Evening wedding timeline: a 6 PM ceremony schedule

An evening wedding feels like a party from the first minute. The ceremony is at 6 PM or later, dinner is by candlelight and the dancing can run past midnight. The challenge is the light: by the time the ceremony ends, it may be too dark for photos outside. The answer is to move most of the photos before the ceremony.

Here's a full evening wedding timeline for a 6 PM ceremony, hour by hour, and how to fit it to your season and venue.

A sample evening wedding timeline

This schedule is for a 6:00 PM ceremony of 30 minutes, an hour of cocktails and a five-hour reception, with a first look. It's the timeline our free timeline maker builds from a 6 PM ceremony.

| Time | The day | Notes | |---|---|---| | 1:00 PM | Lunch; hair and makeup begins | Eat something before it gets busy | | 2:30 PM | Get dressed | Photographer arrives for detail shots | | 3:00 PM | First look | Keep it to 15 minutes | | 3:30 PM | Portraits of the two of you | | | 4:15 PM | Photos with the wedding party | Florist delivers bouquets and buttonholes | | 4:45 PM | Family photos | Photos now mean more time with guests later | | 5:15 PM | Ushers seat guests | The two of you stay out of sight | | 5:45 PM | Line up for the processional | Officiant checks in with you both | | 6:00 PM | Ceremony begins | Phones away: ask the officiant to say so | | 6:30 PM | Recessional | | | 6:35 PM | Join cocktail hour | Bar opens and canapés go round | | 7:20 PM | Freshen up before the entrance | | | 7:30 PM | Grand entrance | | | 7:45 PM | Dinner is served | Ask the caterer to bring your plates first | | 8:45 PM | Toasts | | | 9:15 PM | First dance | | | 9:30 PM | Dances with family | | | 9:45 PM | Dance floor opens | | | 10:30 PM | Cake cutting | | | 11:30 PM | Late-night snack | | | 12:00 AM | Last dance | | | 12:15 AM | Send-off | Check the venue's rules on sparklers | | 12:30 AM | Reception ends | Name someone to take home gifts and décor |

Photos before the ceremony

The evening timeline turns the usual order around. A first look at 3 PM, three hours before the ceremony, starts a photo block that runs through portraits, the wedding party and the family until 5:15 PM. By the time guests are seated, every photo on the list is done.

That has two rewards. You walk straight from the recessional into your own cocktail hour, which most couples miss entirely. And the photos are in daylight, which matters most in winter, when it can be dark by 5 PM.

If you'd rather see each other first at the aisle, keep the portraits of the two of you for after the ceremony and do the wedding party and family photos separately beforehand. Look up sunset for your date: if it's after 7 PM, ask the photographer for ten minutes outside during cocktail hour.

A long reception

Five hours from the grand entrance takes the reception to 12:30 AM. Dinner starts at 7:45 PM, which is late for hungry guests, so keep the canapés coming through cocktail hour and tell the caterer.

A late-night snack at 11:30 PM is the evening wedding's tradition: pizza, sliders, fries or something local, brought out when the dancing has been going for a couple of hours. It keeps people on the floor until the last dance.

Check two things in your venue contract before you plan past 11 PM. Many venues have a noise curfew or a hard stop, and overtime is charged by the hour. Transport home matters too: if guests are driving, book a shuttle or share taxi numbers, and give the driver for your own exit a time.

Getting ready is later, not shorter

Hair and makeup starts at 1 PM, five hours before the ceremony, the same as an afternoon wedding but shifted later. The difference is the morning: there's nothing on the timeline before lunch, so sleep in, eat properly, and keep the morning for yourselves. Put lunch on the timeline anyway.

Later ceremonies

A 7 PM ceremony moves every row an hour later and the end to 1:30 AM; many venues won't allow that, so a 7 PM wedding often has a shorter reception. Anything from 5 PM uses this template. For an earlier start, compare the afternoon wedding timeline and the morning wedding timeline.

Make it your own

Open the evening template in the free wedding day timeline maker, type your own ceremony time and set the reception end from your contract: the last dance and send-off move to fit, and rows after midnight are marked as the next day. For buffers, who gets a copy and running the day itself, read how to make a wedding day timeline.

To keep it, create a free account. Your timeline becomes the Wedding Day timeline, and Day-of mode shows what's now and next on your phone, offline once it's loaded. Complete adds a Rehearsal Dinner timeline for the night before.