How to Create Your Wedding Timeline

I know, I know… how are you supposed to know how to put together the timeline for your special day when this is quite possibly the first time you’re getting married?! You’re not….Luckily, I got your back!

Years of experience and countless weddings and elopements have taught me a lot about how to create a kickass timeline to make sure we get the most out of your special day, as well as creating a stress-free environment for you to enjoy the day without having to worry about all the finer details. Leave that to us wedding vendors, thats part of our service to you our couples and friends.

One thing I want you guys to remember is that, when you book me for your wedding or elopement, you not only just hire a professional who beautifully photographs your day, you get a hype girl, a forever friend and helpful advice giver in the realm of weddings (and I don’t just mean photography advice, I am here to help with vendor recommendations, wedding planning tips and a bunch more).

To me the most important thing is creating an incredible and unforgettable experience for you on your special day.

So lets get into it.
How do you create your wedding timeline?

Now, not all weddings and elopements are the same.
Some may have many guests, some may have a few, some may have none at all. Some may choose to have a wedding party, some couples may opt for no wedding party. Its all personal choice and I am 100% here for that.

So what I like to do is work backwards.
Most receptions are around dinner time, am i right?

So for this example lets say our Reception time is set at 6pm.
We roughly have 80-100 guests & a wedding party.
I would recommend leaving 2.5 hours between the Ceremony Ending and the Reception starting.
This is for a number of reasons.
Firstly, larger groups take longer to organise.
Secondly, its more likely there will be more group portraits with more guests.
Third, we want to leave 15 minutes to 30 minutes in between to allow for the ceremony or group photos to run over time. Because lets be honest, we can be as optimistic as we like but there is usually always someone who wanders off and we are left trying to find them. This then eats in to your wedding party/ couple photos.

So far we have :
3:30 PM – Ceremony Ends
3:30 PM – Congratulations, Straight into group photos
4:15 PM – Wedding Party Photos / Couple Photos
5:45 PM – Prep to enter Reception
6:00 PM – Reception

So now we are wanting to work out our ceremony time and prep time (photography wise).
Most ceremonies will go for approximately 20 – 30 minutes.
Keeping that in mind, we should be commencing the ceremony around 3pm.

Now with getting ready photos.

To have enough time to photograph both of you, depending on if you are getting ready in different places, we have to consider the following :
– Where you are both getting ready
– Travel time between the two locations
– Travel time between last prep location and ceremony location

With this example above in mind,
Say you are going to be getting ready at the ceremony venue and your partner is going to be getting ready at your home. We roughly need an hour each sometimes 1.5 hours each to photograph prep photos. We then need to work out how long it should take to travel between the two locations. For this example, the partner prep venue/home will be 15 mins away from the Ceremony location. We want to allow 30 minutes for travel in case we hit traffic or there is any other delays on the roads. (The last thing we want is to be late to the ceremony and miss you walking down the aisle)

So all up we will need 2.5 – 3 hours for getting ready photos.
Therefore our final run sheet will look a little something like this

12:15 PM – Start Partner 1 Prep Photos
1:15 PM – Leave Partner 1 Prep (travel to Partner 2)
1:45 PM – Partner 2 Prep Photos
2:45 PM – Photographer sets up for Ceremony
3:00 PM – Ceremony Starts
3:30 PM – Ceremony Ends
3:30 PM – Congratulations, Straight into group photos
4:15 PM – Wedding Party Photos / Couple Photos
5:45 PM – Prep to enter Reception
6:00 PM – Reception

From there you can work out your meal and formalities timing with the venue, caterers and entertainment.
Just be sure to allow 10 minutes at sunset to get those beautiful golden photos. This may mean having to work your reception formalities around this, but trust me you won’t regret it.

**Top Tip : To find out the sunset time on the day of your wedding just type in your wedding location and the wedding date into google it will come up with an approximate sunset time for that date.

Happy Planning!!