Planning Your Wedding: Building your Timeline

I'm back with Part II of my Planning your Wedding to talk about Building your Timeline! This time, to chat about the timeline WITHOUT a first look! (You can read all about creating a timeline with a first look here!) 

I love helping my brides create a timeline that will flow with their special day, without causing extra stress or forgetting something really important! I always meet with my brides a few times before their wedding day and we build a timeline over the course of their engagement through to their wedding day! It is so important to me that my brides & grooms ENJOY their big day and don't feel stressed out or rushed at all! 

Like I mentioned in the last post, it is important to start planning your timeline by looking over the non-negotiable moments, such as when you are allowed to arrive at your venue, what time your ceremony is planned for, and what time you and all of your guests have to be out of the venue.  

Without doing a first look, I will typically try to get photos of the bride individually, her and her bridesmaids, and a few of the bride with her immediate family members- like siblings, and parents, etc.  I will also do this with the groom- anything that we can get before the ceremony, will help us save time! 

If we know these general guidelines, we write this out: 

1:00 Arrive at venue

4:00 Ceremony Begins

4:30 Ceremony Ends/ Cocktail Hour Begins

10:00 Send-off 

Then we add the remaining details! I always build in about 20-30 minutes for touch-ups, water, and so their early guests don't see them.  

2:00 Arrive at venue / Getting Ready Photos / Details, etc. 

4:00 Ceremony Begins

4:30 Extended Formal Photos

5:00 Entire Bridal Party Photos 

5:30 Bride & Groom Photos 

6:00 Reception Begins 

8:15 Bride & Groom Sunset Photos 

10:00 Send-off 

I'll be back with my Planning Your Wedding Series to talk about a Reception Time-Line, Formal Photos, Getting Ready Tips, etc!  Is there anything you would love to know about planning a wedding? 

Planning your Wedding: Creating an Effective Timeline

I'm so excited to start a new blogging series to help YOU in planning your own wedding.  As you can imagine, I've seen lots and lots of weddings- some have gone so effortlessly, and some have, well, not gone as smoothly. One of the many hats I wear on any wedding day is time-keeper! I help brides know when they need to step in their dress, when the groom needs to be downstairs for the first look, what time the reception starts and photos need to be done.  

In my opinion, one of the most important things you really have to nail down (after your photographer, of course! ha) is a solid time-line.  This is something I am so happy to build for each of my brides- in thorough detail based on their specific wedding day, and I'm excited to share with you how you can create a time-line to help keep everyone on schedule! 

I start out by discussing with my bride what their wedding day will look like! Pretty simple! 

Some of the questions we go over are: 

-What time will the ceremony be?

-Are you going to be doing a first look, a first-look no peek, a first-look with your Dad?

-How many family photos are you planning on needing (there's a blog post on this coming!) 

-What time does the reception start?

-Are you doing a send-off? 

With those questions, I can start building an outline and plugging in the main details: (below is an example for a beginning time-line WITH a first look): 

     5:00 Ceremony Begins

     5:30 Ceremony Ends / Cocktail Hour Begins

              Extended Family Photos

     6:00 Reception Begins

     10:00 Send-off

With these details, I start adding in our additional information. I know that I want my brides and grooms to be 'in hiding' at least 30 minutes before a ceremony so all of their guests that arrive early don't see them. This couple wants to do a first look, so we are able to do the Bride & Groom photos, the bridal party photos, and the immediate family photos before the Ceremony even begins!  

So just by getting those questions answered, I am able to fill out this 8 hour time-line of the wedding day! 

2:00 Photographers arrive- shoot detail photos, Bride & Groom getting ready/dressed

2:45 Bride & Groom First Look 

3:30 Bridal Party Photos- Girls/Guys/Combined

4:00 Immediate Family Photos

4:30 Bride & Groom in Hiding

5:00 Ceremony Begins

5:30 Extended Family Photos

6:00 Reception Begins

8:15 Bride & Groom Sunset Photos

10:00 Send-off 

I'll be back with the Planning Your Wedding Series to go over topics about the Reception Time-Line, creating quick & painless Family Formal Photos, Getting Ready, etc.  I would LOVE to hear your input if there's anything else you would like to see in this series! Planning a wedding can be SO overwhelming- but it doesn't have to be!  Keep in mind, when hiring me as your wedding day photographer, I help you with this process every step of the way!