Creating a well-balanced timeline is important for any wedding, but it is especially important for holiday weddings! Major holidays (like NYE, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.) are beautiful dates to host a wedding, but they require careful planning when it comes to creating a timeline.
What is a timeline for?
A wedding timeline is a guide to help keep everyone on track on the day of your wedding. It details when and where things will be taking place, and how long each item should take (roughly). A well built timeline will give the couple lots of wiggle room to enjoy the day and soak it all in.
A day-of timeline is also for your wedding vendors. This document will tell them exactly when things need to be done, so they can plan on when they need to arrive. For example, if you need all of your bridesmaids to be dressed and ready to go by 3:00 pm, that means your makeup and hairstylist need to make sure they have enough time to finish everyone by 2:30 pm.
Things to consider
Now that you’ve looked at the average day-of timeline, let’s talk about why you need to put more consideration into a holiday wedding! On the average wedding day, there are about a hundred ways that your timeline can run behind. With skilled vendors, there’s often a way to catch up, but not always. Have you ever driven to a relative’s house on Christmas eve? Do you remember being stuck in traffic + poor weather conditions? Because that is exactly why you need to plan even more wiggle room for a wedding that falls on a holiday!
When in doubt, talk to your vendors about your timeline and ask them if it’s realistic! When in doubt, it may be worth adding extra time coverage with your vendors. Obviously we can’t plan for everything, but we can get pretty damn close. M + D’s wedding fell behind a few times, but thankfully I was able to add an extra two hours of coverage to make sure we still captured all of their amazing moments! As you’ll see below, it was totally worth it, their shots made my heart melt.
Here’s an examples of an average wedding day timeline (feel free to steal it as a template).
Winter Timeline example
12:00 Styled details
12:30 Partner 1 getting ready
1:00 Partner 2 getting ready
1:30 Leave to venue
2:00 First look
2:10 Nearlywed Formals
2:45 Wedding Party Formals
3:00 Family formals
3:30 Guests arriving – Couple tucked away
4:00 Ceremony
4:30 Cocktail hour
6:00 Dinner + speeches
8:00 Cake cutting
9:20 First dances
9:30 Open dance floor
10:00 Departure
