Ceremony Timing | Getting the most out of your wedding day
Hey Everyone! Welcome to a new series. I am gonna start posting little snippets of helpful tips on how to get the most out of your wedding day (particularly
when it comes to your photography)
In the first segment here I am going to cover the subject of "What time should we have our ceremony?". This is the most common question I get from my clients. So lets dive in..
What Time Should We Have Our Ceremony
My answer is pretty simple. I recommend setting your ceremony based on what time it will end rather than when it will start. Basically, you should give yourself an hour between the ending of your ceremony and the sunset. For example; If your ceremony is 30 minutes (Including the processional) and the sunset is at 7:00pm, I recommend setting your ceremony at 5:30pm.
There are a lot of things happening between the end of your ceremony and the beginning of your reception. The order of most cocktails are as follows: 1. Marriage License Signing 2. Family Photos 3. Bridal Party group shots 4. Portraits of just the newly weds 5. Dress bustling
Timelines are important. I have not made a career for myself by ignoring them. I cant tell you how often my team and I hear praise for keeping things on track. I hate hearing that. Its so important that all the vendors are on the same page and working together. Ofcourse things run late from time to time. Honestly thats just the reality of weddings. They run late. But having a well planned and well padded timeline makes us all happy. So when you are planning your timeline, I recommend taking that tip to heart. Some things to consider when it comes to your cocktail hour photos are how much time you want to spend on each set of photos. Are you really family oriented? Theres nothing wrong with spending a big chunk of your timeline on family photos. However its important to understand there is some give and take when it comes to how you portion your time. Same idea goes for bridal parties. If you have 12 bridesmaids and 12 groomsman, thats going to soak up a ton of time. I would like to note that in the case of big bridal parties, I highly recommend blocking off some time BEFORE the ceremony to knock out a lot of the bridal party photos. What I mean by that is photographing the girls and the guys separately. This leaves the full party photos to after the ceremony.
Timeline considerations when you plan on having a First Look
So you are considering doing a first look? Thats fine. I only ask that if you are doing a first look, you do it because YOU want to, not because someone else told you to do it. The narrative around first looks is that its going to save you a ton of time. Well, it does and it doesnt. There isnt much point in knocking out ALL of your photos before the ceremony. First off, I have never once seen every family member at the venue on time for family photos when we plan on doing them before the ceremony. Theres always some cooky uncle that simply forgot. Splitting family photos before and after the ceremony is a dangerous game. The risk of missing a photo is too high and Id hate to deliver a gallery that doesnt reflect your full family photo list. Also, the light in the middle of the day is always far from ideal.
Alright, now that Im done trashing on first looks, let me tell you where they work. My priority when it comes to first looks is always to complete 100% of the bridal party photos. If you have a huge bridal party or a big family, this can be pretty helpful (Again, not mandatory).
Ultimately everything on your wedding day revolves around what time you plan your ceremony. Its important to consider what you guys want the most out of your wedding day. Convey these things to your photographer (and the rest of your vendors) to give us the best chance to get the best out of your big day.
Cheers!
