5 Steps for Planning Your Wedding Day Timeline
your guide to a calm and stress-free wedding day
It’s true what they say, your wedding day flies by so quickly! Your best attempt at slowing down time is to stay present and give yourself room to breathe,
and you can do this by planning out a realistic timeline of your wedding day.
Every wedding day is different, but this guide will give you a good starting point. Follow the 5 steps below to plan out your wedding day.
1. Decide on your priorities
The way you structure your day really depends on what you want to prioritise. It’s a good idea to sit down together and chat about how you imagine your wedding day. What are the moments you’re really looking forward to? Once you decide what is most important to you both, you can make sure you give yourselves enough time to really enjoy those moments.
Whether that’s…
catching up with your guests
time just the two of you
glorious sunset photos
visiting a loved one
cuddling your doggo
epic speeches
tearing up the dance floor
Whatever it is, whatever moments and memories are going to be most important to you, be sure to give yourselves enough time to really soak it in and plan timings around that. After all, why not create your dream day, full of the things that matter to you.
2. Check the sunset time
As photographers we like to prioritise light, so we always factor in the sunset time. It’s super easy to check the sunset time on your date, simply Google “sunset time [wedding date] [wedding location]” and make note of the time. The last hour or so before sunset and the following 15 minutes after the sun has set is the ideal time to be taking photos of you and your wedding party, especially the portraits of the two of you. Sunlight is softest at this time and often the most flattering. This is also your best chance of getting beautiful golden hour photos.
3. Work backwards
Now, let’s work backwards from sunset, use the list below for a rough idea of how much time to factor in for each part of your day and use Google Maps to calculate the travel time between the various locations of where you will be getting ready, your ceremony and reception locations.
HOW MUCH TIME TO FACTOR IN FOR
Hair: 1 hour per person
Makeup: 1 hour per person
Touchups: 30 minutes
Pre-ceremony photos: 15-30 minutes
First Look: 45 minutes
Ceremony: 30-45 minutes
Family/Group photos: 30 minutes
Wedding party & couple photos (portraits): 1 hour
Reception: 3+ hours
In QLD, you would normally have your reception start after sunset, so you don’t need to work backwards for that part. Also, going back to step 1, you don’t have to prioritise portraits at sunset if it doesn’t fit into how you want to structure your day, but you can refer to the list above to give you an idea of how much time to allow for different parts of your day.
Bonus tip: When calculating travel times, give yourselves a few extra minutes for parking and getting in and out of cars, especially if you have a large wedding party or if parking may be tricky.
4. Breathing room
If you’re really hoping for a stress-free and calm day, it’s a great idea to work in a time buffer. For example, immediately after you walk down the aisle, your family and friends will most likely want to congratulate you, so it’s worth factoring in 15-30 minutes for hugs and mingling. You can add multiple time buffers throughout your day, just in case anything takes a little longer than expected, an extra 15 minutes here and there can really be the difference between worrying about time and being able to soak in the moment.
5. Relax
Our final tip is to relax, now you have a good plan, you’ve given it to all the necessary people (your suppliers, MC, wedding party, family), the only thing left to do is let the day unfold and try not to hold too tightly to timings. Inevitably some things might not quite go to plan, but usually it all works out if you’re focused on staying in the moment and soaking up this glorious day. If you’ve booked experienced suppliers they will be able to roll with whatever comes and work with whatever time is available.
To help you plan out your wedding day, we’ve created an easy Wedding Day Timeline Spreadsheet that you can access for free by simply joining our mailing list. Get our planning guides, helpful tips & exclusive offers sent straight to your inbox.
“THANK YOU for the fantastic template - I literally was so stuck and stressed on where to even start until it came through on the last newsletter!!”
We hope this guide and our Wedding Day Timeline helps you. Feel free to reach out if you need a hand with planning your wedding, we’re happy to help.
