Wedding day timeline?

I would talk to your hair and makeup artist and photographer! They told me how much time they needed for everything and that helped to create the overall timeline.

View Quoted Comment My hair and makeup person is my maid of honor! And my photographer is a friend of mine and he told me to just text him when I wanted him to come! Thank you for your response though❤️

This is our first draft, rough timeline for our 5 PM ceremony! This was after I consulted with my HAMU artist and photographer.

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

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

3:00 PM - Photographer & Videographer arrive for getting ready pictures/video

3:30 PM - Groomsmen take pictures

4:00 PM - Bridesmaids take pictures, first look with bride & father

4:50 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

6:30 - 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

10:30 PM - Grand Exit, start loading guest buses

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much! This helps!

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I think she means consult with them on how much time they will need. Like your MOH will tell you on average how long she thinks your hair and makeup will take, which will dictate how early you start getting ready. Then your photographer should be able to estimate how much time you need for pictures.

My vendors help me set our day-of timeline. With 5 people getting hair done and 3 getting makeup (including me), this is how our day looked:
8:15a Hair stylist showed up
—My sister (MOH) went to the hotels dining room and got breakfast to bring back for everyone else while hair started so we could eat while getting ready.
9:15a Makeup artist showed up
11:00a Around this time we ordered pizza for everyone for lunch
1:00p Photographers arrived to start coverage
1:15-2p Everyone gets dressed, getting ready photos
2:20p First look with dad
2:30p First look (we did end up starting this a bit later than planned)
2:45-4p Bridal party photos, bride and groom shots
4:00p Family photos; Videographer arrives (he showed up early and was able to get some bridal party shots!)
4:30p Bride goes into hiding in venue bridal suite (at this time, H was still taking family photos so I went with the bridesmaids)
5:00p Processional/Ceremony begins
5:30p Cocktail hour starts
6:30p Dining room opened for reception, photobooth open
6:40p Introductions, first dance, parent dances
(then we sat down immediately after that at our seats and my parents, MOH/BM gave their speeches. Then dinner started and we started circling tables)
8:00p Dance floor opened after dinner
8:30p Cake cutting
10:30p Wedding over

That was my tentative schedule prior to the wedding. Things changed once the photographer showed up and during the reception, where the DJ modified some of the times I had (which was completely fine, he knew what he was doing). Things will CHANGE, trust me. Our first look started later than planned, which made our other photos start later and go longer than planned. We definitely started hair and makeup with way more time than we needed (the stylists set the time that they would arrive and start based on the time I told them I needed to be ready by) and were finished before the photographers showed up. I worried about a timeline way more than I needed to, because it ended up changing a lot and I ended up filling open time slots with other things I needed to do/forgot about. Our photographers made sure our day flowed smoothly from one task to the next. The only thing I hated was that we got held up for bridal party/family photos (my Hs fault, he left his reception shoes in the hotel and had to go back for them 😑) and we were at the ceremony site and they started letting guests come up when they shouldn’t have. But oh well!

I'm also having a 5:00PM ceremony for my wedding on Friday, this is my timeline!

8:30AM - H&MU arrives at hotel

1:30PM - everyone finished, photographer arrives & begins getting ready shots

1:50PM - Head to venue

2:00PM - bridal portraits

2:30PM - groom arrives to venue and begins getting ready looks

3:00PM - first look

3:45PM - bridal party photos

4:30PM - first look of bride & FOB

4:50PM - Guests are seated, bridal party lines up

5:00PM - ceremony!

View Quoted Comment Oh I misunderstood, thank you for clarifying

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much! I understand I just want to make sure everything will get done at a reasonable time!

View Quoted Comment Thank you

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I have a question for you Nicole! What time does your wedding end? I ask because our wedding is from 5 PM - 11 PM, and I am starting getting ready with my bridal party at 10:00 AM. I'm so worried it'll be an insanely long, exhausting day for them being 13 hours nonstop basically. How are you going about dealing with this with your bridal party? I've been stressing!

Our ceremony time was 5pm. My wedding planner coordinated with the photographer to build the itinerary and also with the other vendors to make sure everyone was there when they are supposed to be.

9:00 - meet at salon to start hair
12:00 - arrive at venue to finish hair and start makeup - eat!
2:00 - detail shots
3:00 - bride and bridesmaid photos
3:45 - groom/groomsmen arrive
4:00 - groom/groomsmen photos
4:45 - wedding party, parents, officiant gather and go over any final details and line up
4:55 - guests are seated
5:00 - procession begins

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No need to stress at all! Our wedding is ending at 10:30PM, so it'll definitely be a long day for me too hahaa. Our venue is also providing a coffee break throughout the reception which will help, but with doing some photos beforehand, they'll have more downtime in between getting ready and before ceremony to relax.

I think it's going to definitely be more hectic for us as brides considering we'll be hosting, greeting, taking photos throughout the reception while the bridesmaids are truly having fun!

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That's true! I'm glad someone is in a similar situation. I've been in two weddings, one was 11 hours and the other was 9 so I didn't know if 13 was just insane or not haha

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No I think you're perfectly fine! I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where we were up at 5:00AM for her H&MU, ceremony at 10AM and then an evening reception from 6PM-12AM. It was an Indian wedding so I definitely had to prepare for a long day, but I feel like those long hours come with supporting the bride since their day is just as long.

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I hope all my bridesmaids are like you I'm feeding them a full lunch they are picking from Panera, a breakfast spread (nothing crazy, but enough to fill them up), we have a large bridal suite with 2 rooms and a bathroom, and I'm hiring a chair masseuse to come while we are getting ready! I'm trying to do as much as possible to make it relaxing haha!

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I think that's perfect, I'm also covering breakfast and lunch, and providing water and snacks once we're at the venue so no one crashes before the wedding haha