Create Your Wedding Ceremony Itinerary with Our Timeline Tips & Free Builder

• Stress-free Tips for a Modern Wedding Ceremony Outline
• Why Do You Need a Wedding Ceremony Itinerary?
• Wedding Ceremony Order Tips
• Set a Wedding Day Start Time
• Include Travel Time
• Add a Buffer to Each Event
• Do You Have a Backup Plan?
• Factor in Special Ceremonies, Cultural Traditions and Personalization
• Time the Length of Your Processional and Recessional
• Create Multiple Wedding Ceremony Timelines
• Allow for Spontaneous Moments
• Wedding Ceremony Itinerary Example
• Pre-Ceremony
• Traditional Wedding Ceremony Order
• Post-Ceremony
• Ready to Build Your Wedding Day Timeline?

Why Do You Need a Wedding Ceremony Itinerary?

When wedding planning, we would suggest creating a timeline for your entire wedding day, as it'll make it so much easier to ensure everything is in place, and the pacing is good. And for the critical parts of your big day (ceremony and reception), we would recommend building separate itineraries that go into more detail.

These roadmaps do not need to be laid out minute by minute, but should provide a thorough timeline of events. Detailing the steps everyone will take from the moment guests start arriving at the ceremony location.

Creating a solid order of events will not only help you plan your wedding ceremony better, but it'll also guide everyone else involved. Ensuring that your wedding party and vendors all know where to be at the right times. Which is critical when time is short.

Thoughtfully building a timeline, even if it's a traditional wedding ceremony order, will also help you elevate the guest experience. By giving you a preview of how the ceremony will feel, moment by moment. Which is especially useful when attempting to imagine where extra pieces of the puzzle should fit. Like a unity ceremony, or a special reading from your best man and maid. An itinerary will help you decide where best to place these parts of the ceremony in terms of flow and guest engagement.

Wedding Ceremony Order Tips

Now you're on board with the idea of a wedding ceremony timeline, let's look at how to create one.

Build your wedding itinerary

Set a Wedding Day Start Time

It seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many couples start working out when their sand ceremony should be before they know when the entire ceremony will begin. It's all too easy to get carried out with the finer details, and not set in stone something critical like a start time. Once you've agreed on that, then you can start planning everything before and after that time.

We would recommend giving your guests a start time that is 15-30 minutes earlier than the actual beginning of the ceremony. This allows time for late guests to find their seats, while also helping the pre-ceremony to not feel rushed. It's nice for guests to have little catch-ups on the way to their seats, without getting too much pressure from the ushers.

If you're marrying outdoors, in the summer, be sure to plan your ceremony start time around the sun. Trust us, the last thing you want is to be tying the knot during the hottest part of the day. Instead, schedule things later when the weather is cooler - perhaps around Golden Hour? Then you'll be more comfortable and your ceremony will be bathed in the most romantic, soft glow.

Include Travel Time

If you're getting ready, marrying and celebrating in three separate locations, you need to include travel timings in your schedule. Even if each place is local to each other, or within the same resort. It's wise to account for exactly how long each journey will take.

To ensure a really smooth running schedule, provide transportation for all of your guests. Whether that's stretch limousines, shuttle buses or arranging for guests to share car rides. If everyone is travelling together, that should ensure the schedule for the entire wedding is aligned.

Add a Buffer to Each Event

We hate to break it to you, but weddings very rarely run on time. And that is absolutely fine if a flexible wedding schedule has been put in place. One that anticipates the groomsmen and bridesmaids getting stuck in traffic, or the father of the bride getting lost right before group photos!

Give yourself extra time around events that are likely to incur delays, and you'll quickly find the entire day is a lot less stressful. Around 15-20 minutes should give you enough time to breathe and stay calm if things do go awry.

Do You Have a Backup Plan?

If you're marrying outside, and you're working with a wedding planner, or an experienced event coordinator, they will have ensured there's an indoor space available for you if it rains. Not only that, but they should also know how long it'll take to set up the indoor space, and precisely where everything will go. If your big day is taking place at a venue that regularly hosts weddings, then this will likely not be an issue. But if you've hired more of a DIY type space, then you need to guarantee there is a plan b in place.

Factor in Special Ceremonies, Cultural Traditions and Personalization

A non-religious wedding ceremony typically lasts between 20 and 30 minutes. Which, if we're honest, is a good amount of time to aim for. Any longer than 30 minutes and your guests may start shuffling in their seats, or begin looking longing at the exit...! Which is why it's important to time how long every element of your ceremony will be, so not to overrun on the day, and bore your loved ones.

Careful timing is especially useful if you're adding in extra elements to your ceremony, such as a unity candle or special readings from your bridesmaids and groomsmen. Your wedding officiant will be able to give you a guide on how long each addition to the wedding program will take. But it's wiser to actually practice the majority of the cultural, or spiritual elements you're looking to include, before the official ceremony. That way you know exactly how long everything should take.

Time the Length of Your Processional and Recessional

To put it simply, the more people you have in your processional and recessional, the longer each walk will be. This is especially true for the processional, as this part of the ceremony has a lot slower, more formal pace.

When timing immediate family for the processional, we would suggest giving each member of the group 30 seconds to a minute to walk down the aisle. Be sure to time everyone making their way down the aisle during your rehearsal. But be aware that people often speed up, or slow down on the day. So you might not be timing a 100% accurate reflection of how long the walk will be.

The recessional is almost always more of a sprint than a walk, so don't worry too much about timing this part of the ceremony. Unless you have something unusual in mind. Regardless, it's a good idea to work with your DJ before the big day to organize the musical cues of each walk.

Create Multiple Wedding Ceremony Timelines

The beauty of using an online wedding timeline builder, such as ours, is that you can quickly create multiple itineraries in a matter of minutes. This is especially useful when you want to provide people, or groups, with different versions of the same schedule. For instance, the wedding ceremony itinerary you create for yourself and vendors should be highly detailed. But the version you give to your bridal party, for example, needn't be so in-depth. As they only require a general overview, with timings that relate to them.

An even less detailed version of your timetable should be given to your guests, and this can be published on your wedding website and/or included within invitations.

Allow for Spontaneous Moments

Weddings, by their very nature are emotional events for everyone involved. And your schedule should allow time for loved ones, and yourselves, to get a little choked up during the ceremony.

It's totally natural if your maid of honor requires a moment to compose herself during a reading, or if your flower girl keeps making everyone laugh. These pauses shouldn't affect the overall schedule of the ceremony, as long as you've allowed space for them to organically occur.

If you would like to limit your own emotional moments while reading aloud your vows, be sure to practice them thoroughly before the big day. That'll help you not only work out how long your part will be, but it'll also aid in reducing the emotive impact of the words.

Wedding Ceremony Itinerary Example

It's time to plan your wedding ceremony order! And what better place to start, than with an example, to help you better realize what your itinerary could look like. Once you've got an idea of how your timeline will feel, head over to our event itinerary builder and start creating yours for free!

Our ceremony timeline example is based around a 4pm start time and is not a religious ceremony. Your wedding will likely differ from this sample, but it should give you somewhere to start from.

Pre-Ceremony

3:30pm - Venue opens and guests are welcomed in by ushers or event team. Appropriate music is being played to set the tone for the ceremony.

3:45pm - Officiant, groom and the groomsmen take their places

3:55pm - Planner and venue team check to make sure everything is ready for the ceremony.

Traditional Wedding Ceremony Order

4pm - Ceremony begins with processional

• Parents and grandparents make their way to their seats.
• Bridesmaids and groomsmen walk down the aisle
• Maid of honor and best man walk down the aisle
• Ring bearer and flower girl walk down the aisle
• Bride is escorted by her father down the aisle

Create your ceremony timeline

4:10 - Guests are welcomed by officiant

4:15pm - Vows are exchanged

4:25pm - Wedding rings exchanged

4:30pm - First kiss

4:35pm - Recessional, which is the reverse order of the processional, with the newlyweds leaving first

Post-Ceremony

4:40pm - Guests directed to cocktail hour

4:45pm - Wedding photographer takes portraits of the now married couple, special guests and family.

Ready to Build Your Wedding Day Timeline?

At whatever stage of wedding planning you're at, we believe there's never a bad time to put together a wedding itinerary. As having timings in place makes it easier to build a pleasant flow into the celebration. Not only that, but you'll also realize fairly quickly whether certain vendors have been forgotten about, or major parts of the day overlooked.

Our itinerary maker gives you the ability to create as many different plans as you like. Ideal if you need to organize multiple events over various days, or when certain events require meticulous planning.

Our itinerary tool is super easy to use, with quickly customizable elements and icons to help you see at a glance what part of your special day needs attention. You can even highlight the parts of the day you feel are most critical, such as your ceremony or cocktail hour. But the choice is yours, as the highlighted sections can be switched off and on in just one click.

Avoid waiting until the last minute to create your wedding schedule, and start planning it today with our free wedding itinerary builder.