Creating the Perfect Wedding Day Timeline for Your Photography
So you’re getting married, congrats! Planning can be stressful. Thank goodness for the internet and wedding professionals to help ya out. Creating a wedding timeline is not only great for organization on that amazing day, but for all of your vendors to be in the loop as well. This helps your photographer stay on schedule, making sure we can get the images you want and keep you on track at the same time. Think of it as an extra step to make your wedding day flow smoothly!
Plan Extra Time All Over the Timeline
Here is a fact that never fails to be true: things will run behind on your wedding day. Even if you’re an industrial engineer and know a thing or two about planning things like timelines efficiently, this will happen. Here’s another fact: the biggest thing that kills intimacy and joy is being rushed. There are two ways your wedding day can go:
- Scenario one: You plan every “event” of the day back to back with little wiggle room in the name of efficiency. You are literally being run between your first look, family photos, ceremony, cutting the cake, and first dance. The day ends and it feels like you didn’t have a chance to breathe, enjoy the fact that it’s your wedding day, or even have a drink because it was so hectic.
- Scenario two: You plan every “event” of the day with plenty of space between. You’re grateful you did this because hair and makeup took a little longer than expected, but now you have a second to breathe and collect yourself before you see the love of your life for the first time. You get to enjoy a quiet moment with each other and your bridal party, and you leave beaming about the best day you just had.
Plan extra room everywhere in your timeline so you’re not left feeling rushed, so you can breathe, and so you actually have the time to pause and enjoy your wedding day. It is worth the extra little bit of money to spend an extra hour on your photographer or coordinator if it means you get to enjoy every part of your day.
Recommended Time for Portraits
Basically for an overall picture before I get really deep, please allow 30-40 minutes for couples portraits/first look, 20-30 minutes for wedding party, and 30-40 minutes for family portraits. Use this as a general guideline and customize it to your own wedding!
| Category of Photos | Recommended Duration |
|---|---|
| Wedding Detail Shots | First 30-40 Minutes |
| First Look / Couple Portraits | 30-40 Minutes |
| Wedding Party Portraits | 20-30 Minutes |
| Family Portraits | 30-40 Minutes |
| Golden Hour Photos | 20-25 Minutes |
The First Look
Most photographers are going to encourage you to have a first look but its totally not required. You can wait to have your ‘first look’ down the aisle. However, it’s easier to have your first look before the ceremony, then wedding party photos, and then family pictures. I usually allow at least 1.5 hours before the ceremony to complete all of this. A family member or bridesmaid is usually running a little behind so this amount of time leaves enough wiggle room to do it all and have some chill time before the ceremony. If you don’t want to do a first look, thats totally okay. As long as you’re open to doing those portraits during your cocktail hour, we can make it all happen.
Family and Wedding Party Portraits
This tends to be one of the most stressful parts of the day, but I’m here to help de-stress it all! I highly recommend making a shot list of all possible immediate family formal portraits you’d want before or after the ceremony. While we try to make these parts of the wedding day as efficient as possible, they are still important and deserve everyone’s full attention. Sometimes people drink too much and wrangling tipsy uncles becomes a problem, or kids don’t want to cooperate. Having someone in the bridal party who knows everyone who needs to be in the family portraits to help wrangle everyone together makes the process even smoother.
Golden Hour Photos
If you’re planning on a first look, I like to take some of just you two while you’ve got the first look tingles. Then, later in the day, I can steal you two away from the reception to chase that light! We’ll get some more bridal portraits that are covered with the golden hour light. SO good! Please note your sunset time; if we run out of natural light before we are done with your portraits, that’s a huge problem!
How to Prepare for Your Wedding Photos
When you’re thinking about what kind of details you want photographed, I highly recommend having all your wedding accessories together in a bag or separate storage box so they are ready to go for me when I arrive to start shooting. This includes your shoes, rings, and invitation suites. Additionally, remember that getting ready for the gals often takes longer than people budget for. Hair and makeup always takes a little longer than expected, so don't force yourself to hightail it to your venue and add the stress of rushing. Just give yourself extra time with this.