The Secret To Keeping To Your Wedding Day Timings

I’m Getting Married In The Morning – Get Me To The Church On Time!

Image Courtesy of FNS Wedding Photography — Rolex Watch

Wedding day timings…..what a subject this is! Do weddings ever run on time? Well, yes, they do, but only because of the intervention of one or two people along the way.

Even the best-organized bride will lose track of time while getting ready. So, the key to a successful day’s schedule is to know exactly (or as near as humanly possible) how long each part of your day is likely to take.

It’s never too early to start preparing things now – so if you are having a hairdresser visit you in the morning, have a trial of your wedding day hair and see how long it takes to achieve the look you want. The same applies to make-up. If, however, you are going to a salon, you need to have a trial and a practice run on the same day of the week (& if possible, time) as you are getting married. Traffic from your house to the salon will be quite different on a Saturday morning to a Tuesday afternoon, for example. Also check that nothing is happening locally (such as an “important” football match) which may affect traffic conditions not only for you getting places but also for people such a make-up artists, florists, hairdressers, photographers, cars getting to you. If you know anything is happening, alter your suppliers because they may be unaware.

So….we’ve tackled the things you can do to minimize the chances of being late due to outside influences, but what about the basics of just how long things are likely to take on the day? You’ve probably never organized a wedding before, so from this point of view, you probably have no idea what to expect. For example, would you know how long it will take to get your 100 guests out of the church after the ceremony? (15 to 20 minutes is the answer to this one – it could be longer if you have lots of elderly guests or young children)

So here goes with a (very rough!) idea to wedding day timings:

The bride’s putting on the dress, assisted by the bridesmaids and mum, takes 15 – 30 minutes (this assumes all makeup and other preparations have been done first).
Bride putting on veil & shoes: 5 mins minimum.
Photographs with bride & dad at house or on the way to the civil ceremony: 5 – 10 mins minimum.
Bride exiting car and entering church: 5 mins minimum, add 5 minutes if taking posed photos exiting car and with dad and bridesmaids outside the church.
Church service: 45 minutes minimum—often longer for Catholic services or services with many readings.
Civil ceremony service: 15 – 20 mins, depending on how many readings. Remember that the registrar will want to see you both individually before the ceremony, which will take around 5 – 10 minutes each).
Posed photographs outside the church—add 5 – 10 minutes if you are having the bells rung, as none of the guests or yourselves will be able to hear the photographer or yourselves speaking. Ten minutes is needed to get everyone organized for one group. Add around 5 minutes per additional group unless you have a very fast and efficient photographer (such as ourselves!) who, with the organization, can do this quicker.
From arriving at the venue to include the drinks reception, you should allow a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hrs before you wish to sit down for your wedding breakfast.
Receiving line: This depends on who you have in your receiving line (as in just you two or you two + parents from each side) and how many guests you have, but receiving lines can go on for a long time. You won’t be far out if you allow 5 – 7 seconds for each guest to speak to each person in the receiving line. This doesn’t sound very long, but in reality, receiving lines do add around a minimum of 1/2 hour to the sitting down time on the day. Some people will pause to talk longer than expected, while others will pass through. Receiving lines can be very boring all around. Most receiving lines are done for the benefit of the couples’s parents rather than the couple themselves.
Wedding breakfast: Of course, this depends on the venue’s speed, but an average three-course + coffee wedding breakfast will take around 1.5 hours. For four courses, add 1/2 hour and 1/2 for each additional course.
Speeches – how long is a piece of string? Of course, some people talk for England, and some hardly do so. The average speech time from our observations includes the Father of the Bride, Groom, and Best Man, which is around 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, with giving gifts often taking up the most time during the speeches.
Turnaround time between wedding breakfast and evening reception (if using the same room). The venue will advise you specifically on this, but most venues take 1 – 1.5 hours to do this. You need to allow extra time if a band sets up in the room for the evening entertainment.
First dance – it should be noted that first dances very rarely happen at the time they are expected. So, if you are booking your photographer for a set number of hours and want the times to include your first dance, you must allow yourself plenty of leeway on this one. We are often informed that the first dance will happen at around 8.30; in reality, it is normally around 9.00 – 9.30. Many things can affect the time of the first dance; all of them will be beyond your control on the day to a large degree. For example, the venue may take longer to turn the room around (this may not be their fault – sometimes guests lingering in the room after the wedding breakfast can hold things up), and often, the band may take longer to set up than you or they expect, guests, may disappear to freshen up and not return at the allotted time.

We hope this has been a useful guide to your wedding day timings. Wedding days can run to time, but they require meticulous planning and some luck! Some key people on the day (such as the photographers) can keep an eye on the times and gently keep you on time by being quick and efficient with posing in formal groups, for example, and not taking an endless amount of time outside the church. They are also likely to be the ones most aware of when you are getting ready – very few brides have a watch on or are clock-watching. Bridesmaids can often be so chilled out and fussing around the bride that they lose track of time and don’t get their dresses on in time!

The one thing that happens virtually every wedding day is that after the day has passed, the couple will say to us, “We don’t know where the time went. All that planning and the day was over in a flash.” So our advice would be to try to savour every minute as best you can and make sure that your photographer is the best you can afford so they can fill in the gaps later with fantastic photos of moments in time you didn’t know or don’t recall happening. With the right photographer, time really can stand still.