How to make a wedding day timeline, hour by hour

A wedding day timeline is the plan for the day itself, hour by hour, from the first coffee to the send-off. The two of you, the wedding party and every vendor work from it, so the photographer knows when family photos start and the DJ knows when to hand over the microphone. It isn't the planning timeline of the months before; it's one page for one day.

Every timeline is built the same way: fix the ceremony time, work backwards to getting ready, work forwards to the end of the reception, then add buffers. This guide goes through each step with the usual times, then covers who gets a copy and how to run the day from it.

1. Start from the ceremony time

The ceremony is the one time nobody can move once the invitations are out, so every other time hangs off it. Write it down first, with how long the ceremony runs. Ask your officiant: many ceremonies take 20 to 30 minutes, and a religious service can take an hour.

The time of day changes the shape of the whole day, so start from the right pattern:

• Before noon: a shorter getting-ready morning and a brunch or lunch reception. See the morning wedding timeline.
• Noon to about 5 PM: a full afternoon of getting ready and a dinner reception. The afternoon wedding timeline walks through a 4 PM ceremony.
• 5 PM or later: photos before the ceremony while there's daylight, and a reception that can run past midnight. See the evening wedding timeline.

2. Work backwards to getting ready

Count back from the ceremony. These are the usual gaps for an afternoon or evening wedding:

| Before the ceremony | What happens | |---|---| | 5 hours | Hair and makeup begins | | 2 hours | Get dressed | | 1½ hours | Photos with the wedding party | | 45 minutes | Ushers seat guests; the two of you stay out of sight | | 15 minutes | Line up for the processional |

Hair and makeup is the part that runs late, so give it the most room. Five hours suits a bride and three or four people with one stylist and one makeup artist. With more people in the chair, start earlier or add a second artist. Ask your stylist how long each person takes and multiply it out.

A first look moves photos earlier. If you'd like to see each other before the ceremony, put the first look about three hours before it, then portraits of the two of you, then the wedding party and family photos. Everything is done before guests arrive, and you get the whole cocktail hour.

3. Work forwards to the last dance

After the ceremony, the order is nearly always the same:

1. Recessional, then straight to photos.
2. Cocktail hour for guests, usually an hour. Family photos fill the first 40 minutes of it, so print a list of the groups and hand it to a relative who knows everyone by name.
3. Grand entrance into the reception.
4. Dinner, about 15 minutes after the entrance.
5. Toasts, about an hour into dinner, while people are still seated.
6. First dance, then dances with family, then the dance floor opens.
7. Cake cutting, an hour or so into the dancing.
8. Last dance and send-off, 30 and 15 minutes before the end.

Four to five hours covers a dinner reception for most weddings. Venues often book in blocks and charge overtime by the hour, so read the end time in your contract and plan the last dance back from it.

4. Add buffers where they matter

A timeline with no slack is a timeline that's late by noon. Add room in four places:

• Getting ready: 15 to 30 minutes at the end, before anyone gets dressed.
• Travel: if you move between a getting-ready place, a ceremony site and a reception, check the drive at that time of day and add a third.
• Photos: every group shot takes longer than you think. Keep the family list to the groups you'll actually frame.
• Sunset: for outdoor portraits, look up sunset for your date and put five minutes outside about 20 minutes before it.

Don't add buffers to the reception. Once dinner starts, the DJ or band and the caterer keep the room moving, and a gap there feels like a wait.

5. Give everyone a column

One list of times hides who is doing what. A good wedding day timeline has a column for each of you, one for the wedding party and one for the vendors, plus notes. At 1 PM the groom might be at lunch while the bride's hair is finished, the wedding party is getting ready and the photographer is shooting the rings. Our guide to wedding party duties lists what each person usually does on the day, so their column is easy to fill.

6. Send it out

Share the finished timeline in time for people to plan around it:

• Vendors: two to four weeks before, with the address, the arrival time you expect from each and who to call on the day. Many vendors send their own draft first; check it matches yours.
• The wedding party and parents: a week before, so they know when to arrive and when photos start.
• One point person: a coordinator, the venue's manager or a calm friend who holds the timeline on the day, so neither of you has to. Give them the rest of the day too, in a Wedding Day Binder.

A printed copy on landscape paper is easier to read across the columns than a phone screen. Put one in each getting-ready room.

7. On the day

Something always runs late, usually hair. When it does, don't rewrite the day: move that row and everything after it by the same number of minutes, so the gaps stay the same, and tell the photographer and the venue. If the reception has a hard stop, take the time out of the dancing, never out of dinner or the toasts.

The other usual hold-ups, a strap or a blister, are what the wedding day emergency kit is for.

Build yours in a few minutes

The free wedding day timeline maker does steps 1 to 3 for you. Type your ceremony time and it builds the whole day from the right template, with a column for each of you, the wedding party and your vendors. Edit any row, use Shift to move everything after a change, and print it. Start from a template directly: morning, afternoon or evening.

When you save it to a free account, it becomes your wedding's Wedding Day timeline, and the columns use your first names. Day-of mode shows what's happening now and next on your phone and keeps working offline once it's loaded, and you can make a read-only link for whoever runs the day. Complete adds a Rehearsal Dinner timeline and a share link for every vendor, each showing their part of the day.