Building a solid wedding day timeline will setup your entire bridal experience for success.  By drawing one up at least a month or two prior to your event, you make sure all of your wedding vendors are on the same page and your guests stay engaged throughout the entire day.  Here are a few tips that we recommend when building your perfect wedding day timeline.

Locations

Will everything happen at the same place or will we be making multiple stops throughout the day?  When you choose a venue where you can do everything in the same place (getting ready, first looks, photos, ceremony, reception, golden hour pictures, etc.) you simplify the entire process of building your timeline and what you need out of your vendors.  For instance, if the bride plans to get ready at a friend’s house or in a hotel room and the groom wants to prep across town at another location, you may need to hire a second photographer and videographer.  It makes it difficult to cover both locations within a short amount of time when they are spread out.  Do you intend to go to a special location away from your venue to take bridal party photos?  You’ll probably need to arrange transportation to get everyone you want in your photos to the location on time.  That adds expense and more logistical planning.  By using less locations throughout the day, you save yourself time that can be spent having fun and enjoying your experience more.  It also reduces the number of potential headaches that arise from unforeseen problems like slow traffic, car accidents and moving groups of people from one place to another.

FIRST LOOKS

Do you plan to see your future spouse before the wedding?  If so, you can expect to enjoy more fun time at you reception.  First looks entail capturing the moment when a couple sees each other all dressed up for the first time.  It’s totally understandable if you want to save the moment for your wedding.  Seeing your soon-to-be forever companion before the wedding used to be considered bad luck.  That’s a tradition that goes back to the days of arranged marriages and weddings being used as a way for families to devise business deals.  Families didn’t want either the bride or the groom to change their minds before the ceremony, so they were forced to wait to see their betrothed until the big walk down the aisle.

Nowadays, seeing your husband or wife before the wedding is no longer considered bad luck.  If you choose to have a first look before the ceremony, you can get all of your wedding party pics and close family photos taken earlier in the day, saving the big extended family portraits for directly after the wedding.  This allows you to get from the ceremony to the reception faster, keeping your guests from getting bored during an overly-extended cocktail hour. Just something to keep in mind when building your wedding day timeline.

TOASTS, CAKE CUTTINGS, AND BOUQUET TOSSES, OH MY!

When it comes to the events that normally take place during your reception, your DJ will probably spearhead everything.  Look for them to keep the party moving and on schedule.  A good DJ will communicate with the photographer and videographer when big events are about to happen to make sure everyone is prepared.  In some cases, it helps to have all of your big events to happen back to back.  For example, going from the cake cutting directly into the first dances and then into the bouquet toss prevents the newly wedded couple from getting sidetracked by chitchatting guests.  It also helps to keep everyone at the reception engaged by trimming the amount of dead time in between events.

GOLDEN HOUR

Usually 1-2 hours before sunset, the sun creates a warm soft glow to that turns average boring wedding photos and video into beautiful works of art.  The golden hour will probably provide you with your favorite images from the entire day. It’s super important to build in at least 10 to 15 minutes of time during your reception for you to step out alone with your photographer and videographer to get some golden hour shots.  I promise, you won’t regret it.  To calculate when the golden hour will take place on your wedding day, visit www.Golden-Hour.com.

THE GRAND EXIT

If you plan to finish up your night with a grandiose finale like a sparkler exit, this will impact the time your vendors begin filming.  Let’s say you only have your photographer and videographer for 8 hours and you really want them to capture your sparkler exit at 10:00 p.m.  Without purchasing extra hours of coverage, they’ll have to start their day at 2 p.m.  This can be a problem if you want them to get images of you getting ready in your dress at 1 p.m. or if you begin to run behind schedule and you don’t get to your big finale until after their contracted time runs out.  If you want the big exit captured, but you’re having trouble working it into the schedule, you can always plan to fake it out earlier in the evening.  This option is nice because you get more of your guests to participate without asking everyone to stay later into the night.

To help you out, here is a sample wedding day timeline based off a recent event that we filmed.

TIMELINE EXAMPLE
2:00pm Photograher and Videographer Arrive at Venue
2:30pm Bride Puts on Dress
3:00pm DJ + Photo Booth Arrive at Venue
3:15pm First Look with Bride and Groom
3:30pm Bridal Party Pictures
5:00pm Ceremony Start Time
5:30pm Cocktail Hour – Extended Family Photos
6:00pm Caterer Arrives at Venue
6:45pm Guests Begin Seating
7:00pm Reception to Begin with Grand Entrance
7:10pm Blessing of the Meal by The Groom’s Father
7:15pm Dinner Start Time
7:50pm Cake Cutting
8:00pm Toasts
8:20pm First Dances (Bride+Groom, Bride+Dad, Groom+Mom)
8:35pm Dollar Dance
8:50pm Bouquet + Garter Toss
10:00pm Sparkler Exit