Time Line with H&m in Mind

The best way to work this is to ask your photographer what they think the best time to have your first look/ceremony would be based on the sunset at your time of year.

From there, ask your hair and makeup artist how long each thing will take (if it's the same person doing both, or if you have one of each and can stagger people). Then you just tell them what time the makeup needs to be done by, as suggested by your photographer, and give yourself a bit of a buffer.

Definitely rely on the professionals here - the venue and the photographer will have done loads of weddings and know the best time to have your first look, ceremony and reception. The hair and makeup people will know how long they require for each element.

It is common to plan an evening wedding around the time of sunset for the best pictures. It may help to start by talking to your photographer first, figure out how they want to shoot ‘golden hour’ and work backwards from there. Hair/makeup should ideally be scheduled based on the timeline you pick for everything else (pictures, dinner, acceptable end time for your guests) so it will likely be one of the last times to finalize.
For reference, we are starting hair/makeup for 6 people at 10am for a 4:30pm ceremony without a first look and that includes a solid hour of buffer time between being ready and go-time.

When you talk to your vendors, ask what time they plan on arriving and how long for setup. These will be important as you get further into details. For example, our cake had to arrive while the florist was still onsite to put flowers on the cake. For us, we had to be done by 10pm. Last song was at 9:55pm. If your ceremony and reception are at two different locations, I was told to double the traveling time within your timeline (unexpected delays such as construction, ensuring you can traveling safely and not rushing). I was also told to move approximately 100 guests takes about 15 minutes (when DJ announces guests should be seated as reception is to begin takes that long for everyone to actually be seated).
I had to be in my dress by 2:00pm with bridal party and parent photos to follow. 3:30pm hidden/prepare for ceremony. We did a 4:00pm ceremony, 5:00 cocktail hour, 6:15 announcements immediately into first dance, then toasts while dinner was served (6:30). 8:15pm sunset photos. Our DJ was super helpful and helped us plan down to the minute. Hope this helps and good luck ❤️❤️❤️

Hi Amanda! I think the most helpful approach is to work backwards from the end of the night!!

So if midnight is the absolute end of the night I'd aim to end the reception by 11pm so you have time for your guests to disperse and for you vendors to take care of takedown and clean-up!!

On average receptions are four hours long with a one hour cocktail hour - so that would set your cocktail hour at 6pm. Depending on the length of your wedding ceremony you could kick that off at 5 or 5:30!

For the wedding day timeline leading up to the ceremony you'll want to work with your photographer and hair/makeup team to figure things out!!

This article has great scheduling tips and a sample timeline you can use as a starting point:

9 Wedding Day Timeline Rules Every Couple Should Follow

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for all of your helpful answers and advice!