Your wedding day timeline is one of the most important tools for your wedding day. While we do prep a customized timeline for you, we feel it is important to give you the rundown! Here are some tips for your wedding day timeline, and things you should keep in mind.

Getting Ready

It isn’t necessary to have us there as soon as the hair and makeup artist arrives. We think it is too much wasted time, as many people do not enjoy photos of themselves without their hair and makeup done! Instead, have us arrive an hour before the hair and makeup artists’ finish time to photograph remainder of getting ready and also the details (dress, invitations, rings, shoes, perfume, lipstick, bouquet, etc.)

Keep It Tidy

This is more of a tip than a timeline suggestion. One thing we cannot stress enough is to keep your getting ready rooms picked up! We understand that with large wedding parties, it can get a bit hectic. However, a room photographs better with less clutter! Try to keep your things together and hidden away as much as you can while we are in your room photographing. We will help move stuff around when needed, but in order to get those photo-journalistic type photos, it is best if you keep the room nice and neat.

First Look

As a photographer, a first-look is one of our absolute favorite parts of the wedding day. You can opt in to this or not, but this is a moment you get with your fiance before the ceremony in an intimate setting. Seeing each other for the first time on your wedding day can be emotional, and a lot of our couples choose to do this together, just the two of them, before the ceremony. Having a first look allows for additional time pre-ceremony for portraits. Taking photos before the ceremony means that you can head to the reception sooner! We will be able to knock out all of the wedding party portraits, most of the bride and groom portraits, and the family portraits if all family is present.

Bride & Groom Portraits

We recommend a minimum of an hour for B&G portraits, bridal party, and family portraits without a first-look. Bride and groom portraits alone take roughly 30 minutes. If we are doing a first look before the ceremony, you should allow 15-20 minutes for portraits, and then we will pull you away around sunset for 10-15 minutes of sunset portraits!

Wedding Party Portraits

Depending on the size of your wedding party, 30-ish minutes should suffice. The bigger the wedding party, the longer it will take. Photos will take place in the following order: family first, then bridal party photos, then bride and groom portraits. If you have a wedding party of 12 or more, allow 45 minutes!

The Room

Make sure to let us photograph the reception area before letting guests enter! We want everything to be untouched before guests enter the room in order to photograph it. Most of the time, the reception room is being completed while cocktail hour is happening. Make sure we get in there before you open it to guests so we can get those untouched detail shots.

Reception

First things first: We don’t need to be there for four hours. There are only so many photos you can capture of the same people dancing! We think it is sufficient to be there for all of the major events, such as cake cutting, speeches, bouquet toss, etc. and about 90 minutes of dancing. Have a faux send-off an hour or two before the reception ends so we can capture that for you! Our time is most valuable pre-ceremony so we can get photos done and you can party the night away!