We are talking wedding timelines and, more specifically, the 6 factors factors affect your timeline the most.  I hope this info helps you get a grasp on the flow for your wedding day. Let’s get into it!

The Skinny on Wedding Timelines

There are SO many factors that affect your wedding photography timeline, but here are the six major players:

🕰️ First Look vs. No First Look – this impacts when we do most of formal portraits on your wedding day!! A first look, besides being a beautiful moment, allows you to do couples portraits, wedding party photos AND family photos before the ceremony. That means you’re able to mingle with your guests at cocktail hour! No first look means those formal photos will happen during cocktail hour. I recommend doing a 90 min cocktail hour if that’s the case!!

🕰️ Formal Exit vs. Faux Exit – If you’re doing a formal exit at the end of your reception, you probably want your photographer to capture it. But that means they’ll need to stay for your whole reception. Doing a faux exit right after cake cutting will allow the photographers to leave before the end of the night. This can kick off your dance floor and shorten the amount of time that you need a photographer.

🕰️ Hair & Makeup – This is the start of your day and sets the tone for the rest of the timeline!! I recommend scheduling HMU to end 30-45 mins before you actually want it to end. This allows time for touch-ups just in case things run late (which can happen with a larger bridal party). And if everything goes according to plan, more time to chill with your girls before getting dressed!!

🕰️ Day of Travel – Traveling on your wedding day is always a big factor. You should be give plenty of leeway in the timeline!!

🕰️ Wedding Party Size & Family Size – Not only can this require more pictures, BUT also the time it takes to wrangle more people, get them from place to place, etc.

🕰️ Time of Year – The time that the sun sets affects your timeline. If your wedding is in the winter daylight savings months, make sure you plan ahead for portrait time!!

I hope this helps! I help couples create timelines for every single wedding, and these are the most common things that will influence it.

And I always say, timelines are suggestions. They’re not these rigid things that absolutely must be adhered to with no exceptions – they are simply how we make sure that everything the couple wants to happen, happens. And in a way that feels like things are seamlessly flowing from one thing to the next.

You should be fully present on your wedding day, soaking in every moment. A good timeline allows that to happen while still getting photos with grandma.

More Resources

And there you have it – the 6 factors that affect wedding timelines. I hope this taught you something that you can use when you make your own timeline! If you want more tips like this check out Decoding Shot Lists or First Look Ideas For Your Wedding Day. Or you can listen to my wedding tip podcast, The Busy Bride.