3 Tips for Planning Your Wedding Day Timeline
Where do you begin when it comes to your wedding day timeline? It’s tough to know where to start. You probably prefer to follow your own wants but have no reference point. Ok maybe the few, if any, weddings you’ve attended yourself as a guest.
These three steps will help you to determine the flow you want to have on your wedding day and how to achieve it.
Step 1
Sometimes thinking of when everything should start can be hard. It’s difficult because you may not know how long things will be, what time makes the most sense, what your vendors prefer, and more! My tip for this is to work either backwards or start with one key important thing. For example, If you know you want a later dinner use your ideal dinner time as a starting point. If you know your event space has to be shut down by 1 am start then and work backwards, If your caterers must be done dessert by 8:00 pm start there and work backwards. I highly recommended slotting in time for sunset photos, even if it’s just 15 minutes, so you could also start with the time sunset is at on your wedding day!
This will help tremendously. It’s what I’ve done for my wedding planning because I knew I wanted photos with my spouse at sunset. I googled sunset time on our date and roughly slotted that in and worked backwards from there!
Step 2
Consider your priorities. I speak a lot about setting your priorities early on. I think it’s really important to set out clear goals and clear must-haves right from the beginning. Doing this will make those tough decisions easier as you go along with planning.
When considering your priorities ‘timeline-wise’, I would recommend thinking of how it plays into your photo coverage. Make sure those must-have/top importance items are on the same chunk of time that your photographer will be there. For example, if your photographer is there for 6 hours and one of your ‘must-haves’ is cake cutting, which will be around 9/10 pm, that means your photographer will have to start at 3/4 pm. Then compare that start time with your getting ready/first look/ceremony times. Make sure it all lines up, even if it’s rough at first.
You can do this with as many vendors as needed. You can do it with hair/make-up, photographer, videographer, officiant, catering/service, dj, etc.
Step 3
If you’re still absolutely in the dark I would recommend picking 3 things you want to happen on your day. Start by visualizing your wedding day from start to finish and think of the few things that you thought of that you really value.
For most people, this would be something like a father-daughter reveal, dinner start time and length of a dance party. Once you have your three, start with the one that will need the firmest time. Then work your way through the rest. Keeping in mind that you can switch up the order of things, and do things when you want and how your want.
Knowing the approximate start time and length of your three important ‘day of’ events will give your vendors enough guidance to fill in the rest.
In summation, remember to be true to yourself, and know that tradition doesn’t have to be present at your wedding if it’s not what you want! Also know and trust that your vendors will help you through this process, lean on them and ask questions if you’re unsure. Tell them your vision and ask for their professional opinion. They’ve done this so many times and usually have a good grasp on what’s typical, what works and what doesn’t work. They’ll also be able to explain why.
Trust in your team, trust in yourself and have fun!