How to Plan Your Wedding Timeline Around Your Photography and Videography
One of the easiest ways to make your wedding day feel rushed is to build the timeline around the ceremony and reception, then try to squeeze the photography in wherever there's a gap.
We prefer to do it the other way around.
Your photography and videography should fit naturally into the day, without taking you away from your guests for hours or making the whole thing feel like one long photoshoot.
Here's how we generally like to structure a wedding day.
Start with the venue & décor
We usually like to start with a little bit of time at the venue before everyone is ready.
This gives us a chance to photograph and film the venue, décor, reception details and all the little things that took months to organize while everything is still perfectly untouched.
If possible, ask your venue to have the reception completely set up before your photography starts. It means we can photograph everything properly before guests arrive and before handbags, jackets and half-empty wine glasses inevitably make their way onto the tables, if this doesn’t work for them then we suggest they don’t allow any guests to enter until we’ve had a chance to photograph it all after family photos.
The groom's preparation
We generally allow around 30–45 minutes with the groom and groomsmen.
This gives us enough time for some getting-ready photographs, groom details and relaxed photographs with the groomsmen.
It doesn't need to be a complicated production.
We're looking for the natural moments as everyone gets ready, along with a few photographs of the groom and his friends together.
Give the bride a little more time
For bridal preparation, we generally allow around 1½ hours.
There's simply more going on.
Hair and makeup are usually still being finished, the dress needs to go on, there are bridal details to photograph and there are often photographs with bridesmaids, parents or whoever is helping the bride get ready.
It also gives us some breathing room.
We're not interested in making you rush through those final moments because we've only allowed 45 minutes for everything.
The ceremony
Once everyone is ready, we move into the ceremony.
This is one of the reasons we like to have a proper timeline in place beforehand, to know exactly what we're working towards.
The ceremony itself obviously determines how much time we have afterwards, but we generally want to move through the post-ceremony photographs efficiently rather than keeping you away from your guests for an hour and a half.
After the ceremony: family, bridal party and couple photographs
This is the part of the day where a little planning makes a big difference.
Our general guideline is:
30 minutes for family photographs
30 minutes for bridal party photographs
30 minutes for couple photographs
Those are not necessarily three full 30-minute sessions and not necessarily on top of each other.
We generally try to work much faster than that and allow you some time to say hello to some guests and have a moment.
The extra time is just there to give us some breathing room for organising people, moving between photographs and dealing with the inevitable “Where's Dad?” moment.
Family photographs
We recommend deciding on your important family combinations before the wedding.
Keep the list relatively short and specific.
The more combinations you add, the longer this part of the day takes.
Having someone who knows both families available to help round people up is also incredibly useful.
Canapés and cocktail hour
Once the main formal photographs are done, you should actually get to enjoy your wedding.
This is when we photograph things like:
You celebrating with your guests
Canapés and drinks
Candid guest interactions
The venue and reception space
Little moments happening around you
After family photographs we encourage this time so you can spend this time with everyone rather than disappearing for another round of photographs.
Bridal party photographs
These don't need to be overly formal.
We'll get a few organised photographs, but we'll also keep things relaxed and moving.
And if you want to save time later, bridal party photographs can often be done before the ceremony.
This can make a big difference to the amount of time you spend away from your guests after you've said “I do”.
Couple photographs
This is where we get some proper time with the two of you.
We'll take some more intentional portraits, but we're not looking to spend your entire cocktail hour posing.
We'll give you some direction where needed and then let things happen naturally.
And importantly, the time of day matters.
If your ceremony is later in the afternoon, the light immediately after the ceremony might be perfect for your couple photographs.
If you want to shoot them before ceremony during a first look, we can plan around that.
This is one of the reasons we don't think there's one perfect wedding timeline that works for everyone.
The reception
Once everyone moves into the reception, the timeline becomes much more dependent on your venue and how you want your evening to flow.
A fairly typical order might look something like:
Newlywed entrance
You make your entrance while everyone is gathered.
Cake cutting
If you want to do a cake cutting, doing it early can be a good way to get it out of the way while everyone is already together.
Welcome and opening formalities
This can be kept short and simple.
Speeches
If you have a lot of speeches, consider asking the speakers to cap them to 5 minutes so everyone doesn’t have to sit through a long block of talking before they get to eat.
If they want to say more ask them to write it in the form of a letter and give it to you to keep.
Dinner
This is where everyone gets to relax, eat and actually enjoy themselves.
We don't need to photograph every mouthful.
First dance and opening of the dance floor
Once the formalities are finished, we generally recommend getting the first dance done and opening the dance floor rather than letting the party lose momentum with another formaility.
Don't feel like every formal photograph needs to happen during your reception
There are certain traditions that can be moved around or left until later.
Bouquet and garter tosses are a good example.
We don't usually see a need to build them into the formal reception timeline.
If you really want them photographed, they can be done.
Otherwise, save them for a time later in the evening when the dance floor needs a bit of a boost.
Or they're perfectly fine to skip.
Your wedding doesn't need to contain every single traditional wedding activity simply because it's on a wedding checklist somewhere.
Summer and winter timelines will look different
There isn't one perfect ceremony time.
In summer, you have much more flexibility with daylight and can push things later.
In winter, you'll want to pay much closer attention to when the sun is going down, particularly if you want beautiful natural-light couple photographs.
The same timeline also won't work for every venue.
If you're travelling between your getting-ready location, ceremony and reception, we'll need to build that travel time into the day.
That's why we recommend working backwards from the parts of the day that matter most to you rather than copying someone else's wedding timeline exactly.
The goal isn't to photograph every minute
The goal is to have enough time for us to do our job without your wedding feeling like a photoshoot.
We'll photograph the details, the people, the big moments and all the little things happening around them.
We'll also give you some direction when it's needed.
But most of the day should simply be you getting married and enjoying yourselves.
A good wedding timeline gives you enough structure that you don't have to think about the photography and videography at all.