Timing a Sunset Wedding?

You can google sunset times for a particular day. It pulls from historical records

For great photos, have the ceremony earlier in decent light. Then sneak outside during your reception for romantic sunset pix.

Yes, I Googled it and it said 6:30. But that is true about the pictures. So maybe wedding at 5:30?

(I like the idea of romantic sunset pics outside!)

Pay attention to the sunset and twilight the coming October 7th

I totally stalked my venue the weekends of and around my wedding one year prior to get a feel for temp, sunlight, views, etc. My venue is in the mountains so just looking it up online it showed places further up or down the mountain. FH thought I was nuts but it totally changed our minds as to start and end times.

Our wedding started one hour before sunset. We had great light for our ceremony and for the family pictures after.

Usually they say the "golden hour" for photos is an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. But it depends on your venue as well (i.e. if there are hills, mountains, trees in the line of where the sunsets).

http://www.golden-hour.com/

Thanks all! I think I will also stalk the venue this fall to see what timing will work.

Hey I was going to do that! Decided not to though

I usually schedule my ceremonies for 30-45 minutes before the sun is due to set.

Also ask your photographer for recommendations.

I suggest a ceremony start time to my couples, but tell them if they have a PROFESSIONAL photographer, I will defer to him/her (some like to have more time between end of ceremony & sunset).

My ceremony is going to be in a gazebo on the Mississippi river and was super excited about having the sunset and river in the background however my wedding planner informed me that I needed to be careful since he has been to weddings there before during that time, and the sun was setting in everyone's eyes which made all the guests miserable and couldn't see anything. I moved the ceremony time up an hour so that it will be comfortable for guests and FH and I can get some awesome pictures afterwards

Hey date twin!

I plan on having my ceremony start at 4:30, pictures/cocktail hour after (assume 5-6) then reception. That way all the pictures are done in the light and we can get some others during reception after the sun goes down.

Definitely don't time to ceremony around the sunset. Most of the time they don't start on time and you wouldn't want to rush it or get frustrated right before! We are doing our ceremony a bit earlier, but we're going to go out during sunset and get more pictures. :-)

@JennV, date twin... I may end up being your timing twin as well, lol!

Good ideas here!

The sun won't be in people's eyes because the venue faces east (and there is a mountain to the west), but I am glad to be able to think that through.

We're getting married in MA, with the possibility of doing an outdoor or indoor ceremony (deciding that day). We wanted to have sunset be in our photos at any point. Sunset is scheduled for 4:30 PM on our wedding, so we're starting at 4 PM. That way, if outside, the sun will be setting as we're walking away, and we can take pics. Or, if inside, we'll be just around/after sunset and can do a few photos (like 10 mins) outside. I'd say with a sunset wedding, you can't really time it exactly, especially if there's a lot of guests. Just pick a general point at which you would like the sun to be setting (beginning of ceremony, towards end, etc.) and hope you run on time.