When you’re planning a wedding day timeline there are so many things to think about. If you hired a wedding planner, they will be able to help you with a lot of this, but not everyone has one. I am here today to give you 5 pre-ceremony timing tips to consider doing on your wedding day. Check them out below!

If you only take away one thing from this post, take away this – the best advice I could give is to ADD CUSHION TIME!

It can be very surprising how long even the simple things can take on your wedding day. You may run into a button malfunction when you put your dress on, and what should have taken 5 minutes now is taking 20. However, if you planned in extra buffer time throughout your timeline, little things like this will not throw your day off course!

It’s a smart idea to add in an extra ten minutes here and there so that we have some wiggle room to work with! This way, if one part of the day gets thrown off by 20 minutes, your photographer and planner can help you compensate that time in other areas. There are so many different things to think about when you’re planning a wedding day, and so here are some tips for the pre-ceremony timeline! I realize that every single wedding day is different and so not all of these tips will apply to every wedding day schedule.

Tip #1: Hair and Makeup

I encourage brides to have at least their makeup done before your photographer arrives! Who wants photos taken of themselves without their makeup on? Planning to have your photographer and videographer arrives once the hair and makeup artists are starting to do final touch-ups or starting your hair, is a perfect use of time for all vendors! 

Tip #2: Groomsmen Prep

Typically a photographer’s second shooter if they have one will photograph the guys if they are getting ready at the same location or close by. The groom is really the only one that needs to be ready for his first look. The other guys do not need to be ready at the same time. This saves a lot of time since the main focus is getting the groom ready and the rest can do so while the first look is going on. Pro tip – tell them they need to be ready 10 minutes before the actual time! 😉

Tip #3: Getting in the dress

Your photographer usually instructs you how to get into your dress for best photos but there are a few things to remember! Have your bridesmaids, mom, or anyone you would like in photos while you get into your dress already dressed! Another tip – bring a crochet tool to hook any buttons. This will help save a lot of time. 

Tip #4: Bouquets and Boutonnieres

You will need your bouquet and bout. For your first look. I recommend assigning two people to go to where the guys are getting ready and help put them on and make sure they are good to go. This is an area we can waste a lot of time during bridal party photos pausing to put all of them on, and usually no body knows how to put them on! If everyone has them on prior to arriving at the bridal party photo location, it goes much faster! 

Tip #5: Travel Time

Be sure to think about the travel time and the traffic to and from your getting ready location and your venue. This is another big reason why some timelines run behind because traffic was not accounted for in the timeline. This goes back to always adding in minor buffers here and there throughout the timeline. 

Finally, my last timing tip to consider while planning your timeline is that not EVERYTHING will go as planned, and I promise you, that is completely normal! At the end of the day, you will still get to marry your best friend and it will be the best day ever.

To read more wedding day tips like this one, click here.