Wedding Day Timeline Planning

Were you recently engaged? Trying to plan your wedding day timeline? Unsure how to fit in all the activities of your wedding day? Today I’m turning my blog over to my friend, Minneapolis wedding coordinator Josey Stafford. Josey is owner and lead planner of Sixpence Events, and she wanted to share advice for planning and creating your wedding day timeline. Take it away Josey and Sixpence Events!

First Things First

You’ve decided that you want to have your wedding ceremony at 4P (or maybe it’s 5P) and now you need to beef out the rest of the day. Not just because you like puzzles, but because your other vendors are wondering when they should arrive and your mom has asked you like a trillion times, ‘When are family photos going to be? When do I get my hair done? When should Aunt Sharon show up with the homemade kransekake?’

Don’t feel overwhelmed, I’m going to show you how to create a wedding day timeline.

Collecting Key Information

In order to get a grand head start, sign up for Aisle Planner. It’s free and they have a timeline template with the essential elements of your day. If you’re sick of giving out your email or unsure of if you want to abandon your Kate Spade planner and your printables – check out this Aisle Planner video.

Plan your wedding day timeline by collecting key information and working backwards.

Key information includes:
~ Venue(s) access hours: when you can get in and when you have to be out
~ Last call for liquor and all guests out by times
~ Sunset
~ Cocktail hour length. If you have a room flip count on 60-90 minutes for cocktail hour, otherwise stick to 45-60 minutes.
~ Ceremony time
~ Transportation times
~ Where you are getting ready

Start at the End

Now let’s work backwards. If you have to be out, 100% all people and all cleaned up, by midnight, then your guests need to be out by 11P. This takes into account stragglers, you know, people who no matter how loudly you suggest for them to continue their party elsewhere, they still walk towards the exit like their shows are full of lead. Clean up should start around 10:45P and last call should be at 10:30P, because it’ll take about 15 minutes for guests to get 1 last free drink, and then your bar can start breaking down. If you have large installations or lots of decor, have either more people to help or more time to tear down.

10:30P Last Call
11P Guest Departure
11P-12A Clean Up
12A All Out

Now let’s think about your shuttle schedule. I always feel like around 9P guests start to want to leave. Not all your guests, just people with young children, older adults who don’t like dancing or loud music, and responsible friends who had previously been irresponsible with their libations and therefore need to call their night short. On the other hand, there will always be party hardy persons, so you don’t want people to think they can’t have a good time. If you only pay for a 2 hour shuttle time block, pick the 9:30P-11:30P time slot, that way no one gets left behind at the end of the night.

9:30P First Shuttle to Pick Up Guests (Arrives at 9:15P)
10:30P Last Call
11P Guest Departure
11:30P Last Shuttle Drop Off
11P-12A Clean Up
12A All Out

Ceremony Timing

Before we talk about your reception, let’s establish a ceremony length in your wedding day timeline. You’ve got multiple options, with multiple combinations. As a rule, non-religious ceremonies are shorter, as short as 8 minutes, as long as 30 minutes, that includes the processional and recessional (there and back). A church wedding is a minimum of 30 minutes, more like 45, unless you have a Catholic wedding, then for sure 60 minutes. Don’t let a Catholic wedding length frighten you, it isn’t torture, especially if it’s important to your family or fiance (I’m speaking to the non-confirmed parties here). Here are two examples:

4P Ceremony (60 minutes in length)
5-6P Cocktail hour
5:45P Guests Seated
5:55P Grand March
6P Dinner
7P First Dances
7:15-11P Dance Party

5P Ceremony (30 minutes in length)
5:30-6:30P Cocktail hour
6:15P Guests Seated
6:25P Grand March
6:30P Dinner
7:30P First Dances
7:45-11P Dance Party

Hiring professionals will help you make a wedding day timeline that can be molded to what you specifically need for your wedding, and by need I mean want. There are lots of variables like how long is your ceremony, do guests need to travel to your reception venue, do you have a room flip? Is there a place for guests to be comfortable during cocktail hour… I guess that’s getting off track.

Family Photo Timeline Planning

Now that you have your ceremony and reception timeline solidified, you need the other half of your day. If you have a large family, basically if you and your fiance both are not only children of only children parents, you’ll want 30 minutes for family photos with a buffer of 30 minutes. That buffer is time spent hidden, so your guests don’t see you before your ceremony.

Examples:

3P Family Photos
3:30P Hide before guests arrive
4P Ceremony

4P Family Photos
4:30P Hide before guests arrive
5P Ceremony

Wedding Party Photo Timeline Planning

Likely your photographer will want 1 hour for wedding party pictures and 1 hour for your first look and couples photos. Some examples:

1P First Look and Couples Photos
2P Wedding Party Pictures
3P Family Photos
3:30P Hide before guests arrive
4P Ceremony

2P First Look and Couples Photos
3P Wedding Party Pictures
4P Family Photos
4:30P Hide before guests arrive
5P Ceremony

Prep Time Photos

Even though it might sound ridiculous, if you are getting married and wearing a dress, you’ll want one hour for getting dressed and all the pictures that ensue. If you’re wearing a suit, you only need like one minute. Kidding. Two examples:

11:30P Everyone else dressed in dresses
12P Get dressed into dress
12P Everyone dressed in suits
12:30P Travel to first look
1P First Look and Couples Photos
2P Wedding Party Pictures
3P Family Photos
3:30P Hide before guests arrive
4P Ceremony

12:30P Everyone else dressed in dresses
1P Get dressed into dress
1P Everyone dressed in suits
1:30P Travel to first look
2P First Look and Couples Photos
3P Wedding Party Pictures
4P Family Photos
4:30P Hide before guests arrive
5P Ceremony

Notice that even though getting dressed into a suit takes less time and is traditionally less photographed, I still gave you an entire hour to do so before first look. Giving suit persons a time like 12:20P is weird and confusing and unnecessary. While we want your day to have a grand timeline, this isn’t air traffic control. Some people will be ready early and be stuck twirling their skirts, hands stuffed in pockets. That’s okay. Better early than not on time.

It is important that everyone else be dressed before you, the bride or groom, gets dressed. Otherwise your mom will hate the way she looks during that intimate moment of buttoning your dress, and your maids will look mismatched, some naked, some dressed to the nines.

Beginning of the Day

Now that you know what time you need to get dressed your hair and makeup artists can make a schedule for getting ready. Eat before you put you get dressed, at least twice (breakfast and lunch). Or if you and the guys are going to a diner before going to the venue, just make sure you show up at the right time.

Adding things like pictures of the groomsmen socks, or bridesmaids in their robes, will need to be worked into the timeline. Having a second shooter can help make those moments possible if you are getting ready separate from your fiance.

Wedding Day Timeline Wrap-up

I know we covered a LOT so comment below with questions or send me an email. Aisle Planner is the best tool for a major jump start on all the things I just laid out, because we didn’t even dive into vendor arrivals or venue access. Oy.

If all of this seems like a masters class and you are a freshman 101, check out Ready, Set, Wed! A free course I offer for you brides and grooms looking to start.

So there you have it, some great advice about planning your wedding day timeline from Minneapolis wedding coordinator Josey Stafford of Sixpence Events! Feel free to contact Josey with any questions, or if you’d like to talk to her about working together for your big day. Or feel free to contact me as a Minneapolis wedding photographer if you’d like to discuss my thoughts too!

Looking for more wedding planning advice? Check out my other wedding planner guest blog posts:
Top 5 Wedding Planning Mistakes from Maddie Huntwork of Ask for the Moon Events
Top 10 Tips for Barn Weddings from Kellie Heinen of Rustic Elegance

And also an article by me:
Hiring a Professional Wedding Planner