bridesmaids react to seeing bride in her dress for the first time

Creating a Stress Free Timeline for Your Wedding Day!

Planning a wedding means thinking about 300 things you haven't exactly taken a class on. You have to find a venue, decide who's invited, think about who you'll ask to be in your wedding party (and thanks to social media, HOW will you ask them?!?), photographers, food, music, flowers... the list goes on and on.

 

It's a daunting task for sure. One of the things that doesn't have to be daunting is the timeline of the day. It's something we always help couples figure out. Over the years we've learned that the better the timeline, the more relaxing the wedding day is for YOU. And luckily for us, the more relaxing the day is for you, the better the photos are!

 

The first thing we always tell couples is that it's much better to have a little extra time padded around the important parts of the day than less. That way, if something is running late, it doesn't throw the whole day off and you can relax knowing you don't have to rush!

 

Timelines are different for every wedding, and yours will depend on things like guest count, if you choose to do a first look, when the sun sets, and how late you have the venue reserved. We have photographed over 250 weddings and planned out timelines for 248 of those so we've got it down to a science.

"Not only did they relieve a lot of wedding stress with their amazing, organized timelines, but they truly know how to capture the most beautiful meaningful moments in the wedding. "

-Charlotte & Matt

The Best Ceremony Start Times

 

We always begin the conversation around what time the ceremony is going to get started. It's a great starting point to building a timeline around. Some venues have set windows for ceremony start times while others allow you to decide.

 

Figuring out the best time for a ceremony means thinking about two things–when the sunset will happen, and when the venue says you can arrive on site. Every venue is going to be different, some give couples the whole weekend for their wedding, but most will have an allowed time of arrival and hard stop time.

 

If you're planning an outdoor ceremony (something we typically strongly encourage!), the best light of the day is 1-2 hours before the sun sets. If the sun sets at 7:30, planning a 5:30 ceremony would make sense. If you're planning a summer wedding though, this gets tricky. During New England summers, sometimes the sun doesn't set until 8:45. Which would leave zero room for dancing if you started the ceremony at 6:45. And a wedding with no dancing is, well, never a good idea.

 

So, sometimes you have to plan for a ceremony that begins four hours before the sun sets. And that's okay. We will just try to find some time to take you outside during that beautiful light for some portraits if we can!

 

 

Deciding on a First Look

The decision to have a “first look” with your partner before the wedding ceremony is totally up to you. We typically recommend doing the first look and getting your portraits (and the wedding party) done before the ceremony because it seems to really alleviate stress on the wedding day. Doing these portraits earlier in the day means that after you prance down the aisle as happily married folk, you can get right to enjoying those amazing appetizers you did so much research on. Not to mention enjoying a cocktail if that’s your thing, and hugging guests who are over the moon happy for you.

How long do different parts of
the wedding day take for photography?
•Getting ready photos: 1-2 hours


•Wedding party photos: 20-30 minutes


•Photos of the couple: 40-60 minutes


•Posed family portraits: 15-25 minutes


•Wedding ceremony: 20-30 minutes


•Cocktail hour: 30-45 minutes


•Reception: 3-4 hours
*Obviously, these times will vary slightly based on the number of wedding guests and the size of your wedding party, etc. This just represents the average amount of time we typically spend on each of these parts of the wedding day.

Examples of Stress Free Wedding Timelines

Here are some examples of common wedding day timelines that we have helped our couples create. One thing that you’ll notice throughout this timeline is that we’ve added a little extra time around each portion of the day which really ensures a relaxing wedding day for our couples! You’ll also see that for each of these timelines, we (the photographers) arrive one hour before you want us to begin taking pictures. This is considered a “free hour” in your package and helps us be much more efficient with your time on the wedding day in terms of portrait locations, identifying ceremony light, etc.

8 Hour Timeline Examples

1:30 - Photographer arrives one hour early to scout picture locations

2:30 - First look

2:35 - Wedding party photos

3:00 - Photos of just the couple

3:45 - Photos of couple wrap up, downtime before guests begin arriving

4:30 - Ceremony

5:00 - Ceremony wraps up > Cocktail hour begins

5:15 - Family portraits

5:30 - Family and couple join cocktail hour

6:00 - Cocktail hour wraps up

6:15 - First dance

6:20 - Dinner service begins

7:00 - Speeches

7:45 - Dinner wraps up

8:00 - Parent dances

8:05 - General dancing begins

8:30 - SUNSET (pop outside from 8:20 - 8:25 for a few sunset portraits of couple)

9:30 - Photographer heads home to process your wedding photos!

1:00 – Photographer arrives one hour early to scout picture locations

2:00 – Getting ready photos begin

4:00 – Ceremony

4:30 – Ceremony wraps up > Cocktail hour begins

4:45 – Family portraits

5:00 – Wedding party photos

5:25 – Photos of just the couple around property

5:45 – Cocktail hour wraps up

6:10 – First dance

6:15 – Dinner service begins

6:30 – SUNSET

7:00 – Speeches

7:30 – Dinner wraps up

7:45 – Parent dances

7:50 – General dancing

10:00 – Photographer heads home to process wedding photos!

What If We Don't Need 8 Hours?

The majority of our wedding packages include eight hours of coverage, however we also offer six hour packages as well. Often in these cases, couples are choosing between getting ready photos or dancing photos. Six hour packages also seem to work best when everything is in one location (getting ready, ceremony, reception). Below are some examples of wedding day timelines for a six hour photography package.

6 Hour Timeline Examples

1:30 - Photographer arrives one hour early to scout picture locations

2:30 - First look

2:35 - Wedding party photos

3:00 - Photos of just the couple

3:45 - Photos of couple wrap up, downtime before guests begin arriving

4:30 - Ceremony

5:00 - Ceremony wraps up > Cocktail hour begins

5:15 - Family portraits

5:30 - Family and couple join cocktail hour

6:00 - Cocktail hour wraps up

6:05 - First dance

6:10 - Dinner service begins

6:50 - Speeches

7:30 - Dinner wraps up

7:35 - Parent dances

7:40 - General dancing begins

8:30 - Photographer heads home to process wedding photos!

 

2:00 - Photographer arrives one hour early to scout picture locations

3:00 - Getting ready photos

4:30 - Ceremony

5:00 - Ceremony wraps up > Cocktail hour begins

5:15 - Family portraits

5:30 - Wedding party photos

5:55 - Photos of couple around property

6:30 - Guests move into dinner space

6:45 - First dance

6:50 - Dinner service begins

7:30 - Speeches

8:00 - Dinner wraps up

8:15 - Parent dances

8:20 - General dancing begins

9:00 - Photographer heads home to process wedding photos!

 

Final Thoughts on Wedding Day Timelines

A quality wedding timeline will not only help you feel more relaxed on your wedding day, it will also help us make the best pictures we possibly can!

 

Everyone's wedding day will be different. These sample timelines will hopefully give you a better idea of what the photography part of your wedding day would look like.

 

Are you planning a wedding and looking for a fun and relaxed wedding photographer to capture your day? Reach out to us and we can begin the process of creating a stress free timeline for your wedding!

 

Want to learn more?

We would love to hear from you! Please say hello via the contact form or feel free to send us an email at info@dreamlovephotography.com.

 

We love to travel for weddings and engagement sessions and offer a variety of photography packages to fit any event no matter how large or small.

 

Prefer to chat on the phone? Give us a call at 413-225-2810

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