Logistics for the morning of

Earlier than you think. Ask your MUA how much time she needs and tell your people to be there ON TIME. For the others, why not invite them at 11;30-12:00 and get some bagels, coffee, fruit to nosh on. They have to get dressed somewhere, it might as well be there...

My morning of with my BP was actually a nightmare. i think you need to be really clear ahead of time what you need from them that day. like at the end of the night of the rehearsal dinner, gather them for a quick minute to remind them.

we had my neighbors' empty house and my MUA and Hair dresser came there at 9. i had breakfast for them and asked them to arrive between 8 and 9. they all opted to do their own hair/make-up but the photographer was arriving at 11 and i wanted everyone ready by then. we had 1 hour until our limo arrived. NOBODY was ready by 11. and some of them had zero plan for their own hair/makeup.

make-sure they all have it planned for themselves, and be clear when you need them 100% ready. i told my BP all these things 2 weeks before but it flew right out of their heads by the morning of

Ready to go to the ceremony or ready for the photography with getting ready shots?

I have no idea. I have 8 bridesmaids (5 coming from out of town) and only one of them has committed to hair and makeup. I love the getting ready robe idea, but logistically I don't think it will work- I think it would be easier to have the girls who are getting ready on their own to just show up at a certain time and take pictures before. We are getting ready at my fiance's parents house.

The more we get into planning the day of- the easier the better for me. The thought of asking everyone to bring all their hair/makeup to the house just to get ready together seems like a fiasco. If they want to be with me while I get ready, fine, but I don't want to make everyone sit around. All I want is an hour or so for champagne together before we leave

We have to be in the limo by 1 to head to the venue. I'm thinking myself and my MOH will arrive first at my parents and I'll have my bridesmaids show up about 20 mins later. It will be an earlier morning but we will all get ready together to make it easy! We also have a few junior bridesmaids and littles in the wedding, for them we will stagger the timing so everyone is in the right place!

The best planned wedding I attended the bride actually passed out itineraries with precise times on them. This may sound ridiculous but if she had not had these, it would have been a NIGHTMARE. The BP got the sheets two weeks before the wedding then at the rehearsal dinner the bride passed out a second set of them. Half of the girls were "clueless" or "forgot" they needed to be at X at Y time.

Thank god I had one because on the sheet it said that if the GM's were staying at the hotel the night before (which WE WERE) they could NOT ride in the large van to the church with the groom. BIG OOPSIES on FH's behalf who then had to borrow my car to be at the church by 8:00 then I had to arrange a ride with the wife of a guest I didn't even know so I could be there at 11:00 when the ceremony began.

I just created my wedding party day of timeline today. It starts with breakfast and goes from there. Everyone who's in the wedding will get one including my mom and the DOC.

I think you should tell them to please arrive at x time with hair, makeup and nails camera-ready to get dressed. Pad that time just in case someone runs late!

First I think you need to find out what your girls are doing for makeup and hair along with getting dressed. Once you know that you will have a better idea of when people should be there. Ex, ask the girls are doing there own makeup and hair. This said they all have to be at x @ said time. If half getting their hair and makeup done with you they will need to be there earlier then the other half.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best format an itinerary for their wedding party? I have tried to find some that look decent on Word but they are all horrible. It is honestly my biggest stress at the moment. I obviously don't want to pay to have them done but I have a whole weekend of stuff where people need to know where to be and when.

I am paying for two hotel rooms so me and my BMs will all be in the hotel ready to go from the moment we wake up. I am trying to over plan so try and reduce stress and complications as much as possible. I'm not exactly sure what time we will be leaving the hotel, but I know i will be telling everyone at least 15 minutes before the real time so that we are on time. I'll probably tell the boys a half hour early.

Yes I want them ready to go before 1 preferably since the photog will be at the hotel already. I am DEFINITELY a doing itineraries and giving them out to the entire wedding party and more but I want to make sure I give everyone plenty of time based upon what they decide to do. I think getting an idea of what they're doing before hand will be extremely. Thanks for all the input so far ladies!!!

I would also make if very clear that you are not going to let hair and/or makeup for you or them make you late. The whole rest of the day will feel really frazzled.

I have been creating my own timeline and itinerary. What I have done is taken bits and pieces from other ones I have seen.

Most of my BMs opted to do pro makeup, so I had my MUA make a schedule. I have 6 BMs and 5 of them are getting it done. We need to be ready around 4ish for photos and her schedule has the first person getting their makeup done at 8:45AM. I plan to let my ladies pick their appointment time from her schedule. For the one who opted out, she needs to be ready to go no later than 1:00PM, which is around the time I will be done with mine (plus some padding). I think planning out your day from start to finish and assigning specific times for things is really smart. You'll thank yourself later!

@Aftan, yay wedding day twin ...finally!

on the Timeline, I created it using Google Docs Word, and just created a table with 3 columns, (time, bride, groom) I made one one for everyone--groomsmen and bridesmaids

Printing out the timeline and giving it on the rehearsal dinner or sometime that weekend is actually a REALLY good idea!! I can see 1/2 my BMs forgetting the time

I've got 6 bms plus myself getting hair and makeup done the morning of the wedding. The hair and makeup team told me they'd need 4 hours to do all 7 of us (with some wiggle room built in). Our ceremony is at 5 and we'll take some pictures beforehand so I've given them a tentative schedule that asks them to be in my hotel suite from 12-4. I'm gonna be providing lunch for them while they're there so no one wanders off anywhere lol.

This is how I'm figuring the morning....(ceremony at 1pm).

-Wake up at the butt crack of dawn at my mom's house

-Make a 20 minute drive from my mom's house to the hotel where we have a room block and my OOT bridesmaid will be staying.

-Leave my car at the hotel so FH and I have it there and can leave the day after for our honeymoon

-Have OOT BM's husband drive the two of us back to my mom's house

-Bridesmaids meet at moms for hair/makeup/breakfast

-Photos taken

-drive to ceremony (10 minutes from mom's)

-Get married

My MUA and hairdresser showed up around 10am for my 7 pm ceremony. Just keep that in mind LOL. The photographer came at 3, so everyone except me needed to be dressed by then.

I definitely agree with erring on the side of caution, because inevitably you need more time than you think and you don't want to be stressed on your wedding day! I created a timeline for the weekend, and framed it more as a welcome note with info and images so it didn't look overwhelming to the BP. For our wedding, all of the BMs (5 plus me) had hair/makeup done at our venue. We all got ready together and enjoyed bfast/mimosas. This was our timeline:

10am: 2 BMs

11am: 2 BMs

12pm: MOH and bride

1:30pm: photog arrived for "getting ready" shots (hair/makeup already done, but we had robes)

1:45pm: first look (ended up being more like 2pm), followed by BP and family photos

Our ceremony was at 4pm, and although two hours for first look and BP/family photos sounds like a lot, it actually went by in a flash! Our first look was 5-10 min from the ceremony location so we had a little driving time in there. But I definitely say plan for more time than you think so you can just enjoy the day!

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