Wedding Day Timeline
The short answer is: Start two hours before the ceremony begins and end about 2 hours after the first dance. Or open dancing if you did the first dance right away. That is rather common for Jewish weddings.
This short answer will work a surprising amount of the time! I still go and ask more questions. It is always best to identify possible issues ahead of time and resolve them or at least have an agreed upon plan be if needed. Prediction and prevention are golden in the wedding industry! Specific wedding experience is paramount here. Let me explain.
Okay so we’ll start two hours before the ceremony? Typically, yes. Some other questions to clarify your start time: Where are you getting ready? How far away is it from the ceremony location? How much are you getting ready ahead of time and how much are you finishing at the ceremony location? Are you seeing each other before the ceremony? How large is your immediate family? How many of them are in the bridal party? How big is your bridal party? All these questions and more can easily adjust that two hour window. I have not even mentioned special requests from family members.
How long is your ceremony? Just knowing the denomination will give me a pretty good idea of this answer but there are still some surprises. There always are!
After the ceremony will you be doing a receiving line? How many guests will be expected, if so? Will you be doing a “fake goodbye” and then alter portraits? That is most common. The size of your groups, family and bridal party will come into play as in how long to allow for this. Usually at least 20 minutes and it could be up to an hour for portraits.
Are you stopping at another location along the way to your reception? Often this is a park or other portrait location to do outdoor pictures. If your reception is at a Country Club or similar, this is often not needed. If it is, we’’ll need to know how far out of the way it is. Which images you created there and how big the groups will be. Often the bridal party comes along for these. Extended family is not unusual. Some parents want to watch because they are loving this experience so much! (that would be me as a dad!)
What time can we get inro the room? Some halls are more generous than others. Some allow you to be early and some absolutely do not! Some others allow family, bridal party and vendors in early but not guests. All the reception halls are different. You just need to ask them.
If you want to schedule Sunset portraits, you’’ll need to identify when that happens and see if you need to adjust things a bit to allow for that. If you have peak sunset colors while your bridal party is being introduced. You will still have the cake cutting, toasts and blessing before you’ll have any chance to sneak out for portraits and it may be too late by then!
You may not have all the answers to these questions yet and that is okay! You at least now have a ballpark estimate. One location with a short ceremony? You may only need 6 hours of coverage. If you change locations and want getting ready photos you’ll need about 8. If you have a separate getting ready location, long ceremony, park portraits and reception you are probably closer to 10 hours.