Timeline

I don't think you need a super detailed timeline, but your DJ and photographer will likely want to know approximate times of when you plan on doing dinner, toasts, special dances and anything else you may want announced or captured in pictures.

I think this depends a lot on your expectations for the day and how many vendors you'll have and how much needs to be coordinated. If you're super flexible and will be happy with whatever happens, I think a broad timeline is great. But, if you're going to be upset if the day ends without specific photos you really wanted to have happen, or that the guests were served cake 5 minutes before the reception ended (and we've been to a wedding where that happened...as the DJ was announcing the last dance the servers started distributing cake...at 9:45 pm), then I think a more detailed timeline is super helpful -- if nothing else so your vendors (e.g., cater/DJ/photographer/etc.) are all on the same page. You don't want the DJ announcing the cake cutting while the photographer is in the restroom or other things that might be better if coordinated, so from that perspective more details can be helpful.

Daughter's venue coordinator gave her a great timeline to start with, which she went over with the photographer to make sure he had enough time for all the specific photos they were hoping for, then she asked the DJ for input (he suggested moving something to right before the cake cutting so it didn't disrupt the dancing/party more than necessary). When it was pretty well finalized, she shared it with other vendors (florist, cake delivery, etc.) to make sure everything worked for them. Finally, she sent the final draft to all four parents and the wedding party, so everyone had a pretty good idea of when and where they needed to be. However, she's HIGHLY structured and had a very clear vision of what she wanted to be certain would happen. For them, it was perfect. (At the end of the day, I'm sure there were things that didn't happen at the exact scheduled time, but everything happened, the flow was great, and they never felt like they were rushing because they were behind schedule. She did build in time buffers throughout the day, and, honestly, they pretty much used them all.)

I do but it's also a play by ear type because things won't go as planned even with the specific timetable

I think the timeline is less for you and more for your vendors. They need to know what times things are happening so they can do their job more efficiently.

View Quoted Comment Thanks! I think we have everything worked out for our vendors. So they have a good idea of when things are happening.

View Quoted Comment My vendors are much better than the coordinator. She blows. We have our timeline for the vendors so I think we're good to go. We're also not doing a lot of the traditions. Thank you for your response. It was helpful.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Very true.

View Quoted Comment Yes I didn’t even think about the timeline til I met with the dj and photographer they both have asked me for one 😒