Timeline for day of

Are you using a day-of coordinator or planning+managing everything yourself?

I had my wedding at 2pm, so the timing is similar. We started hair & makeup at 9am (3 bridesmaids plus me). Groom’s side did pictures at 11:30, bride’s at 12:30. (No first look.) people started arriving at 1:30, ceremony at 2, into the reception to start appetizers by about 2:45.


You’ll want to allow more time for hair and makeup if you have a bigger party, but definitely talk to the stylists about how much time they’ll need. Most wedding ceremonies are around 20-30 minutes unless there’s a full religious service with a sermon and/or communion. Allow extra time between if you have to travel between ceremony and reception site, but if they’re walking distance it flows together much more quickly.

We let our photographer and caterer decide on the timeline because they knew how much time would be needed for family photos, how long to cook the courses of the meal, etc. I would ask yours.

Part of a day of coordinator and photographer’s jobs is making a timeline for you based on your needs. Talk to them and get everyone on the same page.

Wow! This is super helpful. Lots to think about!

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I'm glad it helps! I'm doing everything on my own and I've been learning that there's a lot of small details to think about and have only thought about it when my vendors asked me about things!

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Thank you! I don't have a coordinator but will talk more to my photographer.

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Perfect! Thank you!

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Perfect! This is super helpful! Thank you. We have bigger parties so I'll touch base with the stylist and MUA as well.

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I'm doing everything myself! I do have a sample booklet from my venue that had a sample timeline and was trying to base my day off of that.

How long will your ceremony be, and do you plan to start cocktail hour right away or will there be a gap between the ceremony and cocktail hour/reception? (If you're doing cocktail hour).