How to Create The Perfect Day-Of Wedding Timeline

Weddings

Have you ever been to a wedding that felt either suuuper rushed and kinda stressful, or reallyyyy slow and kinda boring? Yeah, same—it’s not the best 😅We’ve all been to a wedding where somebody arrives late, or the ceremony doesn’t start on time, or the couple is still getting ready after 5 hours. . . it’s no fun when you have to sit and wait around as a guest. So today, I want to help you make sure that doesn’t happen for YOUR wedding and YOUR guests, because you want to give them the best experience possible, right?! And you deserve the best, most stress-free wedding day ever! I’m going to be sharing all of my best tips on how to create a perfect day-of wedding timeline, including answering FAQ’s, breaking down each part of the wedding day, giving you sample timelines, and more. Trust me: your timeline can make or break your wedding day, and we wanna make sure it’s the former rather than the latter 😉

What is a Day-Of Wedding Timeline?

First off, you may be asking, “Uhhh Almida, what the hell is a ‘day-of wedding timeline?’ We don’t even know wtf that is.” I gotchu, don’t worry! It’s just a piece of lingo we use in the wedding industry to describe the schedule or itinerary of your wedding day; aka the way your day flows, when certain events happen, etc. Your timeline will be the main piece of paper (or note on your iPhone, or photo in your camera roll) that defines how your wedding day goes, both on the back end of things for your vendors, as well as the front end for you + your guests who are all experiencing it. Essentially, it’s just the layout of your wedding day as if you were to plan it out in a calendar app, and time-block certain chunks of hours for certain tasks/events/etc.

Think of your wedding day timeline as the guiding force of your event: it’s going to be what determines how your day plays out, and what ends up bringing alllll the different elements that you’ve been planning together (vendors, guests, wedding party members, setup, breakdown, transportation, etc.). That’s why it’s SUCH an important part of the planning process, and why I’ve created this guide to help you make it as smooth, seamless, and stress-free as can be!!

Why You Should Create a Wedding Timeline In Advance

Ok ok now you know what a wedding timeline is, but why do you need to create one? Can’t you just go with the flow and see how it goes?!

Short answer: nooo please do not do that 😂

Long answer: there are SO freaking many parts of a wedding day that have to come together to make your day beautiful, and if you don’t have a clear timeline defining exactly when certain things are happening, it’s just gonna turn into a free for all. And that’s not really what you want on your wedding day, people wandering around with no idea where to go or what’s coming next—you want every guest, vendor, caterer, wedding party member, venue staff, etc. to know what’s needed of them + where they’re supposed to be and when. So it’s essential that you create a detailed wedding timeline ahead of time!

You know how they say you gotta follow the rules in order to break ‘em? That’s kinda what creating a wedding timeline is like: you need to have one set in place so that your day has structure, and doesn’t end up in chaos, butttt once you have a timeline then you can be a little more flexible/go with the flow on the day-of as need be. Because now that you know exactly when you need to be at your ceremony, or when you need to be ready for your grand entrance, you can be a little looser with the rest of the events if things go off-course, or if somebody is running late!

georgetown wedding couple in bus photo booth

georgetown couple closeup of brides hand on grooms chest

FAQ’s About Day-Of Wedding Timelines

I saw a lotttt of the same kinds of questions floating around the internet about this topic, so I figured I’d briefly answer a few wedding timeline FAQ’s before we dive deeper into each part of a wedding day.

Who creates your wedding day timeline?

This is a great one!! You know that you need a wedding timeline. . . but who creates it? Is it your responsibility, as the couple? Something you hand off to your maid of honor/best man/wedding party members? Does your planner take care of it? Or maybe your photographer? Your venue staff?!

The answer to this one will probably be different for a lot of couples, as it depends on what vendors you’ve hired to help bring your wedding to life.

If you’ve hired any sort of planner or coordinator, it’s likely that they will be the one who creates your timeline, since they’re in contact with your venue + vendors and are, well, coordinating everything!

If you aren’t hiring a planner or coordinator, the responsibility may lie on you to create your timeline, or on whoever you’ve assigned to help with venue/vendor coordination (e.g. a friend or a parent). In this case, you’re already in the right spot with this guide, learning about how to do it 😉 But you can also look up wedding timeline templates on places like Etsy/Pinterest, ask your married friends for help, or post in a wedding-related FB group or Subreddit for advice! I’ve also included a few sample wedding timelines at the bottom of this guide, so you can start by scrolling down to those.

Now here’s where it can get a little confusing: if you’re hiring a professional wedding photographer, they will most likely also create a timeline for your day—but it’ll be a shorter version of your full timeline, only focused on the amount of coverage you’ve hired them for. While your planner might help you plan a FULL timeline of your wedding, from the rehearsal the night before all the way until you arrive to your hotel at the end of the night, your photographer may create a condensed version that only starts when they arrive + ends when they leave. This is something they might work on with your planner, or they’ll probably at least base it off your planner’s full timeline.

So while it’s not your photographer’s job to create your wedding timeline, you can ask them for help + guidance when it comes to planning out your hours of photo coverage!

How do I create a perfect wedding day timeline?

For starters, don’t try to do it on your own—get help from a married friend/family member, a professional planner/coordinator, ask your photographer for help, or look it up on the internet. You’re already doing great just by being here, reading this guide!! Remember, if you’re working with a planner (or even if your venue provides a staff member/venue coordinator for you), you won’t have to do this on your own. Trust that they know what they’re doing, and lean on their support—they’ve done this many many times 🙂

I think one of the most helpful things to do when you start to create your wedding timeline (or when you start to work on it with your planner/venue manager/etc.) is to think back to any weddings you’ve personally attended. Try to remember the events of the day, and how you felt as a guest:

Did the ceremony feel super rushed?
Were you forced to sit around and wait while the couple took too long to get ready?
Was cocktail hour long enough?
Did you have enough time to eat dinner?
Did you have to wait around between the ceremony and the time dinner was served? How hungry were you by that point?
Would you have preferred first dances to happen after you got to eat dessert, rather than before?
Did you get as much time as you wanted on the dance floor?

Thinking about your own experiences as a wedding guest can really help you start to get a feel for what you want the flow of your day to be like—or maybe more importantly, what you DON’T want it to be like. And, of course, how your wedding day will be experienced not just by you, but also by your guests!

What is the order of a wedding day?

I’ll starty by saying that there isn’t one “correct” order of a wedding day; you can do whatever the hell you want, babe. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do it! As long as you’re happy with what your day looks like, that is ALL that matters, and who tf cares about whether you do toasts during dinner or after everybody is done eating.

But in terms of the order of a “typical,” traditional wedding day, it usually looks something like this:

Getting ready
First look (if you’re having one)
Family + wedding party portraits (if you’re having a first look)
Ceremony prep
Ceremony
Marriage license signing
Cocktail hour
Family + wedding party portraits (if you aren’t having a first look)
Grand entrance
Dinner
Reception

I’ll talk a little more about the “typical” order of events at a wedding reception in a minute!

Again, pleaseee take this with a grain of salt. You could rearrange everything on this timeline and possibly have an even more unique, meaningful, and memorable wedding, or you could keep it all the same and have your day be incredible. It’s 1000% your choice—it’s not up to your parents, your friends, Instagram trends, or those Pinterest photos you’ve saved to your boards ten times already. You can just use ^this^ order as a basic structure to help you get started!

What is the best time of day to get married?

Ugh, can we get rid of the terms “best” and “worst” when it comes to weddings already? Come on, people, it’s 2024—don’t we know that there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to get married?!

Okay sorry, I’ll get off my soap box for now haha. But I just want to make sure you know that there is no “best” or “worst” for the majority of these things. There are simply things that are better for some couples and for some circumstances than others!

As far as the time of day you get married, it really depends on what the structure of your day looks like, as well as the location and lighting. If you’re dreaming of having a day of festivities followed by a sunset ceremony and a nighttime dinner party, then the best time for you to get married would be maybe an hour or so before the sun sets at your location!

If you’d rather have a late afternoon ceremony so that you have plenty of time to get ready in the morning, and to do a first look, then maybe have your ceremony around 4pm or 5pm. You’ll have the rest of the night to enjoy cocktail hour, dinner, and a reception!

How about a brunch wedding 👀If you’re into that idea, you could have a late-morning ceremony followed by an early afternoon brunch buffet, and maybe a hike or an outdoor activity with your guests in the late afternoon. The options are endless!!

What is the typical order of events at a wedding reception?

Again, I’m gonna give you a list of what typically happens at traditional wedding receptions, but by no means is it a prescribed schedule you have to follow to a T! Any of these can be rearranged, added to, or totally removed if they don’t fit the vibe + vision for your day.

Here’s how wedding reception events are often laid out for traditional weddings:

Grand entrance
Dinner
Toasts/speeches
Cake cutting
First dances
Bouquet/garter tosses
Other reception games
Open dance floor
Sendoff/exit

But I’ve also seen couples do their first dances straight away, then head into dinner. I’ve also seen couples do toasts and speeches during dinner, rather than after. I’ve even seen couples do their cake cutting before dinner, because why not have dessert first?!

My 3 Most Important Wedding Timeline Tips

We’re almostttt to the beefy part of this guide where I break down every part of a wedding day, but real quick I’ve got 3 main tips for you to remember! If you don’t remember ANYTHING from this guide except for these 3 tips, I’ll leave feeling like I’ve done my job 🫡

1. Expect the best, prepare for the worst

If you can prepare for the worst ahead of time, then you’ll be golden! If you go into the day expecting everything to turn out perfectly, you’re def going to be disappointed—shit happens at weddings, and honestly, I don’t know if any wedding has every gone exactly according to plan. If you can go into it instead with the mindset that things might not go according to plan, but that you’re ready to adapt and go with whatever happens, you will enjoy the day MUCH more, even when unexpected situations come up!

2. Add in purposeful flex time

Anywhere you can add in 10-15 minutes of flex time will have a huge impact on your day, and on your ability to be present! If you can take quick breaks between the major events of the day, you and your partner will have the chance to just breathe and chill together for a little bit + take in all the feelings and emotions of the day. This also gives you some buffer time in case things run behind schedule!

3. Hire vendors who you completely trust

Finally, make sure your vendors are people you fully trust to take care of you + handle their responsibilites on your wedding day. The LAST thing you want to be worrying about is vendors you can’t rely on who are running late, or forgot to do something, or are just generally causing you more stress. They should provide you with RELIEF, not more tasks on your to-do list or extra overwhelm!

Wedding Timeline Breakdown: How Long Does Each Part of a Wedding Day Take?

Now let’s dive into the nitty gritty: how long does each part of a wedding day typically take? I’m going to break down each major part of a wedding timeline and walk you through how long you may want to plan for it—keeping in mind that some of these may not even apply to your unique wedding day, and that you have the total freedom to adjust as needed. But after years and years of photographing weddings, I’ve gotten a pretty dang good feel for how long is usually needed for certain parts of the day to allow for a relaxed, stress-free schedule (key word: usually)!

Getting ready + details:

Getting ready can take anywhere from 1 to 4+ hours, depending on how intricate your hair/makeup/wedding attire is, as well as how many people are getting ready with you.

The first part of your day involves you + your partner getting ready, duh! This might look like you getting ready together or separately, alone or with family members, or, most commonly, with your wedding parties by your sides.

Here’s what you may need to account for when adding time to get ready into your timeline:

Time to wake up (and maybe to snooze your alarm a few times)
Time to eat breakfast, drink coffee, etc.
Time to get to your venue (or wherever you’re getting ready)
Time for your family members/friends/wedding party to arrive
Getting your hair done
Getting your makeup done
Your wedding party getting their hair/makeup done
Final touches
Putting on your wedding attire
Putting on your accessories
Putting on your shoes
Gathering details for your photographer
Time for your photographer to photograph your details + decor
Time to call/Facetime any loved ones who couldn’t make it to your day

Adding extra room for emergencies never hurts—e.g. time to account for traffic on the way to your venue, your hair/makeup artists being late, or it taking longer than you expected to put your dress on (especially if you’ve got a million tiny buttons that go down the back of your train).

First look + portraits

If you’re doing a first look on your wedding day, I recommend setting aside around 45 minutes for it.

Sure, the actual “first look” might only take 3-4 minutes—after all, all you’ve gotta do is turn around and look at each other, right? But I suggest having at least 30 minutes in your timeline for your first look, if not more, if you’re able to!

This is because:

You never know if it might take longer than expected to get ready, so having a few extra minutes built in here is great just in case.
You’ll want as much time as you can get with your partner in this moment, when it’s quiet, you barely have anybody around, and you can really soak it all up!
You may want to exchange gifts, letters, or even read your vows in private before you head back to meet with your guests.
This is a perfect opportunity to take couples portraits so that you have a variety throughout the day—and in case you run out of time during your reception for sunset portraits, or you don’t wanna leave the dance floor, you’ve already taken portraits earlier in the day!

Ceremony

Wedding ceremonies can last anywhere from 15 minutes to multiple hours, depending on what ceremony elements a couple includes, as well as any religious, spiritual, or cultural traditions they follow/incorporate.

Sooo I can’t really give you a good answer for this one! It’s SO dependent on what’s important to you to have in your ceremony, as well as on any traditions/rituals you want to include. For example, if you already read your vows in private during your first look and you want your cermony to be short + sweet, it might only last 15-20 minutes (if that). But if you’re following a set order of traditions or rituals, your ceremony could take 45 minutes, an hour, or even more!

Cocktail hour

Cocktail “hours” can be anywhere from a brief 30-minute period for post-ceremony mingling, all the way to an hour, or even 2 if you have a big guest list.

The amount of time you dedicate to your cocktail hour depends on how many guests you have, whether you want to serve food/drinks during this time, and what you want to do during cocktail hour:

Is it a time where you want to say hi to everyone? If so, how many guests will you have, and how long will it take for you to get around to all of them?
Do you want everyone to have enough time to enjoy appetizers + drinks?
Do you want to set out any yard games or activities for folks to participate in (e.g. guest book signing, cornhole, etc.)?
Do you want to have a simple food setup, or an intricate buffet of appetizers, charcuterie boards, etc?
Do you want to have a bartender serving a couple of basic drinks, or making custom cocktails?

Marriage license signing

Signing your marriage license should only take 10-15 minutes!

The signing part will really only take, like, a minute, but the extra time is to account for the time you’ll need to gather everyone after your ceremony—you’ll need to find your officiant, your witnesses, and your photographer, as well as any other guests you want present as you sign. You could even throw in a celebratory shot or champagne pop here for some extra fun 🍾

Family + wedding party portraits

These might either come before your ceremony (if you do a first look and want to get them out of the way), or after your ceremony. But either way, I’d suggest having around 45 minutes dedicated to family + wedding party portraits, depending on how many people you have.

If you have a huge family and you desperately want photos with all of them, you might want an hour of portraits just to make sure you’ve got time to gather everyone + get them into groups! Whereas if you have a small family and just a few friends in your wedding party, you might only need 25-30 minutes. Make sure you account for the time it’ll take to get everyone in one place after your ceremony—I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen couples trying to find their grandparents or Aunt Margaret for a solid 20 minutes after the ceremony 😵‍💫

Your photographer can help give you an estimate of how much time your family + wedding party portraits might take, depending on how many people you have, so def ask them for help. They can also help you organize the photos in the most effective + efficient order so that you can run through them pretty quickly!

Dinner + toasts

If you’re like me, you probably want as much time as you can get to enjoy your wedding day dinner, especiallyyyy since you’ve probably spent a good chunk of $$ on it. You’ll probably want to have at least an hour for dinner, depending on how many guests you’ll be feeding + how food will be served. For example, if you have a team serving everyone at once, dinner will go a lot quicker than if you have a buffet that each table goes up to, one by one.

If you’re including toasts during dinnertime, add an extra 30 minutes or so—you never know how long your dad or cousin might ramble on once they’ve got a little alcohol in them 😅In any case, it’s good to have this extra time even if dinner/toasts don’t need to take this long, so that neither you nor your guests feel like you need to rush your meal!

Reception activities

The rest of your reception will really vary based on what activities + elements you’re including—I’ve seen receptions last anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours. You’d be surprised at just how many unique events can be incorporated into a reception to extend them and make them a whole-ass party for everyone involved, lasting wayyyy into the night!

Here are a few things to consider when planning your reception timeline (they may not all apply to you, of course):

Garter/bouquet tosses
First dances (how many will you be having?)
Cake cutting
Thank-you’s/additional speeches
Reception games (e.g. the shoe game)
Other special dances (e.g. the money dance)
Other cultural/religious/familial tradiitons/rituals

Sunset portraits

I may be biased toward this one since I’m a photgorapher, but I looove getting to have dedicated time during a reception to sneak out for sunset portraits with my couples. I’d say 30 minutes is perfect for evening portraits, but they might not even take this long if you’re ready to get back to the dance floor with your friends! Or on the opposite side of things, if you have a ton of photos you want to take together (especially if you didn’t have a first look/didn’t get portraits earlier in the day), you might want a full hour for evening portraits, and then you’ll join everyone once you’re done. Make sure that, if you’re leaving your reception for more than 10-15 minutes, your guests have something to do and don’t have to just sit around and wait; for example, a dessert buffet to enjoy, an open dance floor, games to play, etc.!

Dancing

Dancing can last as LONG as you want it to!! For some couples, an hour of open dancing is enough; for others, they might want 3+ hours to dance the night away with their loved ones, enjoying late night drinks, snacks, and laughs under the disco lights. It’s 100% up to you and how important this part of your celebration is to you—some people find the earlier parts of the reception more important to them, while for others, this is the part of the day they’ve been waiting and planning for, and they’re ready to go harddd on the dance floor!

Sendoff/exit

Finally, you might decide to end your wedding with some sort of sendoff or exit—this could involve:

Sparklers
Bubbles
Confetti
Flower petals
iPhone flashlights
A final song for everyone
A final dance between the two of you
Driving away in a vintage car

A sendoff typically won’t take more than a couple of minutes on its own, but you’ll def want extra time to say goodbye to your loved ones and give hugs, kisses, thank-you’s, and shed some final tears before you leave 🥲

Sample Wedding Day Timeline

Before you leave, I wanted to give you a quick sample wedding day timeline to give you a real peek into what the flow of your day could look like! Once again, keep in mind that this is a VERY generic timeline and you does NOT have to be what yours actually looks like. But hopefully, it’ll give you an idea of how long to include for every part of the day, and what the order of events might be!

10 Hours of Photo Coverage

You’ll see in the timeline below that with 10 hours of photo coverage, the photographer is able to document the majority of the day, from the final getting ready moments all the way until the last call for drinks, the last song, and the sendoff as you say goodbye to your guests. This amount of coverage makes it so that they can tell the FULL story of your wedding day, from start to finish! 10/10 recommend hiring your photog to be there for most of the day, if you can!

6:00am – Wake up, eat breakfast

7:00am – Gather wedding attire, details, shoes, etc.

7:30am – Head to venue to get ready

8:15am – Hair & makeup begins

9:00am – Wedding parties arrive to get ready

10:30am – Champagne toasts, gift exchange

11:15am – Photographer arrives

11:30am – Detail photographs

12:00pm – Partner A gets into wedding attire

12:15pm – Partner B gets into wedding attire

12:30pm – Final touches

12:45pm – First look

1:00pm – Couples portraits

1:30pm – Family + wedding party portraits

2:30pm – Final ceremony prep

3:00pm – Ceremony

3:35pm – Sign mariage license

3:45pm – Cocktail hour

5:00pm – Dinner

5:45pm – Toasts/speeches

6:15pm – Cake cutting

6:25pm – First dances

6:45pm – Reception games

7:30pm – Dance floor opens

8:30pm – Sunset portraits

9:15pm – Photographer leaves

10:00pm – Late night snacks

11:00pm – Sendoff/exit

If this timeline were to only include 6-7 hours of photo coverage instead, you’d need to cut out some coverage either during the morning while you get ready, or during your reception—which is sooo hard to do.

I’m obviously partial to more coverage, because I believe your day deserves to be told as a whole—and I’m a photographer myself, of course 😉 And as your wedding photographer, you bet I’ll be there to give you guidance + tips as you plan the timeline of your day! I’ve worked with sooo many couples that I’m a total pro at creating timelines by now, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of this info, don’t worry! I gotchuuu. If you’re looking for a Seattle-based photographer to document your wedding or elopement, I’m your woman—learn more about me here, and contact me here so we can start creating your own wedding timeline + dream day together! 🎉

More wedding + elopement resources I just know you’ll be obsessed with:

How to Create The Perfect Day-Of Wedding Timeline

Table of Contents:

What is a Day-Of Wedding Timeline?

Why You Should Create a Wedding Timeline In Advance