Best Timeline for your wedding day!
Working out the timings for your wedding can be stressful and confusing. As a guest to a wedding it may not have been something your necessary paid much attention to in the past and now it’s your turn you could be left worrying about how much time to assign to each part of the day.
Fear not! Below are my tips, considerations and examples of timings, as a photographer but also as a 2022 Bride who’s wedding went very smoothly.
The problem with this part of the wedding planning process is that weddings are very unique, so although you can look at example time lines and timings, you need to work out what times are best for you.
Things to consider:
How long do you want your wedding day to be? Think about how much time you want for each part of the day; are there somethings you want longer for? Like having enough time for a good boogie in the evening, or lots of time in the morning for a relaxing build up to the wedding. Make sure you think about how you want to spend you day whilst planning out your timings.
How long does hair, make-up and getting yourself and the wedding party ready take?
This takes a surprisingly long amount of time and if you have people getting their hair and makeup done the more people you have the longer this part of the day will take. I had 4 of us and it took 4 hours! Which meant getting up at 5am!
If that thought fills you with dread you could either, have a later service, or you can reduce the work load, like having people do their own hair/makeup.
My best advise would be to speak to your Hair dresser and Make-up artist, they will advise of how long they will need on you and the total of all the people, and any requirement like hair must be dry before work starts ect.
Your ceremony.
Realistically this is one of the only things where your timing is concreate as you would have had to book your registrar/ celebrant or church for that time and it may not be possible to change this at a later date.
The length of your ceremony will depend on the type of service you have:
Civil ceremonies last roughly 20-30 mins.
Church ceremonies are roughly 40-60 mins depending on how many reading/hymns you have.
How long should your drinks reception last?
A drinks reception is your chance to greet your guests, freshen up after the ceremony if you need to and to take those all important posed photos. So how long should you allow for all this?
Well, it’s a bit like how longs a piece of sting because it’s all down to how long you want it to last and what you want out of it. Do you just want to be stood there doing endless group photos, or do want to have a drink with your friends? You may also want some of this time to have a quiet moment just the two of you- remember you just got Married!
With all that in mind remember- if you don’t want to be spending all your time taking photos keep your group list small and I would allocate 2 hours to your drink’s reception. That’s time for group shots and couple shots and still leaves time to mingle with your guests!
As we’re talking about photos, my other tip would be to leave pockets of extra time for further photos, this is in case it rains during your dinks reception or for whatever reason something overruns. I’d leave this pocket after the speeches, or around golden hour for some lovely couple shots.
How long do speeches take at a wedding?
I personally prefer speeches post meal- Means you guests aren’t waiting for food, the food won’t go cold if someone decides their speech is an opportunity to practise their stand-up and it feels like a nice way to bring the energy back up ready for the evening party.
A speech really shouldn’t be long than 15 mins, after that you really start to loose people anyway. So, allow for 20 mins per person and you’ll be safe and gain a bit of extra time for chatting, freshening up and extra photos if needed before the first dance and cake cutting.
On top of where you and you guests need to be for the timeline if you don’t have a wedding planner or a venue that’s doing a large amount of the organising you may have to keep a track of when various suppliers are popping in and out of the day eg; florist delivering bouquets in the morning and then setting up the table lowers at the venue, DJ setting up after the meal but before the first dance, when the cake will get dropped of ect.
