Show Me Your Timeline - Amount of Time Between Pictures and Ceremony

laura_fett

Ladies can you please share your wedding day timeline with me and tell me how much time there should be between pictures and the beginning of the ceremoney. For example, our ceremony starts at 4pm, so should we make sure we are done with pictures by 3:30pm or earlier? TIA!

schmood

Our ceremony was at 6pm.  We could get into the church whenever we wanted, but we had to vacate the church btw 4:30-5:30 due to a daily mass.  We started pics at 2:30 -  took the in the church ones until about 4:30.  Then we went outside and took some until about 5:30.  So we had about 20-25 minutes from when we finished until showtime.   Since the boys didn't take as long to get ready, I had them start at 2:30 getting the GM & usher pictures while us gals were finishing getting ready.  We had to do some finagling with our timelines due to grandparents coming closer to the ceremony start time, trying to accomodate some nap times for nieces & nephews and a few other variables.  But, we had just about the right amt of time for the pics we wanted. 

kristigiles

Our ceremony started at 3pm.  We took outdoor pics from 11:30-1, then indoor pics from 1:15-2:15.  We were done right at right about 2:15 with all the group shots then my husband (yay!) and I went outside with our photog to do some on our own for about 15 minutes.  I would definitely plan to end at least a half an hour before the ceremony.  You will want that time to freshen up and calm your nerves a little.  I would also plan a little buffer at the beginning of pictures because they never start on time.  I put that ours would start at 11 and we didnt end up starting until about 11:30, which was fine because I had planned for that.

Good luck!

shan87

I was in a wedding this past weekend and they planned for 1 hr of out door pictures and 1 hr of indoor pictures and it was not enough.
My plan is to have 2 hrs for pictures before the ceremony and another 1-1.5 hrs after the receiving line and during cocktail hr to take more.

As for ending time and ceremony start time talk with your church. My Church and this wedding I was in required the Bridal Party to vacate the church 30 mins prior to seat guests. I would recommend using that time to relax and get the party in their line up. But if you like you can always use that time to get pictures outside if you are running late.

dcprep

1 p.m.: Bride and groom photo shoot (first look)

1:20 p.m.: Wedding party photo shoot

2 p.m.: family photo session

2:30 p.m.: Break

3 p.m.: Ceremony starts

That was enough time for us. Our photographer came to our hotel first to get pics of us getting ready. Then we had 2 hours between the end of the ceremony and when dinner was going to start, so we took lots of pictures then too.

I Want Cake

We're doing our ceremony at 2:00, and I absolutely do not want anyone besides our parents and the WP seeing me in my dress before the ceremony, so we're going to do it this way:

12:30-1:00:  first look and getting ready photos at SPCC, since that's where we're getting ready (beautiful bridal/groom suites)

1:00-1:45:  WP/immediate family shots in the sculpture garden

2:00:  showtime!  (will hide in limo while guests are arriving)

2:30-3:00:  extended family pictures for both sides

3:00-4:00:  more WP shots before we go to the reception

We've only got our ceremony location from 12:00-3:00, which includes setup, so we're only going to have a couple hours to get all of our "before the ceremony" photos done before we get married, and that includes travel time.