Planning Your Wedding Timeline

Let me start by saying: there is no right way to plan your wedding timeline. Seriously. You could talk to 100 photographers, wedding planners and wedding officials and be told three thousand different things. These are my favorite things to keep in mind when you’re planning your wedding day timeline.

Typical Wedding Timeline Events:

– Hair & Makeup
– Bride Getting Ready
– Groom Getting Ready
– Pre Ceremony Activities
– First Look
– Bride & Groom Portraits
– Bridal Party Portraits
– Family Portraits
– Ceremony
– Just Married Portraits (My FAVORITES!)
– Reception & Events
– The Exit

Hair & Makeup

The hair and makeup seems to always take the longest. Some people don’t particularly care for these shots. But if you’re looking for something like the “mirror shot” of you putting on your makeup, or you want to capture the goofy antics of your bridal party, be sure to set aside time for these. Some brides like to have images of just them getting their hair and makeup done, others want images of everyone. Depending on the length and style of hair, plan for 45 minutes to an hour for each gal to get her hair done. Makeup takes between 30 and 45 minutes as well. If you’re able to have multiple hairstylists and make up artists (or the gals are doing their own makeup) this time frame can be cut by quite a bit. Be sure to speak with your stylist and/or MUA prior to your wedding so that you’ll have a great idea of how much time you’ll need. Remember: you can always stage those hair and makeup prep shots later in the day.

The Bridal Prep

Bridal prep generally depends on how elaborate your wedding day outfit is. Does your dress have 3 dozen buttons down the back? You might want a few extra minutes (or sets of hands) to help button that lineup. Wearing strappy heels or going barefoot? A full set of glitzy jewelry or just simple studs. All of this goes into the Bridal prep portion. You’re photographer will want to capture images of you putting on your dress, your accessories, tons of details and a few portraits of you and your girls laughing and having a good time. I generally suggest giving 45 minutes to an hour for Bridal Prep images.

The Groom Prep

Groom prep is much simpler than Bridal prep. You’ll want detail images (cufflinks, special accessories, etc) and images of the guys having a good time. The benefit to Grooms is that they don’t typically need a huge amount of time to get their suits on, and 20-30 minutes is generally enough to photograph the Grooms entire routine and still leave time for fun shots. While this isn’t essential to your wedding timeline (grooms shots can be staged if they don’t want full prep shots) it’s a fun way to include your groom on a day mostly centered around the bride.

Pre-Ceremony Activities

Sometimes, Brides & Grooms like to have downtime before their wedding. Maybe they’re playing board games, dancing it out to a custom playlist or having a field day with lawn games. These are special activities that you may want to incorporate into your wedding day. If you’re choosing to do them, be sure to set aside an appropriate amount of time in your wedding timeline and still have time to hide the Bride before the ceremony.

The First Look

Not everyone wants a first look, but it can be a wonderful exclusive moment between the Bride and Groom before the ceremony. Generally it takes between 15 and 30 minutes (but you can use more or less, whatever you’re comfortable with) from start to finish. Be sure to let your photographer know ahead of time if this is something that you want. Planning this into your wedding timeline will help cut down on the amount of portrait time you’ll need after your ceremony.

Bride & Groom Portraits

The B/G portraits are big ones. You definitely want to make sure you’ve scheduled these in your wedding timeline, whether it’s before or after your ceremony. These are the images that the majority of couples showcase on the walls of their new home. I suggest setting aside a minimum 20 minutes for Bride & Groom portraits, separate from the rest of the formal portraits. You can skip these before the ceremony if you’re opting for Just Married portraits in your wedding timeline.

The Bridal Party & Family Portraits

These are the fun ones to orchestrate. You’ll want images of the Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and the entire wedding party. Sometimes these portraits can take a bit to finish… especially if your groomsmen are screwing around like guys do best. 😉 Generally they take 45-90 minutes, but these can be powered out in 30 if you have an expert “wrangler” on hand. I suggest selecting a friend or family member who knows everyone and giving them a list of the special pairings you want done. This way they can wrangle the group while the photographer is finishing your portraits.

The Ceremony

You’ll know best exactly how long your ceremony takes. I’ve seen ceremonies as short as 10 minutes and as long as 45 minutes. Be sure to provide a 5-10 minute buffer because 90% of the time, the ceremony starts late. It has to be good luck or something, I’ve never figured it out.

Just Married Portraits

These are my FAVORITE images to shoot. After you & your groom have walked back down the aisle, I highly suggest taking 10-20 minutes with your photographer to bask in the glow of your new marriage. During this time, I typically tell brides that “I’m a chair” and don’t exist. I will walk with you away from the crowd and allow you two to cuddle, snuggle and nuzzle one another as much as you’d like. Meanwhile, I’ll photograph from a short distance away, and you get to enjoy a few minutes of solitude with your beloved.

Reception & Events

Depending on the wedding, receptions tend to run about 2-4 hours with a general schedule like this: Guests enter reception and mingle, Bride & Groom Entry, Mingle & Drink, Dinner, First Dance, Mother & Son/Father & Daughter dances, Garter Toss, Bouquet Toss, Special Dances, Cake cutting, Mingle, Mingle, Mingle, finally B&G Last Dance. Obviously things really depend on the couple here and what they wish to do. Some wish to dance first, some wish to go straight to dinner. Some even eat dessert first. The reception is also a wonderful time to get a huge group shot as well. If your photographer has a timer or remote, they can even join this shot. 😉

The Exit

This is an important piece to a lot of Brides, but with more and more DIY weddings popping up, it gets lost in the mix. Staging the Exit can be a good option if this is important to you. Otherwise, it’s totally optional and you can skip it completely.

Remember that planning your wedding events is completely up to you and unique to every wedding. Nothing says you have to do them in this order, or that you have to do them at all. Planning your wedding timeline should be a fun and exciting time in your wedding planning process.