5 Wedding Timeline Tips

What’s your number one wedding day must-have? A wedding timeline. Maybe I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to planning and organizing (I blame it on my former career as a project manager), but with the amount of people involved in your big day, having a timeline will make everything so much calmer.

Think of your timeline as the wedding itinerary/guide to happiness for your bridesmaids, family, groom and vendors. Instead of being asked a million questions while trying to enjoy the day, you can kindly direct people to the timeline. While your timeline will most likely not go perfectly according to plan, at least your day will have direction and intention. With this in place, you will be able to relax, delegate, and breathe easier.

If you’re hiring me as your photographer (yay!!), then I would love to make a wedding day timeline for you. If you’re hiring a wedding day coordinator or a wedding planner, they will be a huge help in the customization and tweaking of your timeline. However, if you’re reading this blog and don’t fall into either of those two categories than I hope this article will still be of help to you! Wedding timeline planning doesn’t have to be scary or stressful. Just get out a pen, paper, and keep scrolling for my 5 best timeline planning tips.

1. List all the addresses

This is especially crucial if you’re hiring transportation and if your getting ready spot, ceremony, and reception are all in different locations. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to confuse Courtyard Mariott locations! Listing the addresses on your timeline will lower the amount of address confirmation texts you receive while you’re trying to get ready. It also helps ensure that your photographer/videographer don’t end up at the wrong spot!

2. Include phone numbers

Despite what you might think, your phone will not always be accessible on your wedding day. Make sure to include a phone numbers other than your own.  The phone number for your maid or honor, family member, or wedding planners for each location is so helpful. You’d be shocked at the amount of times I’ve shown up on time only to find the door to the church locked!

3. Add buffer time

I know you’ve heard this a thousand times by now, but your wedding day is going to fly by. In order to have the best experience, you want to be able to soak up every second. Savoring the moment is hard to do when you’re panicking about being late to your ceremony or realizing don’t have time for a bathroom break! You don’t want to have to rush your first look to stay on schedule. Don’t have your mom miss out on zipping you into your dress because she got stuck in traffic! To avoid these scenarios, make sure to leave buffer time in between events on your timeline.

4. Don’t share your timeline with too many people

Planning your wedding can be highly emotional and stressful. Avoid getting too many comments from the “peanut gallery” by only sharing your timeline with the people who genuinely need to have a copy. These people include:

• Your parents.
• The bridal party.
• Your vendors.

No one else (including guests or relatives not in the bridal party) needs a copy during the planning stage… no matter how curious they are!

5. Be at peace with the fact that your wedding day will not go according to plan

Despite everyone’s best efforts to make your day perfect and magical, life happens. People miss their alarms. Miscommunications are often inevitable, and accidents are unforeseeable. But all that is okay. Take a deep breath in and out. You have an amazing team of besties and hired professionals that are going to take care of anything that pops up. Regardless of what doesn’t go according to plan, you are marrying your best friend and that is all that really matters. Besides, sometimes it’s the things that aren’t planned that end up being the most magical. Prepare yourself for that fact that you can’t control everything and don’t forget your sense of humor!

I can’t guarantee that your wedding will go perfectly according to plan, but I can guarantee that it will be perfectly you.

Looking for more wedding planning advice? Check out my other posts!

Liv