The most impactful decisions for your wedding have to do with your timeline. If you want to focus your energy on being really intentional about one main thing in your planning process, direct that intention toward the timeline for the greatest impact. A well-planned, intentional timeline allows you to be present and fully soak up every moment of your day. Read this post to help guide to you in creating an intentional timeline for your wedding day.
Top 3 Tips For a Successful Timeline
1. Add Buffers of Time
Many factors can shift a schedule on a wedding day – weather, traffic and locations. Adding in buffers only protects your day from not missing out on anything. Allowing for this will ensure less stress and rushing.
2. Center Your Timeline Around What You Want To Focus On
It’s important to ponder – have you considered what part of your wedding day is most important to you or what you’re most looking forward to? By identifying these key elements, we can create a timeline that focuses on those moments and allows you to fully enjoy and appreciate them. Is that portraits or getting ready? Whatever that answer is, we will be sure it’s well planned and the appropriate time is allowed.
3. Start Drafting Your Timeline Early
After booking my services, the first step is to create a wedding day timeline for my couples. From there, we dive into the details and plan every aspect of the day to ensure a seamless and memorable experience for everyone involved. This could sometimes be 1 year away from your wedding date. I send a timeline template along with approximate times to allow for each element of your day (getting ready, ceremony, first look, portraits). This will be our working document leading up to your wedding.
When it comes to creating an intentional timeline for your wedding day, it’s important to keep in mind several essential factors. Here are some key things to think about to ensure a smooth and stress-free experience:
- Photo time. How much time do you want to allow for photos? It’s suggested to allot 2 to 3 hours for wedding party, wedding couple and family.
- Think about the logistics. Allow for travel time from getting ready, ceremony, formal photos and reception location.
- Photo locations. I recommend 2 photo locations at most (3 if there’s extra time and locations are close together). The more time spent travelling the less time you will have for photos. It’s amazing how, sometimes, even just one location can provide numerous options for different photo backdrops. You’d be surprised at how much variety you can achieve with just one spot! A great time saver is holding the family photo portion at the ceremony location.
- Ceremony duration. Ensure you and your officiant are on the same page as to how long the ceremony is. I’ve seen some go passed the allotted time the wedding couple was expecting!
- Receiving lines. While you may want to spend time visiting with your guests, it can often cause delays. That being said, if you allocate more time for socializing during the reception, you can easily fit in visits with your guests without any hold ups. You will be much more relaxed and can enjoy the conversation more! I’ve seen a lot of couples skip past this completely.
- Plan transportation for the whole wedding party. If possible, having the wedding party travel together in a limo/party bus will rule out anyone getting lost or times mixed up. Wedding days are busy and your bridal party has lots of things to keep on top of. Plus let’s face it – party buses are fun!
Lastly, but most importantly!
- Don’t go on an empty stomach! Plan to eat throughout the day. That champagne will hit you hard and you don’t want to have to hit drive-thru on an empty stomach on your way out of the wedding reception! Sit, enjoy and relax.
In conclusion, my goal is to provide you with the guidance and support you need throughout your entire wedding planning process.
Creating an intentional wedding day timeline will allow you to be present and stress-free on your wedding day. These factors all lead to authentic and relaxed images capturing your undeniable connection. The in-between moments, the details and the connection you have will only add to the story of your day.
Planning a wedding comes with a long list of to-do’s. I provide clarity, guidance and support to ensure you will receive the most out of your services with a customized timeline.
By creating a wedding day timeline for all of my couples, I ensure they are able to focus on what truly matters – being present and fully experiencing every moment. This allows them to soak up every detail of their special day without any distractions. Ready to get started planning yours? Click here to go to my contact page – let’s get in touch!
Client Love
Leah is incredible! We felt so at ease when she did our engagement and wedding photos. She is also so kind and accommodating and made sure we got exactly what we wished in our photos. We couldn’t be more happy with how they both turned out! We cannot thank her enough for capturing our day!
Danilee & Tyrell
Related blog: The Beauty of an Unplugged Wedding Ceremony
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