Wedding Day Timeline

So ours was 4-430 ceremony, 430-530 cocktail hour, 530-7ish dinner, followed by first dance and then open dance floor and dessert. We wrapped up at 10pm!

Your vendors can help you with your timeline. But here was mine. We kept it a little short since it was a Sunday. We also started early to get photos in before winter sunset. 2:30 prelude, 3:00 ceremony, 3:30 cocktail hour and photos, 4:30 special dances and buffet opened, 5:30 toasts, 5:45 group photo and dancing, 6:45 cake cutting, 7:50 last song and lining up for sparkler exit. We did not do the garter or bouquet toss.

I would roughly say cocktail hour should be an hour long, and it should barely give you enough time to do all the bridal party photos, family photos, and more. However, photos can sometimes take forever to do, I remember I went to a wedding whose cocktail hour lasted two hours, because there were so many photos that needed taking. TT-TT;;; Since I came as a plus one and wasn't part of the family, I was awkwardly by myself for those two hours... If you're a small wedding you should be fine, but try to not make cocktail hour any longer than an hour.

Talk to your vendors and see what they normally do. Everyone has a different idea of how they go.

Your vendors will help you come up with a timeline. Our photographer developed an entire day of timeline for us as well as our wedding planner, which were merged together to make one timeline. Let the professionals deal with that.