Day-of timeline for 2pm wedding?

erin5286 · July 2012

For those of you who had or are having a 2pm (or similar time) wedding, what was your timeline/schedule for the day of? How early did you start hair appointments/getting ready? How much time did you allocate for pictures?

I know our photographer will have his own suggestion on time for pictures, but I haven't met with him to discuss that yet (have left two voicemails and haven't gotten a call back yet, but that's a different issue...)

Riss91 · July 2012

OUr wedding started at 3:00pm and we had 6 bridesmaids, 2 moms and myself getting hair and makeup done. This was our timeline....

- 7:30am - Begin Hair & Makeup

- 12:30pm - Get dressed, finish with accessories & final details.

- 1:00pm - Photographer arrives to snap shots of us.

- 2:30pm - Leave for the church!

- 3:00pm - Ceremony starts

jenjlgsings · July 2012

Ohhh, interesting!
My wedding is also at 2:00 but I haven't really thought about that yet.
Someone did recommend to me a hair/makeup appointment for around 8 or 9.

Riss - did it really take that long for pictures at the house?

professorscience · July 2012

Hair and makeup arrived at the hotel at 10:00, and we got to the church at noon. Photographer and videographer met us at the church at 12. I got dressed right around 12:30 and we took pictures for about an hour and a half. Guests started arriving as early as 1:00, I think (only a few, though).

Edit: Keep in mind that if you're not seeing each other before the ceremony, it does take a while to take pictures because you have to coordinate keeping the bride and groom separate. Plus, we wanted outdoor pictures so we had to do those really early so guests wouldn't be wandering up on us. We were sequestered in the bride's room for at least 45 minutes before the ceremony.

erin5286 · July 2012

Riss and Prof - did you find that 1 1/2 hours was plenty of time for photos? Did you end up taking any after the ceremony?

Last night I was talking with a friend and she said her pictures started at 11:45 for a 4 pm ceremony - that scared me a bit as I would have to start getting ready REALLY early if I had that much time set aside for my pictures!

professorscience · July 2012

I think we had plenty of time. The part of the church where we took pre-ceremony pictures was pretty well-secluded, and it would have been easy to funnel guests elsewhere if we'd needed to step back out for more pics. And yes, we did take a lot of pictures afterward. I think we arrived at the reception between 4:00 and 4:30.

Some of our friends got married a few weeks ago, 3:00 ceremony, and we met at a hair salon to get ready at like 8 am. I remember thinking that was WAY too early, but it definitely took a long time there. I would ask whoever is doing your hair/makeup how much time they want, because that will really determine what time you need to start. The girl I went with only took about an hour to do my hair and makeup (I think), and a girl I'd talked to about it said she'd want an hour for hair only.

kgrawedding · July 2012

My mother and I just starting talking about day-of stuff. This is what I have so far:

9:30 Hair & Make-up Arrive at Hotel. All Hair & Make-up done by 12:30 (3 people)

12:30 Florist arrives at Hotel

12:45 Photographer arrives at Hotel

1:05 First Guest Shuttle to Church leaves

1:25 Second Guest Shuttle to Church leaves

1:30 Limos arrive at Hotel

1:40 Leave for Church

2:00 Ceremony

3:15 First Return Shuttle to Hotel Leaves

3:35 Second Return Shuttle to Hotel Leaves

3:15 Ceremony posed photos, parents, grandparents, and wedding party photos in church

4:00 Leave Church

4:15 Bride & Groom photos at Hotel, any remaining family photos

5:00 Cocktails

6:00 Reception – introduction, first dance, father-daughter dance, grace, parent toasts

6:15 Salads served

6:30 (between courses) Best Man and Maid of Honor Toasts

6:35 Entrees served

8:15 Cake cutting

8:20 Bouquet toss

8:25 Fiddleheads play a set (College friends Celtic music group)

8:45 Photographer leaves

9-9:30 Bride & Groom leave without announcement

10 Reception ends

Riss91 · July 2012

We just did "getting ready" pictures and formal pictures of me with the maids and with the moms.

After the ceremony, we did more pictures with the two of us, the families and the bridal party.

erin5286 · July 2012

Thanks for all the help! We'd like to get a majority of the photos done before the ceremony, so it sounds like we'll need to block out a bit more time. We'll probably do some extra photos of just the two of us after the ceremony, but that will be done around 3:30, probably have a receiving line outside the church (weather permitting) and then dinner around 5:30 - so not a lot of time in there to cram in pictures!

Tami87 · July 2012

I had a 2pm wedding ceremony, but reception didn't start until 6pm, with a driving distance of about 30 min. Yes I had the dreaded gap. Guests were provided beer and light snacks at the hotel in between. Gaps our common in our circle so no one seemed to mind and we got a few compliments about how well the snacks/beer at the hotel in between went.

My hairdresser did hair and makeup for me, hair for my three bridesmaids, and a quick style for my mom who has very short hair.

She arrived at 8am (she traveled to us) and we were done around 12pm. We left the hotel at 12:30pm and arrived at the church at 1pm (as early as they would let us arrive).

Our photographer did getting ready pictures at the hotel with us and traveled with the wedding party the whole day. She may have gotten a few of the guys at the church before mass, I'm not sure. But we didn't do any posed pictures until after the ceremony. The church allowed for us to take pictures there until 4pm, but I think we were done closer to 3:30pm. I was trying to be quick because there was some confusion over whether we were having a grand exit and I didn't want people to have to wait around forever.

Overall I believe we blocked about 2 - 2.5 hours for pictures. Although most of this was just the wedding party or just the groom and I. Only took about 15 min or so to get the family shots (just did immediate family and I have no siblings and he only has one sister).

So our day of

8am Photographer arrive, hair dresser arrives
12:30pm Leave for church
1pm Arrive at Church
2pm Wedding Mass
3pm Pictures at church
4:15-5:00 pictures in park
5:15-5:50 pictures at reception site
6pm Guests arrive (my husband and I stood by the door and tried to greet people as they arrived for our cocktail hour).
7pm Guests move upstairs seated for dinner, introductions by DJ

mcda04 · July 2012

My Ceremony begins at 12:30.
8am: have a light breakfast.
9am: Make-Up
10am: Hair
11am: Getting Ready PIcs with mom and bridesmaids
12pm: head to the Church
12:30: Ceremony Begins
2pm: Pictures at the Church and offsite with bridal party
3pm: Cocktail hour begins
4:30pm: Guests enter the reception.
5pm: Dinner is served, DJ announces entrance, toasts,
6pm:First Dance, Mother Daughter, Mother Son dance.
7pm: Pictures with Guests per table
8pm: Bouquet / Garter Toss. & Cake cutting
9pm: Dancing
10pm: We Leave
11pm: Reception ends.

Calypso1977 · July 2012

erin, we did all our photos before and did them in 2 hours.

ElisabethJoanne · July 2012

Our photographer said he could do post-ceremony photos in less than an hour. That's anything with both of us or anyone from my side. But we only have 2 attendants on each side. Some photographers wanted 90 minutes, and actually, I think ours said 20 minutes would be enough.

I haven't worked out anything about getting ready, but I'm not getting up early! I'll just skip (professional hair and make-up) if the powers-that-be insist it takes hours. We're also not doing any getting-ready photos.

We're also signing a ketubah [long story; we have Priest's OK], but I haven't updated the timeline for that. So, if I'm remembering correctly:

12:30-1:30 Photos of groom's side and church and decorations
1:30-2 Seating of guests
2-3:30 Solemn High Nuptial Mass
3:30-4:30 Post-ceremony photos
4-5 "Cocktail hour" [Reception venue is 1/2 hour from the church, so this is immediately after the ceremony and during all the photos]
5-5:30 Welcome/Grace/B'ruchos/Toasts
5:30-6:30 dinner
6:30-7 Cake-cutting and service
7 First dance

No tosses or formal send-off, so the first dance is the last entry. Our wedding is on a work/school night (holiday Monday) so we aimed to have it end early.

Day-of timeline for 2pm wedding?

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