Why are you late??!

I went to a wedding and it started 50 minutes late because the bride didn't like the way her hair looked so the hairstylist had to keep redoing it.

Couples need to have a realistic timeline with built-in buffers. I added 15 minutes to most things. Also, I think a DOC would help a lot to keep pre-ceremony things moving along....

I would suggest telling parties to be there 30 min to an hour earlier of when they need to be there.

I have the same problem. Unfortunately my FH is late for everything so he knows if he's late at being at the alter he be walking down the isle while I'm standing at the alter and he knows that's not a good thing! Lol he knows I'm kidding kind of!

There should be no reason unless there is an accident in the road that you are not aware of. Otherwise, it's poor planning/scheduling of the day.

Usually when the bride takes too long to get ready is when I've been to weddings that started late. Keep an eye on the clock and cushion an extra hour into getting ready. Ask a bridesmaid if they'd be your timekeeper so you know when to start getting dressed and moving photos along.

Schedule extra time in the schedule for getting ready and you'll be fine. My invite time was 5pm and we began right at 5.

Hire a professional hair/MUA & DOC & they should be able to create a timeline down to the last minute. I would have been late to my own wedding if it weren't for the ones I hired!

I've never been to a wedding that started late so this is odd to me.

Make sure you factor everything in to your timeline. Like limos are slower than a regular car. And you don't just walk out the door in your wedding dress. You have to factor travel time between places. I was in a wedding the salon was 30 minutes with no traffic from where we got dressed. She didn't factor that in. We walked out 5 minutes AFTER we were supposed to be putting on our dresses.

I am a total late freak; everyone I work with knows this. It is simply not tolerable, it's avoidable 90% of the time and it's flat our rude to your guests. At an hour late? You're now looking at not only overtime for your officiant (if they can even stay), your music, your photographer and your video people since they can't do their jobs in the timeframe you're paying for. And your reception will, in most cases, be cut short if that doesn't start on time. If your wedding reception costs 20,000, a twenty minute delay will cost you about 1350.00 in lost time. That makes it real, doesn't it?

So what do you do? For yourself, you make sure every vendor ESPECIALLY YOUR MUA AND HAIR knows that your priority is to be on time. Make sure your BP knows that if they're not on time you're walking without them. Build in extra time into your timeline so you're not rushed all day. Everything will take longer than you think; getting dressed, getting in and out of the car, even eating. You will lose things. You will look for them. It will take time. Make a list, drop as much stuff as you can at the venue before hand, including your license if they have somewhere safe to put it. Pack everything else and put it in one spot.

Hire a DOC if you can afford it. Stress that you want to be on time and obey them, lol...

Factor in traffic; WAZE is your best friend. Warn your guests if there is a festival, parade, street fair, a difficult to find venue.

Limos get lost. I have no idea why.

Shuttles are the worst offenders. They will wait forever unless you give them an exact time you expect them to be there, which should be a half hour before you want to start. People need to unload, go to the restrooms and get settled; they don't just materialize, ready to go. I would say that more than half of my late weddings are due to shuttles. (I rarely have a late bride or groom...)

Invite everyone for a half hour ahead and provide a hospitality/mingling time with water, maybe wine, coffee in the morning. People say it's rude to lie to your guests but every venue here does this and it works out great.

Do family pictures ahead of time. This gets the people you theoretically need to have there, there on time.

And lastly, once you keep yourself on time, be prepared to start no matter who is there or not. Literally every week we have people wandering in late, sometimes when the ceremony is almost finished. Their rudeness or unpreparedness shouldn't derail your day.

Bottom line? You have control over it. You can control your own behaviour, you can choose to ignore the haphazard planning of others.

At one wedding I went to one of the two elevators broke and the ceremony was on the 9th floor terrace. Guests had to go up 5 at a time. The bride apparently was so anxious because she had no idea why it was taking so long for everyone to show up. The officiant made it part of her ceremony and it was funny watching the bride find out what happened to all of her guests. It pushed back the ceremony 30 minutes but everyone was in good spirits.

I have never been to a wedding that started more than a couple of minutes late. I simply cannot imagine an hour or more. Our wedding will be at 5pm and we plan to be ready by 1pm because we are doing a first look and then driving 20 min away to take pictures. I want to be back at the venue by 4pm at the latest, so we have plenty of time to relax and not be rushed before the ceremony.

I was late to my wedding, because my makeup artist was talking instead of doing her job.

Later we got stuck in traffic, but don't worry about it, whatever happens will happen no matter what.

For now just relax and go with a flow. Once the wedding is over you will think back and laugh because you worried about things that aren't even important.

My photographer said all weddings she's been a part of that started late were due to hair/makeup.

If your hair and MU people are late, you're screwed.

Ask your vendors and especially your photographer who they recommend.

As you can tell, I'm not a 'going with the flow' person. I'm a, "let's anticipate the worst case scenario and how to avoid it' person.

Our DOC is going to keep us on schedule

@Lulu L.

What were some of the reasons for the 1-2 hour delays?!?!? I couldn't imagine just sitting there for that long...oh my! Did some official come out and make an announcement or something? Give an explanation?

Outside of some crazy disaster/accident, no one should have guests waiting for them that long. That's just crazy! I've never been to a wedding and waited that long for it to begin. That just blows my mind...

I absolutely HATE tardiness! I set alarms (early ones) for hair about everything I do/places I go. I always make it a habit to be 15/20 early to stuff...

We didn't hire a DOC and no one was late.

1 or 2 hours late? We would have gotten up and left. H and I would have found a nice place to eat on the way home.

I recently went to the wedding of a friend of mine. It started an hour and a half after it was supposed to, the bride couldn't find her veil and refused to walk down without it. She had left it back at her house 30 minutes away from the wedding venue.