I think one of the most challenging things about planning a wedding is nailing down your day-of timeline. Usually this happens once major details come together like venues, ceremony start time, reception end time, etc., and it can bit a bit overwhelming! In case it’s helpful to you, I wanted to publish our general wedding day timeline here for you to reference.
Our wonderful photographer, Jessica Roberts, majorly helped shape our day-of timeline!! I would definitely suggest finding a photographer who will specify a very detailed “shot list” like Jessica did for us in the timeline below. Most often, that can help answer some of your big questions like “When should we do our first look, or start family photos if the ceremony starts at 6pm?”
Feel free to use this timeline as a road map for your own day! So you’re aware, we had a 6 o’clock ceremony and left our reception at 10:45pm. We also did a first look, so that really cut down our photo time for after the ceremony!
Another thing that we did that I wanted to highlight here: I very much wanted to have a moment to sit down and enjoy the reception food + time together before the “party” started! BUT we didn’t want to have to go “into hiding” like some brides and grooms do to eat alone, because we also wanted to be able to see our guests enjoying themselves and be with our families. SO, after we were introduced and did our first dances, we sat down at a “head table” with both of our immediate families and our caterer served us while we had a moment to breathe and visit with each other. I would HIGHLY recommend doing something like that – it was truly one of the highlights of our day!
