Time for some more wedding planning tips from top London wedding planner Andri of Always Andri Wedding Design.
It's her penultimate post here on Bridal Musings – she's taken us all the way from those few first steps as a newly engaged couple to finding the perfect venue and sourcing awesome vendors. She's even shared her very own budget spreadsheet!
If you've missed any of these posts, please go take a look – I promise you'll come away with some very useful nuggets of wedding wisdom. Okay take it away Andri…
Wedding Planning: Timings On The Big Day
This may be one of my last advice posts, but everything I’m going to talk about today are things you need to be thinking about from the very beginning of your planning process. When it comes to building your schedule for the wedding day, you’re going to need:
To be flexible.
To build in contingency to the timing of the day.
To talk to your suppliers and find out how long they need to do their jobs.
To allow time for moving guests around.
To be aware that things often run over and take longer then expected, so don’t worry if all your timings don’t go to plan!
photo by Dasha Caffrey Photography – see the full bridal beauty shoot here
The following tips are intended to give you a rough idea of timings – there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to your wedding schedule. You don't have to follow the traditional Western wedding day program – you could mix it up by having speeches before dinner or literally have a ‘wedding breakfast' or brunch before your wedding ceremony! It's your big day so organise it in a way that suits you best – just be realistic about the amount of time you allocate to each part of your wedding so that you don't feel rushed.
The morning of your wedding
In order to work out how much time you should allow to get ready in the morning, you will need to think about what time you need to leave in order to reach the ceremony and work backwards from there.
Hair & Make-Up
Having had your trials, your suppliers are likely to have told you how much time to budget for your prep and that of the rest of your bridal party. The larger your bridal party and the earlier your ceremony, the more likely you are to have a rudely early start time! If you’ve got separate hairdressers and make-up artists, ask them to coordinate their timings to maximise the efficiency of your wedding morning. The running order of your bridesmaids and Mum’s preparation as well as your own will be key.
Dressing
How long will it take to get into your dress? It’s much easier in the shop when there are professionals on hand who are used to fiddly buttons and zippers, but it might be a different matter with overexcited bridesmaids, nervous hands or fake nails that lack precision! If your dress is a zip up, you’ll be in it quicker but a corset or buttons up the back will take longer. Also allow time to put all your accessories on and don’t forget that last spritz of perfume!
Photo by Erin Hearts Court via Elizabeth Anne Designs
Eating
Regardless of whether or not you’ll feel hungry on the day, you should schedule in time for breakfast and, if necessary, a bite of lunch too. It’s going to be a long day and even a nibble here and there will help fortify you. Besides, even though you might not touch any food, the rest of your bridal party are likely to be grateful for some sustenance.
‘Getting Ready' Photos
Finally, allow time for a few photos during your prep, once you’re ready and before you leave (if you’ve got photography coverage during this part of the day). Your photographer is likely to try and capture more documentary moments here but you don’t want to look harassed in these photos, so give yourself some wiggle room.
photo by Laura Murray – see the rest of this stunning garden wedding
The Ceremony
What time is your ceremony? You really need to think about this from the very beginning of your planning as it will impact the timings of the whole day. As tempting as it is to have an early ceremony so that you can party until all hours of the night, wedding days are already quite long and can be very tiring. A later ceremony means that guests will miss fewer meals, so you can cater for them less.
Nikole Ramsay Photography – see the rest of this rustic, Australian wedding
You’ll need time in the morning to get ready and you’ll also have to take into consideration where you’ll be getting ready in relation to your wedding venue. Give yourself enough time to have pre-wedding photos with your bridesmaids and Dad/family members, either at your prep location or outside your venue when you arrive. Don’t forget to factor in travel times between venues, i.e. how long will it take you to get to your ceremony from the place you’re getting ready? Remember that your guests will have to travel to the venue as well; some may be coming from far away and won’t appreciate a dawn rise for a midday ceremony!
Ask your celebrant how long the ceremony will take. Civil ceremonies can take 30-45 minutes depending on readings, whereas religious ceremonies might last for 45-60 minutes sometimes even longer! People will want to congratulate you after the ceremony and you may want to use the location for pictures so again, allow time so that you don’t have to rush straight off.
Drinks Reception
Allow a minimum of 90 minutes for your drinks reception if you’re hoping to have lots of photos (particularly group shots). You might even want to give yourselves 2 – 2 ½ hours to make sure you have enough time for photos and mingling, but do make sure you’ve catered for your guests appropriately with enough drinks to go around and perhaps some form of entertainment such as live music or a magician.
If you have an early ceremony (12pm-1pm), chances are your guests will miss lunch so they’ll be hungry. It’s therefore good to have some kind of canapés or bowl food during the drinks reception. If your guests are travelling via communal transport you’ve arranged between venues, then consider giving out snacks and drinks en route, such as mini champagne, water bottles and snacks.
Funky Photographers – see the full English wedding (it's actually mine!).
Photography
Chat to your photographer to make sure you’ve budgeted enough time for them to work their magic. As a guideline, you should allow 3-4mins per group shot and at least half an hour for your private couple’s portraits. If you want a big group shot of all your guests (N.B. be realistic about this expectation: it’s fine to ask for if you have 50-100 guests but if you have 200+ it’s unlikely you’ll even be able to see all their faces), the best time to coordinate this image is when your guests are all together. Therefore, try to fit it in either straight after the ceremony or just before they go into dinner.
Funky Photographers – see the full classically beautiful wedding
Ask your photographer when the best time of day will be for your portraits, especially if you want to get the golden hour for the best lighting. You could always split it into a couple of parts – maybe sneak off between courses during your wedding breakfast if you need to get a few more shots in and make the most of the light.
(Or you could always opt for a ‘first look' where you have portraits taken before the ceremony.)
As tempting as it might be to not have portraits as you don’t want to miss time with your guests its also important for you as a couple to have a bit of alone time together to take it all in and your portrait session provides the perfect opportunity for you to do this.
Nikole Ramsay Photography – see the rest of this rustic, Australian wedding
Wedding Breakfast
Receiving lines, though less common these days, are pretty lengthy affairs. If you’re having one before your meal you must tell the catering team as it will easily add an extra half an hour on to the time before you’re seated and ready to receive your first course. A nice alternative is to use the time between courses to go around the tables to speak to your guests.
Make sure you leave enough time for your guests to be seated for dinner. There’s a lot of loitering between the call to dine, guests checking the table plan/escort table and finding their seats. You’ll also want to make sure that service starts with wine being poured (and potentially bread served) before you’re announced into the room.
Nikole Ramsay Photography – see the rest of this rustic, Australian wedding
Your caterers should provide a detailed breakdown of how long service will take. The number of guests and your choice of food will make a difference. Remember that your caterers will need to take into account the facilities as well, for example the distance of the tables from the kitchen and the number of staff being coordinated. If you’re having external caterers, make sure they’ve familiarised themselves with the venue to consider all of these factors.
Speeches
You should allow at least 10 minutes for each speaker during the speeches, bearing in mind that they will also need to be introduced. Ask each speaker how long they think they’ll need and then double it – everyone always underestimates or approximates the duration of their speech. This is another consideration to feedback to your caterers if you decide to have speeches before dinner. If dinner is running late you could serve tea and coffee with the dessert or maybe start speeches once dessert has been served.
Funky Photographers – see the full classically beautiful wedding
Evening Reception
It’s quite nice to give your day guests a bit of breakout time after the wedding breakfast and also gives you the opportunity to greet any newly arrived evening guests. If you need to move rooms then this will incentivise them, especially if you’ll be returning and the staff need to turn the room around. You could cut your cake in the same room as your wedding breakfast and then move, or position your cake outside of the dining room so that you’re giving everyone a reason to follow you out of the room. If you’re inviting extra guests for the evening, you may want to do so prior to the cake cutting and first dance so that they have the opportunity to witness some of the formalities of the day.
Make sure you know what time your reception must end – clarify with your venue if all guests must be out by then, or if it’s simply the cut off time for your DJ/band and everyone can exit thereafter. If you need to, ensure that your transport is booked well in advance and perhaps even get your planner/point of contact to make a follow up call on the afternoon of your wedding to confirm the booking.
Josh Dookhie – see the rest of this creative DIY wedding
Finally take time together during the day to take it all in, this is your wedding day and you have all your closest family and friends with you so savour the moment and enjoy the day.
Here's your ‘pinnable' version of this post with all the key tips. Pin it to your Wedding Planning board (along with the rest of our expert wedding planning advice) and refer to them often.
Thanks again to Andri of Always Andri Wedding Design for sharing her oh so helpful wedding planning advice.
When you realise the extent of all the planning, co-ordinating, organising, setting up and herding of people involved in one wedding day, it's no wonder so many couples choose to hire a wedding planner!
London / UK based lovelies be sure to check out Andri's website and portfolio – she's one of the most organised, professional and talented planners in the biz.
If you have any questions about wedding timelines or timings, please leave us a comment and we'll help you with your dilemma.
Are you a wedding pro with tips to share? We want to hear from you too!
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