Taming Terrifying Timelines
If I were asked how many different ways are there to organise your wedding day I’d be tempted to make like Cady cira Mean Girls (2004) and state that “the limit does not exist.” Unfortunately, that’s also wildly unhelpful advice for an advice blog and I can at least give you a few pointers and suggestions to help you on your way.
To help us, we’re going to work off a hypothetical example where you’re having a 4 pm ceremony and you’ve made the fantastic choice to get ready together, naturally, things can change as need be. There’s a heap of assumptions in this timeline that may look different to what your day looks like - but hopefully it’s a helpful starter.
The morning
First things first. Put in your timeline a proper breakfast.
9:00 am: “Useful person” goes to “awesome cafe” to pick up breakfast and coffee.
It’s the most important meal of the most important day, therefore, potentially the most important meal ever? Also - don’t forget to get some music playing to start setting the vibes of the day.
A large part of the morning prep depends on the hair and makeup situation. Are many people getting it? How many makeup artists will there be? How complex? The best advice here is to talk to your makeup artist (if you have one) and get an estimate on time per person. Build in a healthy buffer here, this can often go overtime due to unforeseen circumstances and cause more stress than needed. For our example, let’s assume 4 people are getting HMU done at one hour per person.
10:00 am: Person 1 HMU (person 1 should of course be the least likely to be late, guests of honour aka you and your lover go last to be fresher for longer.)
11:00 am: Person 2: HMU
12:00 pm: Person 3: HMU (if you’re both getting HMU - this will be one of you!)
1:00 pm Person 4: HMU
2:00 pm: Hair and makeup done!
2:00 pm: Photographer arrives! You should aim to be 90% ready by this point (that doesn’t mean about to hop into the shower. Yes, it’s happened)
2:00 - 2:15 pm: Last little shots pre getting dressed (details, champagne, competitive ping-pong etc)
2:15- 2:30 pm: Wedding party get dressed
2:30 - 2:45 pm: Couple gets dressed
2:45 - 3:15pm: Photos of couple + Wedding party dressed, fresh and fly.
3:15 pm: Photographer leaves
3:30 pm: Leaving to go to the ceremony. *Assuming a 20 min travel time
Ceremony
3:30 pm: Guests arrive and the photographer arrives.
4:00 pm: Couple arrives, ceremony starts.
4:30 pm: Ceremony finishes
4:30 - 4:50 pm: Hugs and celebrations with nearest and dearest (only skip this if you absolutely must- it’s one of the best moments)
4:50 - 5:10 pm: Family photos (keep it to just immediate family, and have a wrangler who knows everyone to help collect people.)
5:10 - 5:30 pm: Wedding party photos
5:30 - 5:50 pm: Couple photos.
5:50 pm: Rejoin the party!
Reception
I’m not a venue manager, your venue may have other needs with food serving, just a rough guide here!
6:00 pm: Reception kicks off - drink in hand (you can do a big entrance if you want - but feel free to just slip in if that’s not you)
6:30 pm: Entree served
7:00 pm: Speeches round one (friends) + cake
7:30 pm: Mains served
8:00 pm: Speeches round two (family) + first dance (if that’s you’re thing of course! No pressure from me to do a dance or cut a cake if that doesn’t feel right.)
8:30 pm: Dance floor kicks off.
10:00pm: Photographer leaves