There are so many times I meet with brides and grooms and many of them want help in setting up the time line of their day. Because photos are such an huge part of the day and something that most everyone is participating in, I like to give brides and grooms a general idea of how a day might look when we first sit down with one another. So here is a quick break down of how a wedding time line might look based on a 10 hour time line!
First, start with your ceremony time. Let’s say it’s a 4pm wedding and you plan to do a first look and most of your photos before the ceremony. I like to say go back 3 hours from that as your start time. This might seem like a lot of time, especially to grooms, but it’s not really that much time when you break things down. Back up 3 hours to when you starting your getting ready process. This includes getting in your dress, groom and groomsmen in their tux’s and bridesmaids helping. Thirty minutes is generally a good time for most chunks of time. So then you have 2.5 hours to work with before your ceremony. Typically planners want the couplecsnd families in hiding 30 minutes before your ceremony, so this really only gives you 2 hours of time for all your photos.
Let’s break this down even more with an actual time line of getting ready photos and group shots::
1:00 Bride and Groom Getting ready photos (this is the part where you are finished with all your hair and make up and get into your dress!!)
1:30 First Look of Bride and Groom
2:00 Wedding Party joins Bride and Groom
2:30 Bride’s Family Photos
3:00 Groom’s family Photos
3:30 Getting Ready/ Prep for Ceremony
4:00 Ceremony
See how fast the three hours goes?! Now, depending on how long your ceremony is, you can add 30 to 60 minutes to that chunk of time and then from there, you can add in more time based on what you’d like to do after your ceremony.
Many of my couples choose to get in transportation and go somewhere in and around the city. If this were the case, we would add in the hours to look something like this:
4:00-5:00 Ceremony
5:00 Exit (Dismiss by rows, Receiving line, or greeting guests at ceremony, which would mean walking straight out and getting in transportation!)
5:30 City photos or off site photos with couple and wedding party (Cocktail hour may be going on for guests at this time)
6:30 Couple arrives at Reception venue with wedding party, photos on site or just heading in
6:45 Couple announced/ Dinner served
Typically most DJ’s have told me that it is about 1.5 hours that it takes for dinner to be served, so most of the time couples choose to cut their cake during this time as well as do toasts. If you have a band, you are pretty much able to depict a sooner start time, but this is not my area of expertise, so I would highly advise talking to your DJ or Band or your planner to see what they would advise.
From there come first dances, which usually take 15-20 minutes to complete which would look something like:
6:45 Couple announced/ Dinner served
8:15 First dances to start
8:40 Official Dance to start
10:45 Exit (if wanted)
11:00 Contract ends
That is what a typical 10 hour time line might look like. Much can be moved around depending on what you are wanting and needing for your day!
This is just a very general time line of how your day might look. There are so many variables, so feel free to drop me a line if you have questions. I am so happy to help! Also I do have a PDF that is available below, feel free to use it as another tool to help!
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