Sometimes it feels like there are a lot of make or breaks for a Wedding Day. The planner, the photographer, the DJ, and sometimes even the weather can all effect the feel of a day. But did you know that a Wedding Timeline can be the BIGGEST make or break for a Wedding Day? A good Wedding Timeline can set you up for a stress-free day with plenty of time for things to happen, and a bad Wedding Timeline can leave everyone feeling rushed and squeezed and stressed – feelings that no-one should have on their Wedding Day. Today we are going to share how to create a perfect Wedding Timeline; making sure that the big day is filled with as many wonderful feelings as possible (and with plenty of time to document them well!). As photographers, we LOVE being a part of the Timeline conversation. We’ve helped create over 500 of these bad boys, so we really enjoy getting to put in our two cents to help make sure our couples are able to really enjoy every single moment of their day (instead of rushing from one thing to the next at a break-neck pace).

The two timelines that we find ourselves creating most often are Wedding Day Timelines with a First Look and Wedding Day Timelines without a First Look. Most of our clients end up choosing to do a First Look (where they see each other for the first time before the ceremony) and we love them because they are so intimate and special, and because they allow us to take most of the pictures before the day gets really busy.

Here are a few important considerations for us when creating a timeline:

1. We always begin coverage an hour before the Bride gets into her dress. This leaves us plenty of time to capture some of the Getting Ready story and it also allows us to isolate the details (dress, shoes, jewelry) before they are being used. We love this part of the day because we get to watch the story start to unfold in a quiet way, and some really beautiful relationship moments happen during the Getting Ready.
2. We ask for at least an hour for portraits. This is one of our favorite parts of the day because it’s the time when our couples actually gets to be together (just them) and it’s our chance to document them as they are when 100+ of their closes friends aren’t watching 🙂 The other reason we ask for at least an hour is that it offers us buffer. If things start to run behind or we have to change locations for portraits, we will still have plenty of time to create meaningful images of our Bride and Groom together.
3. We ask for a specific list of 10-12 Family Picture groupings from our clients. We’ve found that there is really no such thing as a “standard” family list, and we want to make sure that our couples have the family pictures that are most important to them, and that we are able to capture those in the time that we have.

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