5 Wedding Timeline Tips
A list of the 5 wedding timeline tips that you should consider especially when getting married in Massachusetts.
These hopefully will help you choose your photography package!
- Ceremony Time: Knowing this can help determine your timeline and how many hours you might need.
- Consider a First Look: If you are hoping to get to enjoy more time with guests, a first look should definitely be considered.
- Family Photos: They take longer than you think!
- Factor in Drive Time/Delays: Sometimes it’s easier to get the hotel room close by, rather than get ready at home.
- Sunset/Night shot: Always take the time to do the sunset or night shot! You won’t regret it, even if it’s raining 😉
Ceremony Time
The first of your wedding timeline tips is the Ceremony Time. When it comes to planning your wedding timeline, a great starting place is to decide on the ceremony time. How to decide? Well this will depend on if you are getting married at a Church or at the Venue.
If you are getting married at a Church, they tend to dictate the time. If mass is at 2pm, then you can plan on how many hours before the mass you’ll need. To start you’ll want to think about getting ready photos and also drive time. From there, you’ll add on the time between the mass and when your cocktail hour starts at the venue. During this time, you’ll be able to get all your portraits done, either at the church or at the venue. Last, you’ll decide on how long you’ll want photography at your reception. Through the end of the night or just enough to capture some of the dancing!
Ceremonies at your venue, offer a little more flexibility on your wedding day. As well as the potential to shorten the hours you may need for your photography packages. You’ll want to ask your venue if they ceremony time is extra or included in your hours.
For example, you have 5 hours at the reception venue and the ceremony is included. A ceremony start time might be at 5pm so your reception ends at 10pm. Some venues allow ceremonies to be added on. So you have an hour for the ceremony and then a full 5 hours for the reception.
Since we’re talking about planning a wedding in Massachusetts (or New England), you’ll want to factor in the season for your ceremony time. If you’re hoping for outdoor wedding pictures, you should take a look at when sunset is! You really need about an hour (plus) of time after your ceremony end time for outdoor wedding pictures. Especially November through April where you can lose the sun behind the trees quicker.
First Look
The first look is next on wedding timeline tips. This is definitely one of the harder decisions on the day. Everyone has their opinion on it, but really it comes down to what works best for you both on the wedding day that YOU are planning. Check out my blog on “5 Reasons to do a First Look” and see if it helps with your decision.
If you’d like to do a first look AND do all of your portraits before the wedding ceremony, you need to factor in more time. I normally say add 1 hour of photography coverage, because you’re essentially moving what we would do during cocktail hour to before your wedding. You can also do a first look and keep all the portraits to after the wedding ceremony. This would probably mean taking 30 minutes of photography coverage from either the getting ready portion or from the end of the reception.
Remember to ask your venue how early you can be on the property for the first look!
Family Portraits
Family portraits do tend to take a little longer than you think. You might say ‘oh, we’re just doing immediate family,’ but every combination you’d like takes approximately 2-3 minutes. Between getting everyone together, getting everyone looking at the photographer’s camera, adjusting positioning and catching no blinks- you’re at the 2-3 minute mark. Add up all your combos and you have a rough idea of how long family portraits will be.
For example Partner 1 With:
Parent 1
Parent 2
Both Parents
Sibling 1
Sibling 2
Both Siblings Together
All Immediate family
Partner 1 and 2 with Partner 1’s immediate family
-This combination above could take up to 16 minutes.
Repeat with Partner 2′ s Family
– Now we’re potentially up to 32 minutes.
If we have time to do immediate family combinations before the wedding, we always try! So when thinking about the timeline, thinking about when you want to do these combinations is a great idea. An 8 hour timeline would allow for time to do some of these beforehand and the rest after the ceremony. If add an hour to your timeline and do a first look, you can do these before the ceremony. Otherwise with a shorter timeline (6 hours), you’re doing all the family combination pictures, plus wedding party, and the couple’s formal portraits during the cocktail hour. Check out my blog: 5 Steps For Navigating Wedding Family Photos.
Drive Time/ Delays
A lot of times when I first speak with couples, they’ll opt for a certain hour package. But when we talk about where they are getting ready and drive time to the venue, we realize there’s extra time we need to factor in. We need to figure this into the timeline for the day. For each portion of the day, I like to have at least 30 minutes, not including drive time. When we start to block down to 15 minutes, the timeline gets a little tight! For example, say we have 30 minutes for getting ready photos. It gives us time for details, getting into the dress, and any final touches. If we only have 15 minutes because of drive time, then you’ll be missing out on photo opportunities throughout your day.
Also account for potential traffic or delays, depending on how far you are driving. Just adding a little extra time for each situation makes the day a little less stressful for you!
Sunset/ Night Shot
This one is just for fun! Take the time to go do a sunset photo or night shot! Depending on your location, you might only have one or the other. It’s fun to sneak away to the beach or to capture the character of the venue you chose at night. It gives you a few minutes to be with each other alone on your wedding day! Be giddy, smile, kiss and look at your favorite person in the world who you just got to marry! Besides, I already factored it into the timeline for you 😉
Ready to love your wedding photos?
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