Brides with a 5pm Start Time

I don't have a 5pm ceremony, but we start hair and make up for 5 of us at 8:30am Saturday for a 1pm ceremony. Hair and make up will be done by 11:30, so 3 hours for that. I posted the girls timeline below (before we bumped up the hair/make up start time). Guys have their own timeline for the day too.

7:30am Leave from MOB's to take cars to hotel, Ed to follow and bring back

8:30am Arrive back at MOB's house

9:00am Drop Dead Gorgeous arrives at MOB's house for hair and make up preperations

11:00am Remaining bridesmaids arrive at MOB's house

11:30am Hair/Make up completed

11:30-12:30pm Girls Only Photographs

12:00pm Transportation to arrive

12:30pm Leave MOB's house for church 7 minutes/4 miles

1:00pm Get married!!!

2-3:00pm Formal church Photos

3:00pm Bridal party leaves for George George Park 10 minutes/9 miles

3:15pm Bridal party arrives at George George Park

3:15-4:15pm Bridal party photos

4:30pm Bridal party leaves Geoge George Park for Burning Tree 10 minutes/5 miles

4:45pm Bridal Party arrives at Burning Tree

4:45pm-5:20pm Photos on Burning Tree Golf Course

5:00pm Guests arrive for cocktail hour

5:30-5:45pm Bridal Party Grand Entrance

5:45pm Bride and Groom First dance

5:50pm Cake Cutting

6:00-7:00pm Dinner

Best Man/MOH speeches spaced throughout dinner

7:15pm Bride/FOB dance

7:20pm Groom/MOG dance

7:30pm Grooms grandparent tribute/acknowledgement

7:45pm Dance floor opens

8:50pm Bride and Groom Sunset Photos Sunsets at 9:06pm

I had a 7pm ceremony and I had my photographer/videographer from about 3pm to 11pm. We did a first look, hence why there was 4 hours before the ceremony of pictures.

Thanks ladies. I do want some getting ready photos but wasn't sure when to have him start and how long everything will last. @Maltese I could revise your schedule to meet my times. Thanks!

ETA: I will also have a second photographer that I would like to get some pictures of the guys getting ready. We only have that photographer for 5 hours (as of right now)

Amber my wedding starts at 6 on Saturday I will give you my timeline me and my photography set up. My book is at home. But I have her for 4 hours and it's a great time line if your Dj is responsible enough to keep up with it!

@Vee thank you! That would be great

Our wedding start time is 5PM. Here is our rough timeline.

11:00:00 AM Pick up Sandwich Platters

12:00:00 PM Lunch

1:00:00 PM Hair & Makeup

2:30:00 PM Groom & Groomsmen Get Dressed

3:00:00 PM Bridesmaids Get Dressed

3:00:00 PM Venue Opens

3:15:00 PM Limo Arrives for Groom & Groomsmen

3:25:00 PM Groom & Groomsmen arrive at Venue

3:30:00 PM Groom & Groomsmen Photos

3:40:00 PM Limo Arrives for Bride & Bridesmaids

4:00:00 PM Groom & Groomsmen Hangout

4:00:00 PM Bride gets dressed

4:15:00 PM Guests start to arrive

5:00:00 PM Processional

5:05:00 PM Bride Entrance

5:07:00 PM Ceremony Begins

5:30:00 PM Recessional

5:30:00 PM Cocktail Hour Begins

5:30:00 PM Photography

6:30:00 PM Cocktail Hour Ends

6:30:00 PM Guests sign "Guestbook"

6:45:00 PM Guests Seated for dinner

7:00:00 PM Bride & Groom & Bridal Party Entrance

7:10:00 PM First Guests table to buffet

7:40:00 PM Last Guests table to buffet

7:45:00 PM Toasts (4)

8:00:00 PM Bride & Groom Thank yous & Cake Cutting

8:05:00 PM Bride & Groom First Dance

8:10:00 PM Dancing!

11:25:00 PM Limo Arrives

11:30:00 PM Bride & Groom Send Off w/ Sparklers

11:45:00 PM Limo Returns for Bridal Party & Moms

12:15:00 PM All Guests Out

11:35:00 PM Bride & Groom Arrive at Hotel

11:55:00 PM Bridal Party Arrive at Hotel

12:15:00 AM Breakdown & Cleanup

1:00:00 AM Everyone & Everything out of Venue

Hope this helps!

I had no idea where to start with this, so I just asked my photographer what she'd recommend. She knew we were hiring her for eight hours, so I asked how she'd run things. She suggested working backward from your start time, and helped me create a timeline.

We have a 4:00 PM start time & our photographers said they will be with us 1.5 - 2 hours before we leave for the church for "getting ready photos" .. until about an hour before the end of the night (cause you can only have so many drunken dancing reception pics lol)

Nice timelines ladies! This helps me out too. Looks like there are a couple things i haven't thought about. I have a rough idea of my time line but I'll need to buttoned it down soon.

I am a 6pm ceremony, hair and makeup start at 10am to be done by 3 when the photographer arrives and takes getting ready photos, 3:30 first look, 4 pm trolley picks us up takes us to the beach for pics, then to venue by 5:30 for 6 pm ceremony. I have the 2 photographers for 8 hours, they are going to pack up around 11, the reception goes till 11:30 but the last half hour nothing important is happening

My photographer actually helped me create my timeline since she's been to 1000s of weddings and knows more than I do how long certain things take (she's gone above and beyond just being my photographer! She's told me to call her whenever I have a wedding related question!). I would suggest taking your budget and the things you want and discussing with your photographer. I believe a good photographer will WANT to capture all of the moments you want captured as well as making sure to balance that against your budget. A lot of the "getting ready" photos are staged or can be staged! So instead of having your photog come when you start getting ready, maybe pay for him/her to come an hour beforehand to do some details, getting in your dress, etc. again, talk to the photographers about what you can afford and what you want/will make you happy.

My photographer also helped me create our timeline. Our ceremony starts at 5pm and we have to be finished by 10pm. We get our photographers for 9 hours and will have a first look so this is what we've come up with:

1:00-2:30  Getting ready pictures. Bridesmaids and whomever else is helping you get dressed should be completely ready and dressed by 2:15 at the latest...the earlier the better for photos. Groom should be dressed by 2:45.  

2:30ish Bride into dress/shoes/veil/etc

3:00-3:15 First Look

3:15-4:00  Bridal portraits, B&G portraits and bridal party pics

4:00-4:30  More time for portraits...could do some family photos ahead of time depending on who is there.  

4:30-5:00  B&G hide away/Photogs document ceremony space. Guests begin to arrive.

5:00-5:15 Ceremony

5:15-5:45ish remaining family formals if needed

5:15-6:15 cocktail hour

6:20-6:25 entrance of BP

6:30-7:30 welcome and dinner

7:15-7:30 toasts, father/daughter dances

7:30-8:15 first dance, dancing begins

8:15-8:30 anniversary dance, cake cutting

8:30-10:00 party!

We are having a 4:30 ceremony. I decided I didn't need the photographer for all of me getting ready, just me getting into my dress. We will probably stage some final touches (lip gloss, blush, etc) but I would rather have her during the entire reception. We also have a team of two photographers so it helps us get more done in less time. This is our timeline:

1pm Photographer arrives at venue to begin detail shots

130pm Bride getting into dress

2pm First Look

240pm Bridal Party Pictures

315pm Family Pictures

4pm Break before ceremony, photographer takes any more detail shots

430pm Ceremony

5-6pm Cocktail House

610pm First Dance

615pm Dinner

7pm Toasts

715pm Father/Daughter & Mother/Son

730pm Cake Cutting

745pm Open Dancing!

5pm start time, but haven't done our timeline yet. So happy to see this thread!

We're starting at 5, my photographer will meet us at the hotel at 3 and stay at the reception until 9.

3-4 detail shots, getting ready pics

4:15-4:30 arrive at venue, candid shots

5pm ceremony starts

5:30-6 group shots

6-7 cocktail hour/ family, group, couple shots outside

7-9 dinner, cake cutting, first dance, father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, garter/bouquet toss, beginning of open dance pics

Thanks ladies. I can certainly build something off of these

@Elizabeth as of right now we have them starting at 4pm but I dont see that being enough time to take detail and getting ready shots and them maybe some group photos of the guys or what not. So I think I will have to have them come earlier or pay them extra. The second photographer is only scheduled 4-9pm. Primary photographer is 4-10pm...I think we have the venue until 11/midnight

I had a 5 pm start time - if I can offer some words of advice (obviously do whatever you want). Due to our limo shuttle not going back to the hotel some guests were left there. Since we had told anyone staying at hotel don't worry about driving because of the shuttle, we ended up starting 1/2 hour late because we didn't feel right going on without them. So, we didn't start until 5:30 pushing everything else back. We allowed an hour of pictures (our photog was a family friend, so we didn't really have a meeting at all, my mistake, to know if that would be enough time). Then followed by reception start.

My advice is if you can do the first dances in the beginning DO IT! Someone suggested this to us and I didn't want to, but should of. Especially since we started late it would've been out of the way. When I wanted to do the dances the DJ pressured me into visiting with tables at that time and then things just seemed off timing wise. If I could redo it this would be my schedule:

5:00 ceremony

5:30-6:30 pictures (allowing a little extra if needed)

6:35 into - dances (we only had two) toasts (we had the first two courses served, so this would've been a perfect time to do those)

7:00 dinner, cake right after dinner.

Ugh just thinking about this is getting me annoyed again lol. I hope you're timeline goes better than mine!

@Jillian our ceremony and reception are at the same place and because we are going out first dance outside it will follow right after the ceremony so that will be out of the way.

I didn't have an exact timeline I was dying to stay at. Just a general idea of when things should be. We did a first look at 3pm so everyone needed to be done by 2:30 to get me in my dress and to the venue. 5pm start

5:30-6:30 cocktail hour

6:30-7:30 dinner/ first dance (1st dance was supposed to be after dinner and speeches, but last second it was changed to before dinner. They needed a couple more minutes)

7:45-8:15 or so we took sunset photos

8:15-8:30 parent dances and speeches

8:30-9 bouquet toss, cake cutting, garter toss etc

I think my photog left around 9:30 or so