Wedding Day Itinerary Tips: The Wedding Timeline Details Everyone Forgets

• Worried You're Missing Something on Your Wedding Timeline? Keep Scrolling!
• Don't Make these Common Timeline Mistakes When Planning a Wedding
• Not Adding a Buffer for Hair & Makeup Preparation
• Consider Emotional Moments
• Vendor Coordination is Key
• A Wedding Ceremony Involves Countless Moving Parts
• Wedding Ceremonies Rarely Start on Time
• Coordinate Cocktail Hour
• Thoughtful Travel Planning Helps a Big Day Run Smoothly
• Meet Early for Group Moments
• Build in Bride and Groom Moments
• How Will the Kids Be Entertained?
• Your Exit is as Important as Your Entrance
• Ready to Create a Stress-free Wedding Day Timeline?

Don't Make these Common Timeline Mistakes When Planning a Wedding

Ensure from the moment guests arrive that their experience is seamless and joyful by sidestepping these common wedding planning mishaps that couples make.

Not Adding a Buffer for Hair & Makeup Preparation

Getting hair and makeup done on the big day is unlike typical morning prep - as you can imagine! And for that reason, it's tough to really gauge just how long the process will take. Your beauty team will, of course, be able to give you their professional opinion based on experience. But on the day, who knows how long it will actually take to complete each look for you and your bridesmaids.

Wedding morning preparations should also be cherished and not rushed! You and your bridal party will never get the chance to enjoy this experience together again. So factor that in when designing your wedding schedule and ensure there's plenty of time for each of you to prepare, and have fun as a group.

Add an extra 30 minutes on top of the total suggested preparation time, and that should help you relax and cover for any unforeseen delays.

Consider Emotional Moments

Weddings are emotional events for the couple tying the knot and those closest to them. And there will be parts of the day when you won't be able to contain your emotion. It could be the first look, first dance, or perhaps the first time you see each other as you walk down the aisle. For us, if you want to ball your eyes out during these, or any other moments during the big day, you should feel free to! Without fear that your tears could lead to a delay in the schedule.

You can probably predict the tear-jerker moments during your big day, so factor that in when building a wedding timeline. An extra 5 minutes here and there can really help you embrace the entire occasion.

Vendor Coordination is Key

In our experience, a critical part of being a wedding planner is coordinating the various vendors involved to ensure they all work in harmony. For those lucky enough to be working with a professional event planner or in-house coordinator, they will likely deal with vendor communication on your behalf. If you don't have someone looking after that for you, you'll need to confirm arrival times with all of your vendors, and ensure their starting points align with each other.

The arrival times of each vendor should be integrated into your wedding day schedule, and then shared with everyone involved. One of the advantages of creating your wedding itinerary using our builder is that you can make different versions of your schedule, with varying levels of detail. Ideal if you know the venue, vendors and yourselves, will need to know precise timing and have descriptions of every single scheduled event. Whereas, your wedding party need only know the start times of more major parts of the day, such as cocktail hour or the ceremony start time.

Our free wedding day timeline template can also be instantly downloaded in either PDF or spreadsheet format, ready to be sent to whomever requires the information.

A Wedding Ceremony Involves Countless Moving Parts

Traditional wedding ceremonies are much like choreographed dances involving many performers and producers. And much like a professional stage performance, a lot of preparation and communication is required to ensure a ceremony runs smoothly. No matter how simple your nuptials are.

You will, of course, run through the various steps and stages of your ceremony during the rehearsal. Practicing where you and your bridal party will enter the venue from, where you'll line up and how you'll exit. But before this, you should also work with your wedding band or DJ to coordinate which songs should be played when. And if you intend to include any extra rituals within your ceremony, be sure to go over these out with your wedding officiant long before the rehearsal. So they can be practiced during the dry run.

If you're planning a church wedding, your wedding photographer may be restricted to working within certain areas. Be sure to check the specific venue rules with your planning team and pass them onto your photographer ahead of time. Just to avoid any drama or confusion on the big day.

Wedding Ceremonies Rarely Start on Time

Your actual wedding ceremony start time and the time you give guests should be entirely different. Your loved ones should believe that your ceremony time is roughly 15 minutes earlier than it actually is. As there are always late arrivals and delays. These hold-ups won't be an issue if enough buffer time has been added to the event.

Coordinate Cocktail Hour

Guests should feel free to mingle and catch up with each other during cocktail hour. But that doesn't mean you should just provide guests with a bar and leave them to it. Consider instead what type of entertainment would help to get the party started. What music would your guests appreciate? What vibe would work well considering the setting?

If you're taking yourselves away to shoot portraits during cocktail hour, it's wise to leave someone, or a group of family members present. That way, you know there's someone responsible present to keep everyone engaged. Especially if some of your guests are coming alone and may find it difficult to integrate themselves.

By having someone available during cocktail hour who's happy to introduce single guests to others, you'll be enriching everyone's experience.

Thoughtful Travel Planning Helps a Big Day Run Smoothly

Even weddings taking place within one venue require some form of travel or transportation between different spaces. Be that a short stroll or a couple of minutes on a golf buggy. If you are hosting a wedding all in one venue, consider how long each journey will take for every guest. A 5-minute walk for you, may take longer for some wedding party members, especially older guests or those with young families.

If you're utilizing two separate locations on your wedding day, it's important to ask guests if they need transportation or assistance between venues within your RSVP. That way there'll be no surprises on the day and everyone gets to each location on time.

We would also suggest checking the average traffic to and from your venue on the day you're getting hitched. Weekend traffic can be heavy during peak times, especially around major tourist hotspots. If you live nearby the area you're tying the knot, do a dry run of the route on the same day of the week you're getting married. Just to get a feel for any potential issues and to understand how long the journey will take in reality.

Meet Early for Group Moments

There's always one member of a group family photo who goes AWOL right before their session... Getting any group together for a timed moment can often be challenging, and if not scheduled thoughtfully, can lead to delays in the entire schedule.

When planning any group activity, we would recommend scheduling a time for all of you to meet ahead of that moment. For instance, tell your bridesmaids they need to get together 5 minutes before their grand entrance to the reception. Adding this kind of buffer should stop delays becoming an issue within your overall wedding reception timeline.

Build in Bride and Groom Moments

We're sure your married friends and family members will have told you how their weddings flew by. One moment they're chatting to their makeup artist at 7 in the morning, the next they're taking selfies on the dance floor! The typical wedding is a whirlwind, and it's all too easy for the entire experience to just pass by for you and your partner.

Build moments into the timeline of your wedding day that are just for you. Perhaps you could take a walk together following your first look, or steal away a few minutes after your cake cutting ceremony. Trust us, you'll appreciate this moment for reflection after the wedding date.

How Will the Kids Be Entertained?

We love weddings full of kids, they bring such joy to a celebration. But there's no denying they can be a handful. Which is why it's wise to build in time, and specific areas at your wedding, especially for kids.

We've found that designating parts of a wedding day exclusively to the adults, and having the kids looked after somewhere separate, helps everyone enjoy the day more. Because the grownups get a break from childcare for a couple of hours, and get to let their hair down. While the kids use up some of their relentless energy somewhere appropriate, looked after by someone outside the wedding party.

The extent of the play area and number of professional babysitters you hire will depend on how many kids attend your wedding. Which is why we'd suggest asking your guests via an online RSVP before sending out wedding invitations. To help you properly gauge just how many little ones will be joining you.

Your Exit is as Important as Your Entrance

We've found that couples often put their heart and soul into planning the ultimate wedding entrance. Meticulously planning their first dance, working out routines with the best man, groomsmen, and bridesmaids. Plotting exactly where the wedding photographer will capture it all from. But when it comes to their exit, they don't plan anything until the last minute. For us, this is a shame because your exit is the conclusion to your wedding photography.

Without a thoughtfully prepared wedding exit, your photo album will lack narrative. Feeling more like a series of photos, rather than a story with a beginning, middle and an end.

To be best celebrate the conclusion to your celebration, we'd suggest working with your coordinator or perhaps the photographer to find a suitable location and time for your exit. You should also announce that you're leaving 15 minutes before you plan to, to allow guests and photographer time to get in position and grab their sparklers!

It goes without saying, but if you're actually leaving the venue when you say your farewells, it's a good idea to make sure transportation has been organized and the driver knows exactly where to pick you up from. To avoid any unnecessary, and potentially embarrassing delays...!

Start creating your itinerary

Ready to Create a Stress-free Wedding Day Timeline?

Armed with the info couples typically forget, we believe it's time you started planning your wedding itinerary! A roadmap to your ideal wedding day that's super easy to create, straightforward to understand, and can be shared effortlessly in various formats.

You'll find our timeline app within our suite of free wedding planning tools. Alongside our wedding website builder, seat chart creator and many other incredible event planning applications. All of which require no previous experience, subscription, or commitment.

Our itinerary builder is a great tool to begin your wedding planning journey with, as the timing of events from ceremony to reception will guide many of the decisions you'll make going forward. To get you started, we've set you up with a sample wedding day timeline within the app. To give you an idea of which events should be scheduled, such as your first look, cake cutting or when the hair and makeup team needs to arrive.

Discover how easy our free wedding day itinerary builder is to use today and ensure a stress-free journey to the ceremony!