Wedding day timeline
The ideal wedding day timeline from a photography perspective
Something to think about when you’re planning for your big day is the wedding day timeline. If your wedding venue has an on site coordinator, this is something that you will discuss during the planning process and then finalise and confirm with them around 2-3 months before the wedding. I know this isn’t the most exciting aspect of the wedding day, but this is the one thing that can make or break your photography!
As a photographer, it is important that the wedding day timeline allows for enough time for all the photos that you will be wanting as a couple, particularly during the drinks reception as this is where a huge portion of the wedding photos will take place. Confetti photos, group photos, candid photos of guests chatting and congratulating the bride and groom, photos of the wedding venue all set up for your wedding breakfast and detail shots of the decor etc, plus the beautiful couple portraits with the bride and groom. I can’t stress enough, the significance of allowing a good portion of time for this and I recommend 2 hours to cover all of those photos.
Below I have written out a sample wedding day timeline that will outline an ideal wedding day working off of a 1pm ceremony time frame and assuming that the bride is either getting ready at the venue or very nearby. Some couples may choose to do a ‘first look’, which will hugely benefit your wedding timeline and give you more time for couple portraits. I’d particularly encourage having a ‘first look’ if you are having a winter wedding, where the daylight is sparse during the winter months, meaning that it may already be getting dark when you have come out of your ceremony; especially if you have a later ceremony time! Remember that all wedding days are different though, and your timeline may differ from the sample timeline below, due to travel times and unique situations.
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Bridebook is a super helpful tool that I’d recommend brides use to aid with the process of wedding planning as organising and planning for your big day is a huge task that can be pretty overwhelming! Bridebook Can help keep you on track throughout this process.
Here is a blog post I wrote last year on 5 tips for a stress free wedding which is also worth a read.
