What is a wedding timeline?

 I rarely have brides ask me what this is but I have had more than a handful not really understand what one is all about! Today’s post is all about organizing photography on your BIG day.

A timeline : of events is just that. A specific thing happens at a specific time of day.

The first step is to figure out when you will have your ceremony and when you will serve dinner. After those two times are put in the timeline, the rest literally falls into place. The timeline also allows me as a professional to guide my brides on what is best and when it is best… for example…

A ceremony that starts at 1pm outdoors in the middle of summer with bright sunlight over all of our heads does not make for very flattering images. It can work but it will be incredibly bright.  Now, a ceremony that is inside a beautiful church at 1pm – that we can do! It’s all about timing. Are you wanting dreamy photos with just the right amount of light or are you wanting a bright sunny ceremony outdoors with squinting eyes, bright harsh lighting…and beads of sweat? Just saying 🙂 Everything depends on time of year, time of day. I really help guide you through the entire timeline.

Why is the time we serve dinner important right away?  Because this tells us how much time is in between the ceremony and reception for images with family, wedding party and bride and groom together. If a bride doesn’t set up a timeline and does it herself OR books with a caterer/venue and assigns dinner to be served 30 minutes after ceremony…we are going to have big issues. Especially if you hand me a formals list that is around an hour long.

More on “formals list” another Wedding Wednesday!

 

Around 2 weeks before the wedding day, we finalize the timeline. Most of the time {almost 99% of the time, the bride and myself have created a timeline within a few months of booking}. Things we include {depending on your collection} are:

When we will be arriving

What time we will be photographing details

What time you will get into your dress

…..

ceremony

formals and so forth.

  I always make sure that we have enough time to capture all of the images we normally capture along with the requests from the bride and her family. Without this, a wedding day would NOT run smoothly. We would all pull our hair out trying to figure out where to be and when to be there. What to photograph and when to photograph it.

Here is an example of a wedding timeline without a first look:

And this is an example of a wedding timeline with a first look. You can definitely see how it changes the day and how the day looks.

We hope this helps with your questions!!  We love sharing what we do!

Happy Wedding Wednesday Friends!!