Hey brides! In this blog post, I shared a sample timeline for wedding days. The times shared in that post are based on my experience of what flows really well for a wedding! Also, be sure to read PART 2 when you’ve finished reading!

Instead of simply listing the times for you, today I want to share some tips for creating a Photography-Friendly timeline. I want to go a little more in depth on why I suggest allotting a certain amount of time for different parts of a wedding day, as well as share a few things to consider about your timeline as far as lighting + making your photos look better! For this mini series, I’m going to cover it in two parts. The first is on getting ready + details, and the second is on your portraits + ceremony/reception.

So here’s part one of this topic! Here I’ll cover some tips for the getting ready + details portion of your day:

Always try to incorporate padding time in a timeline. This goes for your whole wedding day, but especially this part! On a wedding day, it’s pretty common for hair to take a little longer than expected, or your ceremony to run over 15 minutes late… so adding in a 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there throughout your day will ensure your photographer will still have plenty of time to capture all your portraits, and will lower the stress if something does go wrong! For example, I recommend an hour of time for bride & groom + bridal party portraits. However, I always try to add in an extra 15 minutes for these photos, because you never know if we have to start late or if a member of the bridal party goes missing for several minutes!

When getting ready, try to have your hair + makeup scheduled to be finished at least an hour before you have to put on your dress. One of the MAIN reasons that causes a timeline to start running late is that the bride’s hair and makeup takes a lot longer than expected! Of course, when your wedding day comes, there is no reason to rush this part, because you want to look and feel your absolute best. However, a good way to prevent this from creating too much stress for the rest of your day is to expect your hair & makeup to take a LOT longer than you think. I highly recommend trying to be finished at least an hour before you actually have to be (or when you have to put on your dress). That way, if it does go over, you’ll still be done in plenty of time… and you’ll have a little bit of time to sit and relax with your gals before the craziness of the day begins. :)

Give your photographer enough time to shoot details. After months of planning every detail, you want to ensure your photographer has time to capture it all! I generally ask for about 45 minutes to shoot this part of the day. I always feel SO excited when I have adequate time to shoot this part of the day, because I can tie in the colors and theme of your wedding here! I usually shoot these at the beginning of the day, so it’s kind of like my “warm up” for the day.

Have your details ready for when your photographer arrives. In addition to giving them enough time, make sure you have them all gathered together before your photographer arrives! This will save you both time trying to find them all. I usually recommend having some sort of box or bag to keep them all in, so you can just hand them over when they arrive! This includes ALL three rings, invitations, bouquet (if possible), shoes, jewelry, garter, and anything else you want photographed.

Head on over to Part 2 of how to have a photography-friendly timeline!

SaveSave