Your Ultimate Guide To Craft Your Wedding Day Timeline – Top Tips for Keeping you Organised and Your Day on Schedule (PART ONE)

It’s time. It’s time to plan out just how epic your wedding day timeline is going to be. Let’s unwind your wedding planning imagination by asking a few questions. Who’s going to be part of your special day? What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day? What are three things you couldn’t be without on your wedding day?

Hopefully you’re still with me and not quite off in wedding dream land just yet. You’ll probably find some wedding moments that popped into mind: the fleeting moments – the joyous look on your father’s face as he sees you in your wedding dress for the first time, the emotions that surface as you walk down the aisle, the first kiss, and the magic of your first dance.

So these all happen naturally, right? It may seem like these once-in-a lifetime moments just happen naturally at some point in the day, but the truth is that a bit of planning is required to ensure that everything falls into place seamlessly.

With so many moving parts involved in your wedding, it’s important to carefully consider each detail. A well planned wedding day timeline will help you stay organised and ensure that everything runs smoothly from the moment you start to get ready until the end of the night. But the effort put into planning absolutely pays off, making it all worthwhile. 

Let’s start crafting your wedding day timeline. Carry on to make sure no essential detail is left out.

So it’s time to dive in to – Your Ultimate Guide To Craft Your Wedding Day Timeline

1. Plan Your Morning

It’s your wedding morning. Time to get glammed up and wedding ready. It’s time to get to grips with the start of your wedding timeline. Yes, it might not have all the glitz at the beginning, but there’s lots of prep to get done, and it’s quite often one of the busiest parts of your wedding day. 

Don’t do this. I see it far too often, and it is later regretted. There are too many brides to be, and even mothers of the bride skip breakfast. Having something light isn’t going to impede you from fitting into your wedding dress, it’ll ensure you have lots of energy for the parts of your day to come, which means you can just focus on the joyous moments to come rather than be distracted feeling light-headed or just hangry. We all know someone who gets hangry before they’ve eaten. Have you seen the Snickers ads? This just reminds me of this.

Most hairstylists will ask that you wash your hair the night before so that it’s clean, dry, and ready to be styled, so this will save you some time. Make sure that you’re showered before you get to your preparation location, the last thing you need is everyone running late because there’s a queue for the bathroom. 

If you plan on hiring a professional to take care of your hair and makeup for your wedding, they’ll typically tell you the best start time for their services. However, if you’ve decided to do it yourself or ask a friend to help, you need to factor in enough time to ensure everyone looks their best before you head out. 

Typically, the bride will need approximately 45 minutes to an hour for hair styling and then the same for makeup application. Bridesmaids, on the other hand, usually need less-time, averaging around 30-45 minutes each. Don’t forget about the mother of the bride too, who may also require some attention. 

If your bridal party includes any children, it can be hugely helpful to plan their day out on your timeline too. With so much going on around them and lots of strangers coming and going, it can be difficult for any smaller children on the big day. Little things, like giving them some special responsibilities to practice in the morning, can keep them occupied and make them feel important too.

Biggest Tip – Allow some buffer time; aim to be ready 30 – 60 minutes before your ceremony

2. The Ceremony

All wedding ceremonies are unique, but there are a few factors in all of them that will add time to your day. Whoever is performing your ceremony, whether it’s a religious service or civil ceremony, will let you know how long it’s expected to last, so it will help you to work out your wedding timeline for the rest of the day.

The length of your ceremony will largely depend on the type of ceremony you choose. Religious ceremonies are often longer, allowing for hymns, prayers, and sometimes even a brief sermon. These usually range from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the number of hymns and readings you decide on. Civil ceremonies are usually shorter, lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to half an hour. Again, these can be longer depending on the number of readings you decide on having.

Timings to consider for this part of the day include photographs of you arriving and before you head into the ceremony, so you are able to ensure your photographer is ahead of you. You’re also probably going to want to have some more photographs after the ceremony too, particularly if you are planning on any confetti shots.

A great tip for this part of the day is to consider transport from your ceremony to your reception. If you are having it all in one place, its super simple, but if you are hosting your reception elsewhere, it can be a little more complicated. Guests can hang around and chat in between making it over to your reception, they’ll want to congratulate you and mingle amongst themselves too. Plan to do the confetti shot and get in your car as soon as possible once the ceremony itself is over – that will encourage the rest of your guests to follow on. 

If you are putting on any transport for guests, you can also control the timing a little easier, but if not, consider how easy your guests can find parking. 

3. Drinks Reception and Photos

This is probably the most standard section of your wedding timeline, most weddings will take between an hour and an hour and a half for the drinks reception, which is also the time you’ll be having your group photos and your own photos done.

Big Tip – Plan to do your couple photoshoot close to sunset, as this golden sunshine makes for epic portraits. You can have several sessions of 15 minutes rather than one long one.

If you can, this is a lovely time for you and your new spouse to take a moment together. No photographs, no well-wishers just a nice quiet moment together to reflect on being married. It’s a special moment and space for yourselves before going back into the happy bustle of your celebrations!

One of the best tips I can give is to make use of your bridesmaids and groomsmen in this part, or a designated photo wrangler. The photo wranglers job is to make sure they know what groups of people are up next and have them ready to go. One thing that slows down the photos is not having the right people in the right place at the right time. So make use of your wedding party. This is by far one of the best ways to keep your day in check and your wedding timeline on track! 

Usually, providing some nibbles or canapés at this part of the day keeps your guests where you need them to be too! 

That’s a wrap on Part One Your Ultimate Guide To Craft Your Wedding Day Timeline. Keep on the lookout for Part two coming very soon. I’ll be covering other key parts of the day and sharing my inside knowledge on keeping your wedding day timeline organised and on track.

Thank you for readingYour Ultimate Guide To Craft Your Wedding Day Timeline – Top Tips for Keeping you Organised and Your Day on Schedule (PART ONE)