Wedding timeline

Not sure if you’re planning to do an afternoon or evening wedding, but i can provide you with our timeline because we also didn’t do a first look, and had our photographer for 5 hours:


9am: begin getting ready11:30am: photographer arrives with the groom11:45am: photographer arrives with the bride12:00pm: ceremony begins12:30pm: ceremony ends12:40pm: cocktail hour begins (if you want a DJ for cocktail hour perhaps he could arrive at this time)1:40pm: cocktail hour ends2:00pm: grand entrance into the ceremony (good time for DJ to arrive too!)2:05pm: toasts2:30pm: first course is served3:00pm: main course is served4:15pm: cake cutting4:30pm: photographer leaves4:57pm: last dance5:00pm: reception ends

Omg, no clue why my phone jumbled it into a giant hard-to-read paragraph like that 😖 you get the idea though lol

Do you already have a time set for your ceremony? I would have your DJ's time start about half an hour after the ceremony and then the reception end 4 hours after that once his/her time is up. For the photographer, depending on if you want a lot of getting ready/pre-ceremony photos (to cut down the time taking photos during cocktail hour), you could have them show up 1-2 hours before the ceremony.

Our wedding was on July 20, 2019

We didn't have the same restrictions with photographer & DJ, but we didn't do a first look. Our wedding was 5 PM to 11 PM. Since you have to be out by 9 PM, I'd start at 3 PM. So ceremony at 3 PM, cocktail hour 3:30-4:30 PM (this is when you'll take pictures), and reception 4:30-9 PM. I'd have your photographer from 2:30 (for some final getting ready shots to 8:30 PM. Do your send off at 8:15 PM so guests can mingle & party a little after, then head home by the 9 PM deadline. I'd have the DJ from 4:30-8:30 so he can start the reception & wrap it up around 8:30.

View Quoted Comment We will more than likely do an afternoon wedding. We are currently looking at starting between 3-4 but just aren’t sure how to plan the whole timeline. What did you mean by photographer arrives with groom/bride? And did you regret not having any getting ready photos? I’m trying to decide if that’s important or not. The pictures of them look cool, but wandering if it’s really necessary and if I’d be comfortable with someone taking pictures of me getting dressed and what not.

View Quoted Comment We haven’t decided on a set time but are thinking between 3-4 pm. The photographer did suggest doing some pictures before even if we don’t do a first look such as bridal party pictures separately (we will have two photographers). I guess I’m not sure how much time to schedule for these if that makes sense. 30 minutes each? Then do group bridal party photos and couples pictures after ceremony? They also suggested sunset photos which would be around 8 or so during the summer. So this is why I’m having so much trouble lol

View Quoted Comment I like the idea of starting an early send off for photographer, but so would the reception end at 8:30 since the DJ would be gone?

View Quoted Comment

I'd tell the venue 9 PM in case people are mingling or talking or taking pictures for a little after the grand exit. We left at 10:30 for our grand exit and our guests left closer to 10:45!

View Quoted Comment

Well we got ready in separate rooms haha, so like our photographer arrived at the venue at 11:30 and went to my husband's room for 15 minutes, then came to my room at 11:45.

I really don't regret not having getting ready photos! They're cute and all, but really what are you going to do with a billion pictures of yourself and your friends in cute pjs? Lol. Like you'll put them in an album, maybe post one on social media (if at all...) I also feel like having the photographer there would've made me feel pressured to get ready faster, or worry about what I looked like WHILE getting ready.

If we had more time with the photographer maybe I would've had a little of that? But since we only had 5 hours I preferred to have more photos at the reception. My hair stylist took a photo of me and my bridesmaids before we got dressed so we do have 1 cute picture in the matching robes, and I feel like that was enough!

But I did feel like having the photographer arrive a bit before the ceremony (but 15-30 minutes before is enough...) because it was nice to get some photos of me alone in my dress, got some of me and my mom, and of me putting on my jewelry (so that's a bit of "getting ready"). Also got pictures of my husband with each of his groomsmen so we didn't have to worry about too many of those after the ceremony. I'm posting on my computer right now but I'll make a new comment from my phone and share the ones I'm talking about

View Quoted Comment Ohh that makes sense. I don’t mind if guests talk after (our ceremony and reception space will also be The same building where some people are lodging) but they will just have to take that up to their room or outside. Lol

Our one cute-robes picture lol:

Pre-ceremony professional pics in my bridal suite:





Husband and his groomsmen pre-ceremony:

View Quoted Comment I love these! They’re nice & simple without taking a lot of pre ceremony pictures. So your photographer did 15 mins before ceremony with each of you? Did they allocate any time to take venue pictures such as of the cake , decorations and tables before people sat down?

View Quoted Comment Actually I think it was more like 10 mins with him and 20 with me lol, but yeah another that!



So our ceremony was in the same room as the reception, and our cocktail hour was in a different room (so they set the room for the reception during cocktail hour). Our photographers beat everyone upstairs and got a few photos in of the cake, place setting, etc. before everyone came up. I can’t imagine that took them more than 5 mins lol, especially since we didn’t have much decor.

^sorry I realized my last comment was super unclear, I’m tired 😂 I meant to say our photographers beat everyone back to the reception room after cocktail hour, so that’s when they got photos of the decor and cake and table settings and such!

View Quoted Comment That’s what I was wondering , that should only take about 10-15 minutes. Our ceremony and reception are in the same place. There are just doors and a wall dividing the rooms so I was thinking they could snap pictures of decor in reception area (which should be fast because they be done weddings there before & it should only be pictures of the different tables. We won’t have much decor outside the basics such centerpieces, seating chart etc.) I’m not sure as of now where the cocktail hour will be such as ceremony space or reception space, but I know I don’t want to pay an extra hour for photographer so I’m trying to see how I can fit everything in. How long did you all divide the hour for bridal party pics , couples pics and pictures with family or was it split evenly 30 mins for bridal party and 30 mins for couple pics?

View Quoted Comment Yeah I’m confident it didn’t take ours more than 5 mins to snap a few photos of the decor, I wouldn’t worry about it! As long as you make it clear to them that you want to make sure you have plenty of photos of that stuff, they’ll be able to time manage well enough to make sure they get them and to figure out when.


As for the hour of photos (during cocktail hour) we did family photos in about 10 mins, bridal party photos in another 15 mins, and then about 15 mins of couples photos, and we made it to the last 20 mins of cocktail hour 😂 our photographers were SUPER speedy (like WAY faster than I expected), and everything came out great! I wasn’t expecting to be able to make it to cocktail hour at all but I’m so glad we did.

Another thing they did was during the reception, about once an hour they pulled us outside for another 5-10 mins worth of photos. It was really nice... quick enough each time that we didn’t feel like we were missing too much of the reception and didn’t feel like our day was dominated by photo taking, but we also got a lot of photos in a lot of different locations around the venue.

You should talk with your photographer though about how much time they generally spend on family/bridal party/couple photos though, and discuss with them how you want to divide time up during that hour.

View Quoted Comment Wow it does sound like they were fast lol and that’s a good idea about them pulling you all to the side. I know our photographers want to do sunset photos which should only take a few minutes. We don’t have a super large bridal party so I don’t think it should take too long. I’m waiting to hear back from them regarding other suggestions but your pictures , and suggestions definitely helped! Thank you so much!

View Quoted Comment Anytime! ☺️