Why do I need a good wedding timeline?
As a wedding photographer who has photographed almost 300 weddings I have seen good timelines where everyone is having the time of their lives (including me) and the day flows seamlessly. And there are bad timelines which leads to being stressed on your wedding day, who wants that?! A lot of modern wedding venues have a dedicated catering and events team to ensure your day runs smoothly. However if you are doing a DIY marquee in a field wedding and you are winging it on the day is when things go wrong. This is where things often get pushed back which leads to suppliers staying longer than they are supposed to, hungry guests and stressed out groomsmen because they are having to wait even longer than planned to make the speech they are already worried about. The good news is that I am here to use my experience and inside insights of weddings to help you plan the perfect wedding timeline!
Bride Preparation
It is so important to give yourself more time than necessary when getting ready, you often hear make up artists and hairstylists saying they set off at 5am, they are not joking! It is really important, especially if you are getting ready at a location separate to the wedding venue that you allocate time for photos with your bridesmaids and family before heading off to the ceremony. If you do not give yourself enough time it just makes the morning stressful which I find can impact the entire day, its so much better to give yourself loads of time and have a lovely relaxing morning with your best friends. The amount of time it takes ready really depends on a lot of things, you hair and make up artists will give you a better estimation but I recommend that you aim to be ready an entire hour before you leave for the ceremony. This gives you loads of time for photos.
Wedding Ceremony
The most popular time seems to be around 1pm, this is a great idea as it means your guests can grab brunch before the ceremony and no one will get hungry whilst waiting for the wedding breakfast, usually around 4 hours after the ceremony. For winter weddings where there is less daylight I would aim for a ceremony no later than midday, 11am is perfect! By having an earlier ceremony it means there will be no rush to get through all the family and couples photos, once the wedding breakfast begins it will be completely dark outside when the speeches are over so it is a great idea to make the most of light so you can relax knowing the most important photos are already taken care of when you sit down for your wedding breakfast.
Drinks Reception
After the ceremony many wedding venues will schedule around 90 minutes before the wedding breakfast, however I would stretch this to two hours because when you factor in the formal family photographs and photos of the bride and groom it really does not leave much time for you to spend time greeting your guests after getting married, this is also a really great time to capture some beautiful, natural moments. So by stretching the drinks reception to two hours, it allows half an hour to mingle with your guests, one hour for family photos, this always longer than people think! And then you have half an hour explore the grounds of your venue with your partner for photos.
Speeches and Wedding Breakfast
Whether you have your speeches before or after the wedding breakfast is up to you but please please please, do not do them inbetween courses! The reason for this is because your photographer and videographer usually get fed by the venue once all the guests have been served and the moment we start tucking into our food we hear the glass being dinged for speeches to start then we have to launch ourselves back into action and when we get back our plates have been cleared away. So we really appreciate it if speeches are done before or after speeches. From a guests point of view I believe it’s better to do the speeches before the food because if there are any nervous speakers they can get the speeches out the way and enjoy their food and let their hair down.
First Dance
When it comes to the first dance I always feel like it happens too early, the venue seems to dictate when the first dance happens, at around 0730pm. The problems with this is firstly that most people just aren’t ready to dance this early and it leads to an anti climatic dance floor after the first dance and my dance floor photos won’t be as good as they could be if there’s the same four people on the dance floor. Instead, wait until it gets a bit darker and your evenings guests have had a chance to have something to eat and drink after mingling. Once everyone feels more comfortable have your first dance at around 9pm and your dance floor will be wild and you will get some really fun and amazing photos. Another point is that by having a later first dance it means that the beautiful sunset photos can be done without having to drag you off the dance floor.