How to Build your Wedding Day Timeline

So you’ve got your venue (yay!), and now you’re starting to book your wedding vendors. You can see the pieces all coming together, well... *almost* coming together. The one thing that’s tripping you up is the timing of everything. Trust us, we’ve all been there. Creating your wedding day timeline is really tricky! The hardest part is knowing where to start, but don’t worry - we’re here to help! Follow the guide below to start building your wedding day timeline.

Start with your ceremony time

We always start building a wedding day timeline with the ceremony time. This is the main event of the day, so it only makes sense to build your timeline around it! When deciding on your ceremony time there are a few key things to take into consideration:

Are you getting married onsite, or at an offsite location like a church? If you’re getting married offsite, your ceremony location might have a designated time for your ceremony, which would in turn decide your ceremony time for you.
What day of the week are you getting married on? If you’re getting married on a weekday, you might want to consider having a later ceremony time to accommodate those coming from work.
What time is sunset? This will play an especially big role in your ceremony time decision if you’re getting married in the winter months where the sun sets a little bit earlier.

Once you decide on your ceremony time you can work backwards/forwards to build the rest of your wedding day timeline. Keep reading for a breakdown of the other major parts of your wedding day!

Getting Ready

Believe it or not, this is actually the part of the day that we probably get the most questions about. It’s hard to know how long to budget for getting ready! This is especially important to figure out early on so that you can know how many additional hours you’ll need at the venue (if getting ready onsite). Hair & makeup takes roughly 4-5 hours, including a 30-minute touchup window.

It takes roughly 45 minutes for each service to be done (1.5 hours for both hair & makeup), and one artist will usually do 5-6 services on a wedding day. This takes a total of 4-5 hours, but don’t worry if you have a large group getting services done - your hair & makeup company will staff the appropriate amount of artists needed.

Your hair and makeup start time will really depend on when you need to be ready for pictures. We most often see brides arrive at the venue between 8am and 9am to start getting ready.

Pictures

Don’t forget to budget in about 30 minutes for you to get dressed & ready to go before pictures! Your photo schedule will heavily depend on if you’re doing a first look or not. If you’re not doing a first look your photographer will most likely still try to fit in some photos before the ceremony, but the majority of them will be done during the cocktail hour. Individual portraits and bridesmaid/groomsmen photos are some that your photographer will probably do before the ceremony. In that case, you can plan about 1 hour for those photos.

If you are doing a first look, you can plan about 2 hours for all of your photos. Talk with your photographer about their preference for photo order/timing breakdown, but here’s an example:

15 minutes for your first look
30 minutes for couple portraits
30-45 minutes for wedding party pictures
30-45 minutes for family pictures

Ceremony

An average ceremony is 30 minutes long, but of course, this will be different for everyone! Some things that may affect the length of your ceremony are any religious elements, cultural traditions, or who is marrying you.

When planning your ceremony timing, don’t forget that we recommend hiding away at least 30 minutes - 1 hour before the ceremony while guests arrive. One more thing to note, if you have to travel between locations at all we suggest planning double the travel time just in case!

Cocktail Hour

Typically your cocktail hour will just be one hour, but there are some cases where we would suggest making it a 90-minute social hour.

If we need to do a room flip from an indoor ceremony to your reception setup
If you need to take the majority of your photos during this time. *If this applies to you, talk with your photographer about timing/photo order, but here is an example breakdown:

Immediately after the ceremony start with family photos (30-45 minutes)
Remaining wedding party photos (15 minutes)
Couple portraits (30-45 minutes)

Whether you’re having an hour-long cocktail hour, or a 90-minute social hour it’s important to have good food & beverage options for your guests! Luckily our catering partner, Mintahoe Catering, has the best hors d'oeuvres options. They can either do butler passed hors d’oeuvres or a self-serve station. Mintahoe recommends that you cut your cake during the cocktail hour in front of the fireplace in the mansion. Not only is it a great photo op, but it also gives the catering team time to cut the cake so it’s ready to serve!

Wedding tip: if you’re wanting to do a specialty cocktail for a portion of the evening, cocktail hour is a great time to do so!

Dinner

You’re married, and now it’s time to celebrate!! Plan 15 minutes into your timeline for your guests to get seated for dinner (it takes them some time to transition into the ballroom & find their seats). After they’re seated, we’ll move into your grand entrance. Plan 5 minutes for that, 5 minutes for a welcome toast if doing one, and 5 minutes for a blessing if doing one. Immediately after that, Mintahoe will begin serving dinner.

Mintahoe Catering offers two styles for your meal service: a plated meal or a buffet meal. If you're having a plated dinner, salads will immediately be served after the welcome speech/blessing. After 25 minutes, entrees will be served. 25 minutes after that, we will begin toasts. If you're doing a buffet dinner, Mintahoe will start releasing tables (starting with the head table/family) immediately after the welcome speech/blessing. After all tables have gone to the buffet & entrees are wrapping up (about 50 minutes), we will begin toasts.

Toasts & First Dances

Plan roughly 5 minutes per toast, but if you know someone is going to be a bit more long-winded buffer in some extra time for their toast. After toasts, we typically transition into the carriage house for dessert and dancing.

The first dances would traditionally include the couple and each one of them with a person of significance. We suggest planning 15 minutes for your first dances. After that, open dance will begin & it’s time to dance the night away! Dessert will be available upon transition into the carriage house.

Open Dancing

If you’re planning on doing any extra activities such as a bouquet toss, garter toss, anniversary dance, etc. we recommend doing that 30 minutes - 1 hour after the open dance begins. Doing those activities earlier in the evening will ensure that the majority of your guests are still there to participate.

The End + Tear Down

Eventually, your last song will play, and your beautiful day will have come to an end. One great thing about our venue though is that we give you an extra “bonus” hour after your event ends to gather all of your belongings. This is especially great for any vendors who have to return and strike anything.

Hopefully, this guide provides some clarity & confidence on how to start building your wedding day timeline. But no matter what, we are always here to help in any way we can. Just because we love you all so much, we’ve included two sample timelines below! 😉 One example with a first look, and one without. Enjoy!

MOCK TIMELINE - first look

Hair & Make-up Begins: 8:00am

Hair & Make-up Complete: 12:30pm

First Look: 1:00pm

Couple Portraits: 1:15pm-2:00pm

Wedding Party Photos: 2:00pm-2:45pm

Family Photos: 2:45pm-3:30pm

Wedding party hidden while guests arrive: 3:30pm

Guest Arrival: 3:30pm

Ceremony: 4:00pm

Cocktail Hour: 4:30pm-5:30pm

Cake Cutting: 5:20pm-5:25pm

Guests Take their Seats: 5:30pm-5:45pm

Grand March: 5:45pm-5:50pm

Welcome Toast: 5:50pm-5:55pm

Blessing: 5:55pm-6:00pm

Dinner Begins: 6:00pm

Toasts: 6:50pm

Transition to Carriage House: 7:10pm-7:15pm

First Dances/Dessert: 7:15pm - 8:00pm

Open Dance: 8:00pm - 12:00am

Bouquet Toss: 9:00pm

Last Call for Bar: 11:30pm

Last Song: 11:55pm

End of Event: 12:00am

MOCK TIMELINE - no first look

Hair & Make-up Begins: 9:00am

Hair & Make-up Complete: 2:00pm

Pre-ceremony photos:

Getting Ready Photos: 2:00pm-2:30pm

Wedding Party Photos: 2:30pm-3:00pm

Hidden while guests arrive: 3:00pm

Guest Arrival: 3:00pm

Ceremony: 4:00pm

Cocktail Hour: 4:30pm-6:00pm

Family Photos: 4:30pm-5:00pm

Wedding Party Photos: 5:00pm-5:15pm

Couple Portraits: 5:15pm-5:45pm

Cake Cutting: 5:45pm-5:50pm

Guests Take their Seats: 6:00pm-6:15pm

Grand March: 6:15pm-6:20pm

Welcome Toast: 6:20pm-6:25pm

Blessing: 6:25pm-6:30pm

Dinner Begins: 6:30pm

Toasts: 7:20pm

Transition to Carriage House: 7:40pm-7:45pm

First Dances/Dessert: 7:45pm - 8:00pm

Open Dance: 8:00pm - 12:00am

Bouquet Toss: 9:00pm

Last Call for Bar: 11:30pm

Last Song: 11:55pm

End of Event: 12:00am