I am often asked why it’s so important to have a run-sheet or a timing schedule of your wedding day. Having a list of what’s going on, and at what time is crucial to your wedding day running as smoothly as possible. I always tell my brides, ‘it’s better to allow too much time, and then have extra time to eat, or twiddle your thumbs, than be rushing and running around trying to get your dress tied up, running late for your ceremony, and missing photographs that you would have otherwise enjoyed.
I usually find out first what is going to happen during the day, and if there is anything out of the ordinary. Occasionally there will be something out of the ordinary, like a special stop to see somebody before the ceremony or something like that, but in general most wedding days follow a pretty similar timeline.
Here is a sample idea of 2 different wedding timelines for you to get some ideas from.
1. The bride and groom not seeing eachother until the wedding ceremony
10.30am Arrival at the grooms home for 30 – 60 minutes of photographs of the boys shaving, buttoning up their shirts, fixing eachothers hair, and making sure the groom looks his best on the wedding day. Getting portraits of all of the groomsman and photos of the groom with his parents or siblings.
11.30am Leave the grooms house. The groomsmen are able to get undressed again if they desire, or some groomsmen might go to the ceremony early to set up.
11.50am Casual and candid photographs of the bride and bridesmaids getting their final stages of hair and makeup completed
12.30pm Bridesmaids get dressed
12.45pm Bride gets dressed
1pm Photographs of bride with her parents
1.15pm Photographer departs for ceremony. Bride has 30 minutes to relax, eat, get the family and bridesmaids organised for the ceremony.
1.30pm Photographer arrives at ceremony location to photograph the groom waiting, and any detail shots.
2pm Ceremony begins
2.30pm Ceremony Ends and family and guests congratulate the bride and groom.
2.45pm Family Photographs at the ceremony location. I usually suggest couples create a list of family combinations that they would like photographed.
3.15 Departure with the bridal party to the 1-3 locations they would like photographs taken at
5.30pm Reception arrival. Bridal party have a rest.
6pm Bridal Party Enter and Reception commences
10pm Reception Finish
2nd Example, ‘The First Look’, when brides and grooms are getting married at 5pm or later, and they’d like photographs together prior to the wedding ceremony.
Sometimes when couples are having a 5pm ceremony, they would like to utilize the time earlier in the day to be able to take photographs together.
With timings similar to the previous example, location photography may be done between 1.30pm and 4.30pm (with a shorter or longer timeframe allowable depending on the couple) with ceremony commencing at 5pm with immediate reception.
Again, these are just examples of wedding day timings for photography, but they’re a good example of what a day can look like when you would like to maximize your photography opportunities!
