Wedding Timeline for a Thursday Evening???

How many guests will you have? 15 minutes for the receiving line works if you have no more than 20-25 guests. Also, when will you get into your dress? It makes little sense to have first look unless you're dressed for the wedding.

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I was planning on leaving the cocktail hour about 15-20 mins early to put my dress back on. We aren't really doing any posed photos, maybe just a couple of us and the bridal party so it won't take a full hour. We're having about 75, that's another reason we wanted to be able to join the cocktail hour. And thank you so much! I was wondering how to change it lol

Welcome to the WeddingWire Community @Nena!

Thanks you guys!!!

OK, I would skip the receiving line then. It gives you about 12 seconds per person, so you will start running late. Also, getting in and out of the dress usually takes a little time. Depending on how complicated the dress is, but it usually takes longer than you think.

Okay great, I didn't really see a point of the receiving line anyway but my mother is insisting that I do one. But If we already greet everyone at the cocktail hour and we will be going from table to table as well.

So should I leave cocktail hour around 5:45 and that gives me about 30 minutes to get back into my dress? Also everything takes place outside except for the dancing. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

I agree with Mrs S... to get in your dress and line up in time for the ceremony, you should leave cocktail hour at 5:45. Also, all of that on and off, on and off of your dress might mess with your hair and make-up.

You have the place starting at noon. Do you need to do the set up and decorations? or does the staff at the venue set up? Are you doing any bridal shots of yourself? Pictures with your wedding party? With your families?

Another way to do the receiving line is to dismiss the guests row by row after the ceremony. Bump dinner to 7:30

I will be doing the set up myself with some hired staff. But it's very simple decor since we will be eating outside. I won't be setting up any chairs or tables.

I fiugred I would step into the dress to keep my hair from messing up or just putting on a satin bonnet whenever I changed. And I'm not worried about the makeup lol I don't wear alot anyway so I don't want to glob it on. One of my BMs is a professional makeup artist so she will be with me the entire time to do touchups if I need it.

I wanted more candid shots of me and the girls getting ready and we will have maybe 5 MAX posed shots with the bridal party and parents. I hate posing for pictures and it's just too many people to wrangle for an hour long photo session.

The ceremony is outside behind the house in a gazebo, and the reception (dinner) is in front of the house in the pavilion. So i guess once we leave from the ceremony area we could just stand at the entrance of the pavilion and receive guests again as they come in

Maybe we should do first look at 3pm to give us more time?? I just don't want to start dinner so late. 90% of our guests are local but will be leaving work early to attend. I don't want them starving lol

8:00 Wake up - Shower - EAT

9:00 Hair appointment

11:00 EAT Something

12:00 Set up

1:30 Freshen up

2:00 Photographer shows up - Detail/decoration/ring shots - shots of girls getting ready - Get into dress

3:00 First look photos & Candids

4:15 change Dresses (potty break)

5:00 - 5:50 Cocktail hour

5:30 Get into dress

6:00-6:15 Ceremony

6:15-6:35 Receiving line

6:40 Guests find seats - Wedding party line up

6:45 Introductions

6:55 Prayer

7:00 Dinner

7:30 Toasts

7:45 B&G walk around tables

8:00 1st Dance

Thank you Hayley!!! This is exaclty what I need!!! The only is I won't have to do the hair appointment and we're not doing introductions. And I was totally not thinking abuot when I would eat lol

You're welcome... If no intro, just use that time as a buffer. You want to be sure everyone has their drinks, is seated, and prayers/toasts are done BEFORE 7 to keep everything on schedule. Don't make the waiters stand at the doors with food getting cold as they wait for someone to finish a speech. Do speeches/toasts during dinner while everyone is eating.

OKay, we're having a buffet so should we still do speeches during dinner? I don't think anyone would miss anything unless they went to the bathroom.

I'm curious about why you're doing the cocktail hour before the ceremony. It's usually right before the reception, and I think it might make your day go more smoothly? And I think a 7 pm or 7:30 dinner is just fine, especially if you've fed them apps.

We're doing the cocktail hour before the ceremony so we have a chance to greet guests and pretty much be apart of everything. Since we are doing first look photos and the ceremony and reception (dinner) are about 100 feet from each other, there's no point in having a cocktail hour before dinner we figure. Plus we figured doing the cocktail hour at that time gave people more time to make it to the ceremony.