Please share your ceremony/reception timeline when held at same place.

Is dinner being served? Do they need time to turn the room over? When will you take pictures?

Show us the dress if you have pictures!

Dinner is being served. The room won't need turned over, there's only 9 tables and they'll just sit at their tables for the ceremony. I was planning on taking pictures immediately after the ceremony. officiant said it takes about 10 minutes. The venue is opening the bar after the ceremony and will shortly after serve the sit down salad. Dinner won't be served until we come back in.

I will come back with pictures I have to send them from my phone and my daughter is playing on it now.

Congratulations on your dress! Your day is almost here!

Here is the short version of what we used ...

4:00 pm Arrive at venue

4:30 pm First look

4:45 pm Photos begin

6:00 pm Photos end / downtime before ceremony

6:30 pm Ceremony begins

7:00 pm Bar opens and appetizers served

7:30 pm Dinner served

8:30 pm Cake cutting and bouquet toss

10:00 pm Bar closes

10:30 pm Cleanup begins

11:00 pm Leave venue

The actual one I maintained while planning had a lot more details - like when each vendor arrived, etc.

Ceremony/reception went from 7-12 . We did not have access to set up until 5. Here's how our day of timeline worked:

Pre-ceremony/reception:

5:00-6: Bridal party sets up venue (thank god for them)

5:00-5:50: First look, bride and groom photos

5:50-6:10: Family photos

6:10-6:40: Bridal party photos (a bit longer than family photos because we were moving around the city more to find cool spots)

Actual ceremony/reception:

6:40: Ketubah signing in venue (just immediate family and bridal party)

6:50: Head to staging area to line up while guests arrive

7:10-7:30: Ceremony

7:30-8:30: Cocktail hour

8:30-9:15: Dinner

[We started greeting each table around 8:40]

[Speeches were around ~9 and very quick]

9:15: First dance/parent dances

dance dance dance

10:15/10:30ish: Cake

more dancing until 12

Are you planning on doing a first look or having the first time he see's you be walking down the aisle?

Congrats on getting your dress! I just dropped mine off to be steamed. We're almost there!! Here is my timeline so far. Still making tweeks here and there. Our ceremony and reception will all be held in the same space in a similar time frame to yours. Our hotel is also only 2 blocks from the venue.

7:30 - Wake Up

8:00 - Downstairs for breakfast

8:30-9:30 - Showers

10:00 - Amy arrives for H/MU

10:00 - Hair and Makeup

*Lunch*

3:00 - Photographer and Videographer Arrive

Getting ready photos, dress, final touches to H/MU

3:30 – First look with Daddy

3:45 - Bridesmaids and Bride’s family photos – Lobby of hotel

4:00-4:30 - Groom and GMs arrive at Pier 22

4:30 – Photographer and Videographer head to Pier 22 – Décor shots

4:55 - Arrive at Pier 22 – Out of sight

5:00-5:10 – Ceremony Starts

5:30 – Ceremony ends – BP heads out for pictures

(Sunset 5:36)

Cocktail hour for guests

6:15 – BP Grand entrance

First dance/Dance with dads

6:30 – Dinner/Toasts

Dance!!

8:30 – Cut the Cake

Dance!!

10:00 – Pack it up

@ swolemates I'm still undecided. He said no first look but I'm thinking it might be easier. Also, I only have photographer for 3 hours.

Can I upload pics from my phone?

Yes you can upload them from your phone.

Photographer for 3 hours? Okay that changes things a bit...do you have a large family and bridal party? Is there somewhere REALLY close to the venue that pictures that be taken?

Bare with me, I'm asking all these questions for a reason!

Ok for some reason it's not giving me option to upload from my samsung s5. It has the camera but when click, nothing. Maybe i should open in browser and not the app?

no large family for either of us. I have MOH(FSIL) and he has best man(brother) and our 2 kids for bp. I have my mom brother. He has mom/dad plus siblings.

Since it's at a golf course, we'll just do the pictures there outside if weather nice. Indoors/patio/balcony if not nice.

Please ask away, i need the help

So can you be on property before 6pm taking photos or can you not be on the property till 6pm?

4:30 ceremony, 5:00 cocktail hour, 6:00 reception

We can come in earlier, if needed.

Guests/invites already say 6pm so I assume our ceremony should start shortly after 6pm.

Trying to upload

Okay great now that I have all the info!

I would recommend doing a first look. Because you only have your photographer for such a short amount of time I think getting the first look, family, and bridal party pictures done and out of the way is a good idea. This also means that you will have more time with your guests which I'm sure you'll want photos with as well. Unfortunately with only 3 hours your photographer will not be able to catch the entire reception...anyway you could get a few more hours? I feel like you're missing out on a lot of photo ops.

This schedule has your photographer from 5:30 to 8:30

5:30 - First look, bridal party, and family photos - You're family will obviously have to be okay with arriving a bit early for this. If they aren't then they can be pulled aside and have pictures taken during the reception quickly.

6:00 - Guests begin to arrive

6:30 - Ceremony begins

7:00 - Ceremony ends

7:10 - Dinner is served

8:10 - Party starts!

Or if you don't do a first look and group/posed shots aren't as important to you then you could have the photographer get there around 6:15 and leave at 9:15. You'd get more of the actual wedding celebration that way.. but you'd have to just kinda hope he gets the shots that you want in a candid way...

Have you asked your photographer how he likes to spend those 3 hours?

Yay it worked, you look gorgeous!!

We are meeting with photographer on Sunday (when we get to set up the place). I will go over how the 3 hours will work. He's coming to set up the photo booth. I got a good price for doing it for 3 hours, but I may ask him for an extra hour and see how much that will run me, for peace of mind.

Thanks for your help Swolemates, I really appreciate it.

Following to plan my own. Our reception is in an adjacent ballroom, however, I do not know where (at the venue) cocktail hour is going to be located. We are planning to leave the venue to go to a carousel (around the corner walking) for some pictures, but am not sure how long that will take.

My timeline,outline by the photographer and venue.Our is all in the same place but we have use of three different rooms in the hotel for each part. Ceremony is at 2pm, over at 2.30, will take at least half hour to do hellos/great people after outside the room, family photos and our photos are taken while a drinks reception with canapés starts for everyone.it will take an hour to hour and half for photo, then we will join the reception, dinner bell is at 5.30 to be seated for 6. (photographer goes home at this point) Speeches, then dinner,cut the cake, which will take a least two hours, the band start by 9 at the latest, they brake at 10 evening finger food comes out (mainly for those who just came to the evening section, but is available for everyone one) band finish 11-11.30, dj starts till 1am,residents bar (more sandwiches are served there) till 3am officially but will go later if some people still want it, by then most will be gone,but there's always a few.

Our invite say 1.30 for the 2pm ceremony, just because half of my family are always late and it has to start on time,those who won't be late, we'll spread the word to that is half one for two start.most invites here are for the time the ceremony starts at,but the bride is always late to a church wedding and so the guests tend to be late.as ours is a civil ceremony they have to start on time,most the guests won't have been to one before and won't realise about how punctual they are.

Invite people for a half hour ahead, start your ceremony on time. (I personally don't get the 'guests and brides are always late' thing; if you/they are, your reception gets cut down...)

Unless they saying nothing at all but, "do you want to? Yes! Say these vows, you're marreid" then it will probably take more than 10 minutes, including any processional or recessional you may need. The rest of that half hour can go to photos.

Invite people for a half hour ahead, start your ceremony on time. (I personally don't get the 'guests and brides are always late' thing; if you/they are, your reception gets cut down...)

Unless they saying nothing at all but, "do you want to? Yes! Say these vows, you're marreid" then it will probably take more than 10 minutes, including any processional or recessional you may need. The rest of that half hour can go to photos.