Proper etiquette for wedding timeline events?

I don't know either. And I am afraid of seeming too "bridezilla" ish or bitchy by insisting people do this or that for a certain time.

Me too! I'm glad I'm not alone. I know it's necessary but still...

I'm confused about your question. Do you need a wedding day timeline or a ceremony timeline...or both?

From the ceremony on to the reception

Just from my last wedding experience...

The guests started to arrive at the church at 3:30

The ceremony started promptly at 4:00...lasted till 4:30

Half hour drive to the reception

Cocktail hour from 5:00 that was only supposed to last till 6:00, but ended up going until like 7:30 - 8:00...which was kind of sucky

Dinner was finally served at 8:30 and the reception ended around 11

This all may be different based on whether or not your ceremony and reception are in the same location (like mine).

I will probably start my ceremony at 5:30..go to 6:00 at the very latest

Cocktail hour from 6:00 - 7:00 (since there is no commute from place to the other)

Reception from 7:00 - 11:00

What I actually meant is when does the cake cutting, first dance etc take place?

I still don't know, and I'm already married!! If your venue is primarily for weddings they may have a usual way of doing things, so ask them first. You can decide when to do your dances. We did our first dance right after we came out, and followed that immediately with father/daughter dance then mother/son dance because I knew my dad would worry about it because he's not a dancer-- got it over with! You DJ may have an idea, too. Sometimes people do the different dances between courses.

You should talk to your DJ about this. They will be able to give you a few examples and you can decide what you like best.

Here's an example (though there can be variations):

-Guests start seating themselves after cocktails.

-DJ introduces wedding party (starting with parents, ending with the newlyweds)

-first dance

-toast from BM and MOH and a blessing from officiant (if you are so inclined)

-dinner served

-after an hour or so (depending on how many courses you're having, the daddy daughter dance happens and then possibly a mother son dance. Then you open the floor to guests

-cake cutting after 45 mins to an hour. This is where you or your DH may wish to make a brief toast to your parents and guests

- dance floor opens again

- bouquet and garter toss (unless you're skipping) will happen some time after the cake cutting.

Sometimes, people have the cake cutting before dinner so everyone can see it (sometimes elderly or very young guests like to leave after dinner).

Our guests did cocktails from 7:30 to 8

at 8, the wedding party was introduced, and we had our first dance

at 8:05, his grandfather led us in a prayer and our DOC went around to release tables to go to the buffet

After everyone had been served, we did the toasts

at about 8:50 or so, we did the parent dances, and then dance floor opened.

We cut the cake around 10:30

We did the garter and bouquet toss around 11

We partied until 12, and then provided our guests transportation either back to the hotel or to the afterparty.

Our afterparty went until 2am.

Here was our timeline:

5:00-5:30 pm : Ceremony Seating

5:30-6:00 pm : Wedding Ceremony

6:00-7:00 pm : Cocktail Hour for Guests - Formal Bridal Party Pictures then private Bride and Groom Pictures

7:00-7:15 pm : Reception Seating

7:15 pm : Grand Entrances into Reception Begin

Order of events in Reception:

Dinner Blessing

Best Man Toast

Matron of Honor Toast

Father of the Bride Toast

Formal Dinner Served

Greet guests individually while they're still eating and seated at their tables

Once we got half way through the room, back to the middle where the dance floor was...

Cake Cutting

Continue greeting guests on the other half of the room

Cake cut and served while we were finishing greeting guests

Photographers took us out for more pictures with just my husband and I

Our First Dance

Father of the Bride Dance

Mother & Son [Memorial] Dance (for his late mother)

Mother & Bride Dance

Dance Floor Opens

Bouquet Toss

Garter Toss

Bridal Dance aka Money Dance

Last Dance of the Night

Good Luck!

Note: We were served our dinner first and finished eating first, which allowed us to get up and start greeting people while dinner was still being served, because we had 16 tables of 10 rounds, in addition to our 18 person head table, so we were able to make it halfway through the room before people were completely done with dinner...then we cut our cake and they cut and served it while we were finishing our rounds, so everyone was still seated and eating dessert when we did the second half of the room.

The dances went one right after another until the dance floor opened and then the tosses were done about an hour and a half later, then the bridal dance an hour or so after that, then the last dance of the night 6 hours after the reception began. We had a PACKED dance floor and were fortunate that our event lasted the entire time we had booked our venue. It was awesome!!

Fist dance should be the first thing after the grand entrance. Toasts are typically right before dinner. Cake cutting is after dinner sometime, it varies from each event. If you don't have a coordinator I would highly recommend getting at least a day of. A coordinator is going to know the best way to do the timeline. I didn't have to do my timeline at all. My coordinator did it all.

Talk to your DJ. Check out Pinterest.

Ceremony ends, cocktail hour begins.

1. Formal pictures

2. Bridal Party Entrance - then Bride and Groom

3. First Dance

4. Father/daughter dance

5. Mother/son dance (you can combine this with 4 if you wish)

6. First course

7. Toasts from FOB or Bride and Groom followed my MOH and Best Man toasts

8. Second course

9. Cake cutting

10. Bouquet/garter

Generally, your cake is done right after dinner or main food... or two hours before the end of the event.

Bouquet/garter are the same time frame... around 2 hours before everything's over.

You should set up for your Exit at least 10-15 minutes before your event time is over.

Mrs. Katie J your timeline sounds perfect! I wanted to do the first dance after dinner too but wasn't sure if that was ok to do since people usually do it right when they walk in. Seems weird to me to come in, dance and then everyone sits down to eat. Think I might go with something similar to your timeline

You're welcome!! We heard some really weird suggestions as to the order of things now...Our format was very traditional.

Neither my husband or I wanted to do the first dance OR the cake cutting right when we walked in, and apparently, that's becoming more common. We didn't understand why that's becoming so popular because who wants to walk in and start dancing only to sit down right after??

Stand your ground on the order of events, we did and we're so happy we were firm about it because our venue was trying to convince us otherwise. When we talked it over with our DJ, he said that our lineup was perfect for a good "flow" to the whole event.

I'm doing the first dance as soon as I walk in (I think) cutting the cake right after dinner. Still trying to figure out how to do things without breaking up the dancing to much. This what I have so far:

Wedding Reception timeline

6:00 PM Guest greeted by hostess

Passed Hors d'oeuvre

7:00 PM Announcement of bridal party

7:20 pm 1st dance

7:25 pm Welcome toast

7:30 pm Blessing

Dinner

Toasts between courses (Garth & Parker)

dancing/cake cutting

Sweetheart song

Garter/bouquet toss

DANCING!

PLEASE have a schedule or timeline. When I was MOH for the Halloween wedding we had nothing to go on and she got frustrated with us having to ask her constantly