One of the biggest struggles for my couples planning their weddings is knowing how to create the perfect wedding day timeline. Each timeline is unique to the couple, their venue, and what they choose to do throughout the day. I try to give each of my couples the timeline that best suits their needs and makes their day as stress-free as possible. Today I’m going to give you my best tips for how to create a wedding day timeline that is perfect for YOUR wedding.

What Are You Including In Your Day?

Before we get to any specifics, you and your partner need to talk about what you hope to do on your wedding day. This is entirely up to you and how you want to make your day special. Here are a few ideas for what you can do on your day:

– First looks with parents, bridal parties, or your partner. Seeing you all dressed up in your wedding clothes for the first time is an extremely emotional part of the day and the photos are so memorable and often favorites

– Reception activities. Are you having introductions, first dances, toasts, speeches, cake cuttings, or anything else special to you?

– Sunset portraits. Depending on the time of year, the best light might be after dinner. If you’d like to sneak away for 15-20 minutes during the reception to get the most magical couples portraits, do it!!

How Long Things Generally Take

Some things during the wedding day take longer than you’d think! Here’s a general idea of each part of the day:

– Getting ready & details: I love to get photos of you having your hair and makeup done, hanging out with the bridal party, and relaxing before the big day. At the same time, I like to photograph the details you’ve brought into such an important moment: your rings, your wedding invitations, your shoes, your dress, your tie, your jewelry, your watch, your bouquet, your boutonniere, and anything else that’s important to you. Photographing details takes about 45 minutes, and snapping relaxed getting ready photos in between adds more time. I like to have my second shooter and I there at least 1-1.5 hours before you plan to get into your dress or tux and put on the final touches

– Putting on the dress or tux: I won’t actually photograph you putting on the dress for real, but I will photograph your mother or best friend help you lace up the back or put on your earrings. Getting beautiful and memorable photos like this can take around 10-15 minutes. At the same time, we’ll photograph you putting on your jacket, tie, or watch. This will take 5-10 minutes. When you each are fully ready, we like to get a few photos of you by yourself to show off how great you look!!

– First look: If you do a first look, this can take as long as you like! Setting you up can take around 5-10 minutes, depending on how far you each have to walk to get to the designated spot. We’ll let you meet and see each other for the first time, and we’ll stay far away so you can have your privacy for a few minutes. When you’re ready to take some portraits, you can look at us and we’ll come up to you. We can take portraits for 5 minutes or 30 minutes, up to you!

– Family formals: Depending on how long your list is, family formals can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes. I’ll help you create a family formals list that will maximize your time together and get all the photos you want. I suggest only including parents, grandparents, siblings, and their families. Once you start introducing uncles and aunts and second cousins, this process can get way out of hand and take up a lot of time. But it’s all up to you! Feel free to ask more about this, or check out how to make a family formals list (blog post coming soon!)

– Bridal party portraits: I love to get group shots of each side, group shots all together, and you with each person in your bridal party. I normally allot 15 minutes for all of this, and we can get a lot done in that time, especially with a second shooter!

– Ceremony: The ceremony is normally around 30 minutes, but I would add a buffer time of 10 minutes to each side just in case

– Newlywed Portraits: After the ceremony, family formals, and bridal party portraits are all done, I love to get my couples a few newlywed portraits! If we plan on taking sunset portraits later, this can be shorter, but I still highly recommend taking some now in case we don’t get the chance to go out again! This usually fills up the rest of cocktail hour, so it can be 15 up to 45 minutes, depending on how many portraits you want! We also need to factor in any travel time

– Reception: This is all up to you! What do you want to do here? At this point of the day I usually just photograph everything that happens: introductions, first dances, toasts, speeches, cake cuttings, dances, and exits. You say what you want to do and I’ll be there for it! The timing here is fluid with when you want to do everything!

– Sunset portraits: If you choose to slip out of the reception for 15 minutes, we can get some amazing sunset portraits! This can take as long as you want! I’m here for YOU!

General Wedding Timeline Tips

Here are my best general tips when creating your wedding day timeline:

– Add buffer time! If you create your timeline, I would add an extra 5-10 minutes in between each event. Not only will this give you time to travel, rest, eat, drink, or relax, but it helps keep us on track in case we’re running a little late!

– Keep in mind the sunset time. Timelines shift when the sunset is early or late!

– Keep in mind any travel times, from driving to golf cart rides to walking

– Get a planner! This is a huge part of a planner’s job. They’re available to help create the perfect timeline for you, and will help you the day-of

– Get a day-of coordinator! If you don’t get a planner, I highly highly suggest hiring a day-of coordinator. They help move the timeline along, get everything ready for you, and generally take a lot of stress and tasks off your plate. I don’t suggest enlisting a friend or family member because you want them to enjoy the day too! Trust me when I say that the money is worth it!

– Ask for help! I’m here for you and will help answer any questions you have or will even help you create a customized timeline if you need it!

Sample Wedding Timelines

Here are a few timelines to get you thinking about your day! As you can see, you can have family formals and bridal party portraits before or after your ceremony, and you can choose when you want to have portraits done. The possibilities are endless, so be sure to ask for help!

Spring wedding timeline with no first look, sunset at 7 PM:

1 Photographer arrives

1-1:45 details & getting ready

2:15 get into dress, get into suit, final getting ready photos

2:45 bridal party photos apart, individuals

3:30 go hide and rest

4 CEREMONY

4:30 family portraits

4:50 bridal party portraits

5 newlywed portraits

5:30 introductions, first dances, & dinner

6:40 sunset portraits

7 rest of reception, toasts, cake, dancing

Photographer leaves at 9

Spring wedding timeline with first look, sunset at 7 PM:

1 Photographer arrives

1:1-45 details & getting ready

2:30 get in dress & final touches

3 father first look

3:15 first look & portraits

4 bridal party & some family

4:30 go hide and rest

5 CEREMONY

5:30 Family portraits & newlywed portraits, join cocktail hour if done early

6:30 dinner

7:30 toasts and cake

8 start dancing

9 photographer leaves

Summer wedding timeline with no first look, sunset at 8:30 PM:

2 Photographer arrives

2-2:45 details & getting ready

3:15 get into dress, get into suit, final getting ready photos

3:45 bridal party photos apart, individuals

4:30 go hide and rest

5 CEREMONY

5:30 family portraits

5:50 bridal party portraits

6 newlywed portraits

6:30 introductions, first dances, & dinner

8:10 sunset portraits

Photographer leaves at 10

Summer wedding timeline with first look, sunset at 8:30 PM:

2 Photographer arrives

2:2-45 details & getting ready

3:30 get in dress & final touches

4:15 first look & portraits

4:30 go hide and rest

5 CEREMONY

5:30 family portraits

5:50 bridal party

6 newlywed portraits

6:30 dinner

8:10 sunset portraits

10 photographer leaves

Fall wedding timeline with no first look, sunset at 6:45 PM:

1 Photographer arrives

1-1:45 details & getting ready

2:15 get into dress, get into suit, final getting ready photos

2:45 bridal party photos apart, individuals

3:30 go hide and rest

4 CEREMONY

4:30 family portraits

4:50 bridal party portraits

5 newlywed portraits

5:30 introductions & dinner

6:25 sunset portraits

6:45 rest of reception, toasts, cake, dancing

Photographer leaves at 9

Fall wedding timeline with first look, sunset at 6:45 PM:

1 Photographer arrives

1:1-45 details & getting ready

2:30 get in dress & final touches

3 father first look

3:15 first look & portraits

4 bridal party & some family

4:30 go hide and rest

5 CEREMONY

5:30 Family portraits & newlywed portraits, join cocktail hour if done early

6:30 dinner

7:30 toasts and cake

8 start dancing

9 fake exit, photographer leaves

Winter wedding timeline with no first look, sunset at 5 PM:

12 Photographer arrives

12-12:45 details & getting ready

1:30 get into dress, get into suit, final getting ready photos

2:10 bridal party photos apart, individuals

3 go hide and rest

3:30 CEREMONY

4:15 family portraits

4:35 bridal party portraits

4:45 newlywed portraits

5:15 dinner

Photographer leaves at 8

Winter wedding timeline with first look, sunset at 5 PM:

12 Photographer arrives

12:12-45 details & getting ready

1 get in dress & final touches

2 first look & portraits

2:30 bridal party & family formals

3 go hide and rest

3:30 CEREMONY

4 rest of family portraits & newlywed portraits

5:15 dinner

8 photographer leaves

I hope these tips helped you create your wedding timeline! Remember that you can always ask for help!

If you’d like more tips like this, check out my client education category!

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