Reception Timeline Help!!

Usually, family photos take place at the same time as the cocktail hour - otherwise your other guests are left standing around with nothing to do. So I’d have those two happen at the same time (but you can have a cocktail ‘hour’ that lasts 90 mins and runs to 6pm if you want to).

30 minutes for a grand introduction feels too long for me. 30 mins also seems too long for the ‘spotlight’ dances. I’d have thought 30mins total would be enough time for the introductions and the dances, but I suggest you discuss with your DJ, if you’re having one - they’ll have a good sense of how long those sort of things usually take. I’d also suggest talking to your venue/caterer about how long to allow for dinner - again they’ll know what’s usual in their experience. And your photographer is likely another good source of experienced input on timelines.

At the moment, I think there is too long between the cocktail hour and sitting down to dinner - I’d be worried about guests getting hungry. Shortening some of the times you’ve allowed would help with that, but you could also move the dances or the speeches to after dinner, or have them between courses if that works for your catering.

Hope this helps🙂.

"4:30-5:30 bride and groom Family photos 5:30-6:00cocktail hour": This is only okay if you're having a 1st look. As Liz said, family photos take place at the same time as the cocktail hour ( without a 1st look ). If you're not traditional: The 1st look allows you to take many (if not all) of your wedding photos before your ceremony so that you can enjoy your cocktail hour with your guests. Portraits take between 45 minutes to an hour. You should allot more than half an hour IMO.

The point of cocktail hour is to host guests while you're taking pictures. Your photo session should be during the cocktail hour, not before it. It would also be a good idea to have toasts (not speeches) during dinner, not before.

Here are my thoughts.

1. Unless you're having a gap between ceremony and reception (i.e. if ceremony is in a church), then family photos should occur during cocktail hour. Otherwise, what will all of the other guests be doing during that time?

2. Cocktail hour is usually an hour long, not 30 minutes

3. 30 minutes seems like a LONG time for a grand entrance. I think our grand entrance was 60 seconds long, maybe 90 seconds maximum. What do you plan on doing that you will need 30 minutes for?

4. 30 minutes also seems way too long for those dances. Usually bride and groom first dance is around 2 minutes long, and same with the parent dances

5. I wouldn't recommend having a sparklers (if you're intending that as a sparkler exit) before kicking off the main dancing because guests often take sparkler exits as a cue to leave.

6. I'd also recommend having the speeches and toasts during dinner instead of before dinner. That way guests won't get bored or hungry

I agree with PP. the point of a cocktail hour is the give your guests something to do while you’re taking pictures. That’s not something the bride and groom attend. And as the name suggests, it’s usually an hour or just over an hour long, unless you’re planning in taking photos before the ceremony.


Your grand entrance will definitely not take 30 minutes at all. You just walk into the room where you will be dancing and start dancing. It will take at the most one and a half minutes.
I would have dinner directly after your three dances. After dinner, your other dances and garter toss and speeches can happen.

I agree with previous posts. You could easily add more dancing time at the end by almost 2 hours if you align the cocktail hour with your family pictures, shorten the times for the intro, spotlight dances, etc. Dinner should start earlier IMO. I have my bridal party intros and grand entrance at 5 minutes followed by dinner blessings from my future FIL to kick off dinner right away. We're doing a served dinner and specifically asked to be served first (along with my vendors) so we can finish eating so we can sneak off for sunset pics for 20 minutes while everyone is eating. We updated it recently to include all the people that need to be in pictures so we can share with them and our photographer/videographer to make sure everyone knows where there they need to be. We alloted 30 min after the ceremony for guests to get to the reception. We are getting married at a resort so it's either a 5 min drive or 15-20 minutes if guests opt to ride the resort shuttle. We don't have a cocktail hour but guests that arrive before 7pm will have an open bar to enjoy before our grand entrance.


Here's our schedule in case it helps.

Thanks ladies ♥️♥️♥️This helps a lot 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙏🏼

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Is this timeline template available online?