How to Build a Wedding Day Timeline

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Whether you are in the beginning stages of planning your wedding or counting down the days until your celebration during the month just before, keeping a wedding day timeline in mind is always a great idea. It will help to guide the decisions you make, and it will ultimately serve as a blueprint for your schedule (and the schedule of your vendors!) on your wedding day. If you are working with a wedding planner, your planner will craft a timeline for you. However, if you’re not, we thought we would share how to build a wedding day timeline. Keep reading below for our tips!

Build Your Framework

Your timeline will ultimately appear in chronological order, but when you’re first starting, enter the information you know. Then work backward from there! Tip: Start with the start and end times for your ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception.  

Add Spotlight Moments

Once your framework is in place, we like to keep adding in reception details, like introductions, dances, speeches, and blessings. Tip: Below is one of the most common orders:

  1. Introductions

  2. First Dance

  3. 2-3 Song Dance Set – This gets guests moving, which is a great thing!

  4. Guests are Seated

  5. Welcome Speech

  6. Blessing

  7. First Course

  8. Best Man and Maid of Honor Speeches

  9. Second Course

  10. Father-Daughter Dance

  11. Mother-Son Dance

  12. Dance Floor Officially Opens

  13. Cake Cutting – Plan to cut the cake 60-90 minutes before the end of your wedding. This gives guests a chance to dance after dinner, and it also offers guests who would like to depart early a great “stopping point” to their evening with you.

  14. Final Song – Think about the songs you love and consider choosing one for your band or DJ to play as the official last song of the night. It’s a wonderful way to have a lasting memory from your wedding. 

  15. Wedding Exit 

Consider Your Getting Ready Timing

Once your timing is in place, switch to the beginning part of your day. We do still recommend working backward from your ceremony, so here are the key things to keep in mind. 

  1. You, your groom, your wedding party, and your parents will want to be in place and tucked away up to 45 minutes before the start of your ceremony. Your guests will begin to arrive 30 minutes in advance, and you won’t want them to see you!

  2. Talk to your photographer about his or her preferred timing. If you’re able, spending 60 minutes capturing photos with your wedding party, immediate family, and extended family prior to being tucked away for your ceremony is a wonderful way to free up time later in your day!

  3. Think about doing a first look. This will be captured before group photos with your wedding party and family, and it typically flows into couple’s portraits of you and your groom. Capturing portraits together during this time means you will be able to attend your cocktail hour! The first look and couple’s portraits can take 45-60 minutes, depending on your photographer’s plans. 

  4. You will want to try to be ready 20-30 minutes prior to your first look. 

  5. Hair and makeup for the bride and each bridesmaid typically takes an hour per person. Many stylists arrive with assistants, so more than one gal can be getting her hair and/or makeup done at a time. 

  6. The hair and makeup time required is what will determine when your day needs to begin.

Now that you have all of your details in mind and in place, here is what a sample timeline might look like.

Note: It’s also so important to ask each of your vendors when they will be arriving and departing. Then add their times to your timeline! The below is more geared toward the couple, wedding party, family, and guests.

9:00 a.m. Hair and Makeup Begins

12:45 p.m. Groom and Groomsmen get ready

1:20 p.m. Bride puts on wedding dress

1:45 p.m. Groom departs for First Look

1:50 p.m. Bride departs for First Look

2:00 p.m. First Look

2:15 p.m. Couple’s Portraits

2:45 p.m. Wedding Party Portraits

3:15 p.m. Family Portraits

3:45 p.m. Bride, Groom, Wedding Party, and Family are tucked away for Ceremony

4:30 p.m. Ceremony Begins

5:00 p.m. Cocktail Hour Begins

6:00 p.m. Reception Begins; Guests are seated

6:15 p.m. Introductions

6:25 p.m. First Dance

6:30 p.m. 2-3 Song Dance Set

6:45 p.m. Guests are seated

6:50 p.m. Welcome Speech

6:55 p.m. Blessing

7:00 p.m. First Course

7:20 p.m. Maid of Honor Speech

7:25 p.m. Best Man Speech

7:30 p.m. Second Course

7:50 p.m. Father-Daughter Dance

7:55 p.m. Mother-Son Dance

8:00 p.m. Dance Floor Opens

8:30 p.m. Cake Cutting

9:55 p.m. Final Song

10:00 p.m. Wedding Concludes

How will you build your wedding timeline? Let us know in the comments!

Serena Waller