Wedding Day of Flow - stressed :|

If you have a DJ they are a great person to reach out to for timing!

I was feeling this way and decided that what I truly needed was a day if coordinator.. someone that is going to move behind the scenes and get vendors in line, guests in place and do all the running around with a clip board.. the DJ will do that for you in Emcee services during the reception. Think if your day of coordinator as the person who understands your vision and will go and crack the whip for you when where and if it needs cracking in an elegant fashion.

I’m type A too and although I have hired wedding planners for the day of, I still want to be in control so I understand!

I literally sat down and started writing out timelines with different options because we are not doing a lot of the traditional reception things.

Your DJ will definitely help announce events and help with the transition between, you will not look awkward as long as you know what the plan is and have an idea of what to expect.

Because I’m a visual person I sketched out everything, but you may want to try researching into various timelines and deciding how you want to re-order or change the amount of time allotted for each based on your preferences.

This is your wedding do what you want!

There are great articles and tools to use when planning your timeline and preparing for your events. Hiring a day of coordinator can be a tremendous help to lift the burdens of the day, and all number of family and friends are happy to support you as you prepare. All will be well. Happy planning!

Yes your DJ or photographer should work with you on the day of timeline! And like other said there are also great tools online to help! But your photographer should be guiding the timeline of the day!

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My photographer hasn't been helpful. He's literally just there to take pictures. I'll try the DJ.

View Quoted Comment Oh man. I am sorry your photographer hasn’t been helpful. That is one of their important jobs, on the day of the wedding if your photographer isn’t organized and keeping the day of timeline things can get very backed up! I have seen weddings where the photographer didn’t have any day of timeline and the bride and groom where 45 min late to the reception. So I would make sure once you have a timeline you talk to him and also designate someone on the day of to keep things moving if he isn’t going to take that responsibility!

A wedding coordinator can help, and like someone else said, your DJ can help a lot with timing. I’m also a huge list maker and having a visual list to tick off helps me a lot.

But most of all, just try to relax if you can. Take a deep breath and accept that something will probably go wrong. It happens and it’s okay! At the end of the day, as long as you’re married, that’s all that matters!

The DJ will help you immensely! I was clueless as well until I talked with mine. He was pretty cool about the whole thing. Don't let your guests wait around too long. I know I've gotten bored at a few of the ones I've been too because I was stuck waiting around.

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I emailed with my DJ and he gave me a nice timeline so I can match the songs with the events which helps me visualize a bit. And yes! I don't want guests to get bored.

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I definitely do need to relax. I get real anxious. I will probably schedule a massage for that week.

I didn't know at first either, but I found lots of resources online for how to schedule a day-of timeline! Just do a Google search on it; there are articles that will break it down for you into various options and you can pick one.

Generally it would go something like this:
Half of an hour ceremony.
Immediately followed by cocktail hour (one hour long). If your ceremony and reception site are in different locations, you may want to add in travel time.

Grand entrance - fifteen minutes.
Dinner. Usually one hour.
Toasts and first dances. Probably 30-40 minutes.
Open dance for half an hour.
Bouquet/garter toss.
More open dance (another half hour or so).

Cake cutting.

More open dance.

So let's say your ceremony started at 5, then it would go until 5:30. Followed by cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30. Grand entrance 6:30-6:45. Dinner 6:45-7:45. Toasts and first dances 7:45-8:15 (or maybe 8:30 depending on how many toasts you have). Open dancing. Bouquet/garter toss around 8:45. Cake cutting maybe 9:15 or 9:30. Then the remainder of your reception (probably until 11:30 or so) would just be open dancing/drinking/mingling.

This is just a general idea and of course you can move things around as you wish! But this is sort of how I did mine. Hope it helps a little.

Talk to your HMA, photographer and DJ about timelines. They do this stuff all the time and will be able to help out with a timeline. And the DJ should help with the flow of the evening by making announcements and keeping track of the time.