the only thing you will need to focus on is being the bride and taking it all in.

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