What Makes for the Best Wedding Day Timeline

No matter what kind of wedding you’re having, one thing is for certain, TIMING IS EVERYTHING! With so many moving parts to the day, it’s imperative to have all the details mapped out.

It might sound silly, but we pride ourselves on our timelines! Our main focus - KEEP THE ENERGY UP! We’ve all attended weddings as guests with massive downtime and endless speeches that seem to drone on and on. These situations are a result of poor planning and bad timelines!

Below is what we consider when creating a Style-Architects Wedding timeline:

1. First thing we is consider whether you have any time limitations with your band or DJ. If the band is restricted to playing three hours of music over a five hour period for example, then we want to make sure to time dinner to ensure the band has time to fulfill their allotted performance time. For example, you wouldn’t want to start a dance in this case at 9pm as it wouldn’t allow for three hours of play with required breaks.

2. Next, “What time is sunset?” Factoring in the sunset time will ensure that you and your fiancé have time to run out for some golden hour photos. These photos typically take place anytime between 45 minutes to an hour before sunset. Depending on the time of year, you may have to jump out during dinner service and we want to ensure that your meal is served hot and is ready as soon as you return.

3. Based on the answers to 1 & 2, we help determine the ceremony time. From there we map out everything after the ceremony. 99% of our couples use the East Coast wedding timeline format. This includes dancing before guests are invited to sit for dinner and splitting up speeches and important dances throughout dinner service. Peppering toasts and dances throughout dinner service ensures that guests keep focused on what is going on and keeps things moving and the energy flowing in the room. When your guests sit too long, they start to lose focus and lose steam to join the dance after dinner.

4. What are your top three priorities for your wedding? If “guest experience” is important to you {and who doesn’t think that?} then we build that into the finer details of the timeline. Ensuring ushers are ready to greet guests as they arrive at the venue, having cocktails passed for quicker service during cocktail hour, and minimizing the time between transitions in the evening are just a few of the timeline adjustments we make.

5. Once the entire evening is planned out, we start from the ceremony and work backwards to the morning. Although the morning is typically crazy with getting ready, photos, and all of the emotions, we still want to ensure that all the details are accounted for including time for first looks with bridal party, parents and, of course, your fiancé, family and wedding party photos, and arrival times for vendors, wedding party, and guests. Wedding day timelines guide every move that day and having everyone and everything accounted for is important.

Of course, not all weddings are the same but we want the same things for each wedding day: keeping the day moving, keeping the day energized, and ultimately GETTING THESE TWO MARRIED!

If you are looking for advice on your wedding day timeline or are interested in a planning package, please feel free to fill our contact form here. We would love to talk and get your planning started!