Since Monday Musings was pushed back to Tuesday this week, Thursday’s post also got postponed a day. What can I say – it’s birthday week :)

Today we are talking about a topic that every bride has to plan for her wedding day, but often doesn’t know where to start. I love to work with my brides to come up with an ideal timeline that will help the day go smoothly, make everything will happen the way she’s been dreaming, and of course, get time for all the images she wants! Often my brides also have wedding planners and so they will come up with a schedule and we work together to make sure all vendors have the time for what the need.

But if you are planning it yourself or don’t even know where to begin, I want to lay out some timeline tips for you today (also I’m giving away a freebie at the end of this post!).

Normally where I start for my brides is with sunset and work backwards. There are several great tools online to find the sunset time for your day, and since for most of your outdoor pictures you’ll want the best light, I like to plan around it. Alternately, if the ceremony time is already set, the we can start there and work our way backward. But when you are looking at your day here are some general times you should leave for each event of the day.

Getting Ready and Bridal Details: 1.5 hours

I always like to leave more time than necessary for the getting ready portion of the day. It is the one place that tends to run late or take longer than you think it will. I also am taking this portion of the day to shoot all your bridal details. So we’ll get some great shots of you and your girls plus all the other details that tell the story of your day! After your makeup and hair are done and the details are shot it’s time for you to get in your dress! We ask that your mom and girls are already in their dresses at this point so everyone looks great as they help you into yours :) We’ll also get some pictures of you putting on your shoes and jewelry and take a few minutes to get a fantastic bridal portrait!

 

First Look and Portraits: 30-40 minutes.

I love shooting first looks and Scott and I opted to have one on our wedding day! It’s a great time to spend a few minutes together on your wedding day and we have time to get some fabulous portraits. However, if you don’t want to see each other before hand that is fine! Just let me know and we can come up with a timeline that has all your portraits after the ceremony :) Just remember LIGHT determines where we shoot so it can affect where we are able to do portraits but we’ll come up with some perfect locations on your wedding day!

 

Bridal Party Portraits: 30-40 minutes.

As we finish up your romantic portraits the bridal party can start making their way to us. I will shoot some group shots here as well as some individuals with you and your girls and him and his guys. One detail to remember is make sure they guys have their boutonnieres on before they head to portrait time :) Then we will send you into hiding so none of the guests see you as they begin to arrive. For this reason I like to have portraits done 1 hour before the ceremony start time.

 

Ceremony and Reception Details: 30 minutes

(if they are at the same venue!) After you are hidden away, Scott and I will go get some shots of the ceremony space before any guests arrive in order to see if fully decorated and untouched. Same with the reception space if it is in the same venue. This is how we get great centerpiece, table shots, favors, and cake before any guests are even in the room. If your reception is at a different venue, then we recommend having cocktail hour in a different space and leaving the doors shut until we arrive so we can spend a quick 5-10 minutes getting these shots before the tables and chairs are covered with coats and purses :)

 

Ceremony: 20-30 minutes.

It’s time to get married! This is the reason we are all here and it will go by too quickly so enjoy it and try and soak it all in. If your ceremony is longer than 30 minutes (for example a Catholic Mass – we can adjust the timeline for that)!

 

 

Family Formals: 30 minutes.

I prefer to do all the family formals AFTER the ceremony. This way all the family members are present and we don’t have to wait on anyone to arrive or finish getting ready. We need about 30 minutes to get all of these and will go over the different pairings you want so we can make sure you have a formal portrait with everyone you want. I recommend doing these outside as well! It will resemble a more natural family portrait and will be gorgeous, especially if the ceremony space is dark.

 

Extra Portrait Time: 15 minutes or as much as you’ll give me!

After family portraits we LOVE to have a few extra minutes to grab some more bride and groom “just married” portraits. This normally happens during the golden hour of the day with the most gorgeous light and in my mind the more portraits the better :) Then we can head over to your reception!

 

Reception: 3-4 hours.

Let the party begin. At this point it is up to you and your wedding planner how you want things to run. We are just there to shoot things as they happen. But some events to plan are:

• Dinner Service
• First Dance
• Father/Daughter and Mother/Son Dances
• Cake Cutting
• Toasts
• Bouquet/Garter Toss

How and what you do are pretty flexible though I’m happy to make recommendations or talk you through it. And also remember – you don’t HAVE to do any of these things. At our wedding we did toasts and the rehearsal dinner and then only my dad said a few words at the wedding. We also didn’t do a bouquet or garter toss! It’s your wedding and so it’s up to you how you want to do things :)

A few notes about your exit:

We offer 8 hours of coverage in our Wedding Experience and that tends to cover all of the main events of the reception and about an hour of dancing. So if your receptions is planned to go longer than that you have a few options! You can of course add on extra coverage or we can do a faux exit and then you can head back to dancing the night away! But we’ve found about an hour of open dancing coverage is plenty because after that the pictures start to be more un-appealing (think multiple drinks and lots of sweating! lol). But you’ll still have plenty of dancing photos to tell the story of your day! Either way we are happy to work with you so just let us know!

And now for your freebie!

I have a PDF version of all the information above for you to use for your wedding :) Just click the link below and download it using the icon in the top right corner of the page!

 

Sample Timeline