All those months of planning culminate in that one day and the question is, how does it all come together? When do photos get done? How much time do we need for hair and makeup? What comes first, the dancing or the food? And on and on the questions go.
Every wedding, like any event, will be different than every other wedding, but when it comes to logistics, there are certain rules that are golden in the handbook of event planning and can be applied to all events, especially weddings. Here are our top 3 tips for creating your wedding schedule:
#1 Start from the end
This may seem counter-intuitive, but with weddings there are a few hard times that really bookend the day and help set the overall timeline. A generally obvious one is what time the party will end. From that time we can calculate when the cake cutting will be (so there’s time for it to be served and for more dancing before the end), what time entree needs to come out, timing of introductions, cocktail hour, and so on. Another example for reference is if the ceremony starts at 5pm, we know what time you need to be done with photos and/or be at the venue for everything to start (that would be 4:30pm for some breathing time before the big moment). If you start from the end, you can plan the beginning more accurately.
#2 Chat with your photographer
Hands down, the most popular wedding schedule question: What time does hair & makeup need to start? Well, let’s ask another question to figure that out…Do you want photos capturing the getting ready moments, family portraits, and the wedding party all done before the ceremony? Your photographer will know how long each of those sessions will take (depending on the size of your groups) and based on our hard times (see #1) you can figure out what time hair and makeup needs to be done by, which in turn, will dictate what time it needs to start (again, based on the size of your group). All parts of the day are interconnected! (Cue a plug for day of coordinators who act as the center point for all the interconnected moving pieces!)
#3 Check with the kitchen
Catering is such an essential part of your wedding, who doesn’t love celebrating around a table of good food?? So make the most of it by planning around the kitchen’s schedule. If we know the chef needs 30 minutes between courses, we can plan speeches and special dances accordingly to maximize both dancing and eating time with less downtime (and less of the up and down scenarios). The last thing we want is for the hot and delicious entree to come out five minutes after the dance party started and either your guests end up eating cold food or they’re only dancing for one song. Hence the saying, timing is everything.