Timeline

Following! I have a ceremony time of 3:30 for a Sunday Wedding, but I’m still working on our timeline too

My ceremony starts at 4pm on a saturday. Here's my timeline. I have a small bridal party so keep that in mind when planning hair and makeup based off of how many stylist you have. Also take into consideration how many photographers you have.

Here's my tentative schedule! This seems to be the typical schedule of events for all the weddings I've been to in my area as well.

9am-11am: hair and makeup
11am-1pm: lunch and decorating
1pm-2:30pm: get dressed, photos with bridesmaids
3pm-3:30pm: ceremony
3:30pm-5:30pm: photos, lemonade reception
5:30pm-6:30pm: cocktail hour
6:30pm-11:30pm: dinner and dancing!

Here’s my draft: 8-10am finish decor, 10-1 hair and makeup, 1-1:30 get dressed, bridal party photos, 2:30 guest seating, 3:00 ceremony, 3:30-4:30 cocktail hour, 4:30 buffet opens, 5:00 speeches during dinner, 5:15 first dance and dancing opens, 6:45 cake cutting, 7:45 last song and line up for exit

Consider adding vendor arrive time to your timeline if you hire all your own vendors and is not thru the venue. My coordinator said you always tell the vendor at what time they need to be there otherwise is a disaster and they simply show up at whatever time they want.
Keep that in mind.

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I'm not familiar with a lemonade reception, can you tell us more about it? So your ceremony will end at 3:30, guests will attend what I think is similar to a cake and punch reception for two hours, then cocktail hour, then a full 5 hour reception?

Ask your photographer to send you a timeline based on your wedding ceremony time which depends in setting of the sunset, etc. This would be best to work around your entire timeline since they’ll know best. That’s my best recommendation.

My ceremony starts at 2. Setting up will start at 11. Photographer arrives at 1 for first look etc photos. Guests are set to start arriving at 130. Group and family photos after ceremony and food starts being served at 330. Reception ends at 6

I’ve got this but it’s messy

havent 100% decided on times for dj, photographers, and potential photobooth

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Yep - I'm actually really excited about this part! Our venue calls it a "soiree" but it's mostly just a way to fill that awkward time in between the ceremony and cocktail hour, especially for our many out-of-town guests.

Our ceremony is in the gardens of this estate/art museum. After the ceremony, the gardens will be open for guests to explore, and we'll have music and lawn games, tea/lemonade/water, and flavored popcorn in the small reception area to tide people over until the actual reception, which is about a five minute drive away.

Here is ours!

10:00 AM - Coordinator Arrives

10:00 AM - Bridal Party arrives at venue to start hair & makeup, snacks & lunch served

- Hair & Makeup arrives

12:00 PM - Grooms Party has lunch at hotel restaurant

1:30 PM - Grooms Party heads to venue to get dressed in groom's suite

2:00 PM - Groomsmen start to get ready

3:00 PM - Photographer & Videographer arrive, Caterers arrive

3:15 PM - Groomsmen take pictures

3:45 PM - Bridesmaids take pictures

4:15 PM - Bride & bridesmaids puts on dresses

4:30 PM - First look with bride & father

4:45 PM - Groomsmen head out to ceremony space, guests start to arrive & sit down

5:00 PM - Ceremony begins

5:30 - 6:30 PM - Cocktail hour, wedding party/bride & groom portraits/family pictures

6:15 - 6:40 PM - Guests are seated to plated salad

6:40 PM - Bride & Groom, wedding party entrance

6:45 - Bride & Groom first dance

6:50 - Dinner (We haven't decided plated or buffet, leaning towards plated. Plated will take 15 minutes to serve to 175 guests.)

7:15 PM - MOH, BM, FOB speeches

7:45 PM - Father/Daughter dance, Mother/Son dance

8:00 PM - Cake cutting

8:15 PM - 10:30 PM - Dance floor open

9:00 PM - Bouquet Toss

9:05 PM - Garter Toss

10:30 PM - Grand Exit, buses arrive

11:00 PM - All guests out of venue

12:00 AM - All vendors out of venue

3pm: Arrive at venue to get ready, finalize décor, and take some pictures

6pm: Let's get married!

6:30pm: Cocktail hour for guests and more pictures

7:30pm: Reception entrance and start of dinner services

8:30-9pm: First dance and father-daughter dance

And then we boogey all night... or until 11pm when we're due to leave the venue haha.

I don't have my whole timeline locked down yet. But not wanting to be rushed is exactly why we decided on a ceremony start time of 4:00pm. Any earlier, and I would end up being a mad woman and totally stressed out. The late afternoon start will allow me plenty of time to get ready at a leisurely pace, have the first look and a bunch of pics out of the way before the ceremony starts, and then I can join my reception shortly after my guests do to maximize the amount of time I can spend with them.

Another thing to keep in mind is your venue, and what their rules are for setting up decor, or anything else you have to do yourself. My venue will set up all the tables/chairs, linens, dishes, etc. But decor has to be done by us, and we can't start until the morning of the wedding. So, there had to be plenty of time in the day for that, before I have to start getting ready. But if you have a venue that will let you in the day before, even better!

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Glad to see another messy notebook girl... me too!

Mine is tentively...

1. ceremony at 430

2. cocktail hour immediately after approx 5pm.

6. dinner at 6pm.

7. dancing at 7pm.

8. finish by 11pm.

But I am very untraditional as I have no set time for photos.

View Quoted Comment I’m a Sunday 3:30 wedding also.

Anybody have any suggestions for a 2:00 ceremony starting time, wedding timeline. I have 2 Maid of Honors and that is all. I was thinking of start getting ready around 9 am and then start taking pictures around 11-12 pm. Get groom and his groomsmen pictures a little before that. Then we was wanting to do a first look and pictures with my maid of honors and then pictures with the whole bridal party. Was hoping to have those pictures done by 1:00. That way nobody sees us before the wedding starts. We are doing simple hair styles and simple make up.

My ceremony starts at 4:30pm and we have to leave the reception by 9:30pm. Ceremony and reception both at the same hotel, plus we’ll be staying there too.

My ceremony is at 4pm, but we are starting to get ready at 7:45am! This is because photos for the girls is at 2pm, and the make up artist has to start that early in order to get everyone done before 2pm. While the girls are getting ready, the groom and groomsmen will do their photos at 11am, then chill till the ceremony. We are not doing a first look, so we are doing groom/bride photos after the ceremony.

My wedding will have a 4pm start time on a Saturday.

I haven't necessarily nailed down the "getting ready" times in the morning as of yet. My venue has a bridal suite but it is smaller. So I think we will do hair/make up at the hotel before going to the venue. I will get dressed at the venue. We plan on doing the first look pictures, which need to be completed by 3:30 because that will be when guests begin to arrive. I'll take the 3:30 to start time to "freshen up". But other than that this is my timeline so far. Some advice that I have heard is to make sure your DJ is well aware of your schedule so that he knows when to get people moving in different directions.

4:00- Ceremony

4:30-5:15- Cocktail Hour- there will be lawn games, music, open bar, and snacks

5:15-5:30- I have time allotted for people to make their way to their tables (really hit the bar again before they sit down lol)

5:30- Bridal Party & Parents Entrance, Introduction of Bride & Groom, All the dances (First, Mother, Father)

5:45- Buffet style dinner begins

6:30- Toasts (MOH, BM, Parents)

7:00- Music really starts and party begins

8:15- Cake cutting and possibly The Shoe Game/ We are not doing bouquet/garter toss, so the Shoe Game would stand in for that type of entertainment. Look it up on Youtube if you've never heard of it. I think its cute.

10:00- Last Call

10:20 - Last Dance

10:30- Sparkler Send off (or whatever we decide to do for the send off)

Everyone off property by 11:30

A big question that I have is I am doing a lot of DIY stuff in terms of the décor. Probably won't take longer than an hour to set up. When do y'all find time to sneak away before your too dolled up to head down and do that yourself? Or do you find someone else to do it? That's been so confusing for me in terms of the timeline - just looking for other people's thoughts or suggestions.