Your Wedding Day Timings

Hello lovely folks! Its been a while since I’ve been on the blog. It has been a busy couple of months. I’ve been working away on a number of wedding editorials including one in sunny Tuscany! (all to inspire you of course) and they all involved a lot of planning, logistics and details so the blog took a back seat to all that unfortunately! Not to worry though, I will share details and images in due time but in the meantime, I’m back and raring to get back to you with useful tips for your d day.

As wedding season is in full swing (you’re probably on countdown and planning the final phases of your wedding before you take to those aisles), I thought I’d share with you how to work out your wedding day timings for your schedule so you are fully armed as the big day approaches.

Let’s face it, your actual wedding day, (after having planned it for months on end!), comes down to schedules and timings (and of course set up and details but largely schedules). When do you need to do what by when and who is doing it? Your schedule will include these in the run up to and on the wedding day so that all your best laid plans will go as you have planned them.

Your wedding day timings is unique to you wedding and will depend on your wedding style, time, number of guests, location etc. I have listed a rough guide below of the amount of time you need to allow for activities on your wedding day. Use it to plot your wedding day timelines and adapt to suit.

Your Wedding Day Timings

Follow this general rule of thumb for your wedding day timings:

• Allow up to two and a half hours for makeup and getting dressed (this largely depends on the number of your bridal party, the larger the party, the more time you allow)
• Groom and groomsmen to arrive at the ceremony at least 45 minutes prior to start.
• Bride (you) arrive 10 minutes before the ceremony starts (you can always build in some time to be ‘fashionably late’ 😉 No more than 10 minutes though!).
• Allow one to two hours for the ceremony (this depends on the type of ceremony you’ll have i.e. religious or civil). As an aside, an hour to two hours is the approximate timing for a traditional Church of England ceremony.
• Allow up to one and a half hours for pictures including group shots, formal and intimate shots.
• Allow guests up to 45 minutes of mingling time prior to reception kick off.
• For wedding breakfasts and sit down dinners, allow up to two to two and a half hours for service depending on your guest numbers (2 to 2.5 hours usually works for guest numbers of up to 100, obviously the more guests you have, the more time you allow)
• Thirty to forty-five minutes is usually enough for speeches (unless you have eloquent speakers in your wedding party that want to go on and on!.) Usual order for speeches is; father of the bride, then groom and then the best man. Allow an extra 15 mins if you (bride) or any other family member wishes to make a speech.
• Allow 30 minutes for cutting the cake and an extra 20 minutes if you’re sneaking away to powder your nose, have some alone time together or change into your second outfit.

For your suppliers

• Have timings for arrivals (build in time buffers for traffic, train delays etc.), deliveries, set up and emergencies that will pop up at the last minute…, (you will most certainly get those!)
• Have the contact details of all your suppliers in a handy, accessible pack (I usually have all their direct dial mobile numbers) so you can easily contact them when emergencies come up.

If you get stuck and need help managing it all, then my Wedding Day Management service is just what you need. Its where I help you to pull all the details together so you have the reassurance that things will run smoothly on the day and you can relax and have a great party! Here’s what one of my past brides said;

“I would like to say a huge thank you to this amazing lady! (Cynthia) aka #bestweddingplanner. Words cannot express what a difference you made to our day! Everything was on point, every detail was covered. The organisation would definitely have been shambles without you there! Definitely recommending her to anyone desiring s STRESS-FREE wedding. All I had to ‘worry’ about was dancing and not tripping in my heels! So grateful to God for using you to make our day beautiful. x”

Get in touch, let’s talk!

Cynthia x

Header image by Notton House Photography