I have been photographing weddings for almost 12 years, in that time I’ve learned a thing or two about weddings and this means I have plenty of advice to give if you’re planning yours! One thing I get asked about a lot is wedding day timings, so I thought why not write a blog about it?
One of my roles as your wedding photographer is to help plan the timeline. And so around one month before the wedding day I will read up on all the information you’ve sent to me via your wedding questionnaire document, and I will give you an in depth reply regarding timings, plan B alternatives for bad weather and much more. I never photograph a wedding without having every little detail planned to perfection with the couple. However, I am aware that some couples want a clearer idea on their timeline before we reach the one month countdown. I hope this blog will serve as a useful guide to anyone who needs it.
How long should you leave for group photos, what does a wedding day timeline look like? Look no further - all the answers are here. Sit back with a cuppa, a note pad and pen and take in this comprehensive guidance that will help you to plan the perfect wedding day!
Planning to perfection - A guideline on wedding timings.
Let’s get started!
Morning Prep
Allow 2 - 3 hours
Not including travel time to the ceremony, if that’s a different location
I have found two hours coverage for just one Bride to be ideal. Personally I don’t think foundation going on and hair being backcombed make very nice photos, so I will make myself busy by photographing details such as the wedding dress and the venue décor and then get back in time to photograph the finishing touches of hair and make up instead.
Just a Bride
If you’re both getting ready in the same venue, I can capture morning prep for both of you.
If one of you is a Groom (or someone that isn’t having hair and make up done) then an extra half an hour should be all I need to also visit you in the morning.
However, if you’re both having hair and make up, it may be worth factoring in an extra hour to get both of your morning preps covered.
Both of you
Don’t forget: If you’re not having your wedding all in one place you will need to factor in travel time to your ceremony location! You need to give your photographer a head start, so that they can pack their gear away safely for travelling, find somewhere to park, get into the venue and set their gear up again. Your photographer will then need a little time to settle into the new environment, this means taking some test shots, then some detail shots of your ceremony location and décor, discussing logistics with the venue coordinator, registrar or vicar, photographing guests arriving etc. It wouldn’t be ideal to arrive and then have you walking down the aisle just behind. Personally, I’d like to arrive half an hour before the ceremony is due to start.
So for example: if you want morning prep for just a Bride and it takes 20 minutes to get from morning prep to ceremony, your photographer should start morning prep coverage around 3 hours before the ceremony is due to start. This allows 2 hours for photo coverage, 30 mins for travelling (I’ve rounded that up to allow for slow traffic and finding parking) and then half an hour to settle into the ceremony location.
Something to think about: If your photographer is leaving your morning prep location an hour before the ceremony is due to start, will you be ready by that point? If you want photos of you getting into your dress then you may need to ensure you get ready a bit earlier, so that your photographer can capture the full transformation of your morning prep.
Ceremony
Allow 30 - 60 mins
Registrar led ceremonies can sometimes be as quick as 15 minutes and other times they’ll take 30 minutes. I always like to factor in half an hour to be safe.
Celebrant ceremonies are usually half an hour too but can sometimes be a bit longer, depending on what level of personalisation you have for your ceremony.
Registrar or Celebrant
I like to factor in an hour for religious ceremonies but always check with whoever is conducting your ceremony; they may tell you it will be quicker or perhaps longer.
Religious Ceremonies
Something to think about: Your guests will want to hug and congratulate you straight after the ceremony. Attempting to go straight into group photos probably won’t go down too well and it’s important to remember that this is a wedding and not a photo shoot. So let’s factor at least 15 minutes in after your ceremony for you to mingle with your guests before we start any formalities like group photos.
Group Photos
Allow 30 mins +
How many group photos can we get through in this time?
I always suggest somewhere between 10 – 15 group photos (ideally closer to 10 than 15).
Surely it doesn’t take half an hour to take 10 or 15 photos, are you sure?
Let’s assume it takes 1 minute to round up the people we need for the photo and get them stood well together. Then another minute to take the photo (I take lots of each group shot due to blinks). This means we should allow 2 minutes per photo. However it isn’t always as quick as this, sometimes the people we need have wandered off, the bouquets have gone missing, the children or dogs that you want in the photos aren’t playing ball – you get the idea. Trying to rush through too many group photos in not enough time can result in a very chaotic and stressful environment, which no one wants at their wedding. So let’s leave plenty of time and keep the list as simple as possible.
If your wedding is happening across two different venues (let’s say a church and a reception venue for example) you need to decide if you’re having your group photos at the church, at the venue, or a mixture of both. I usually find that couples do want group photos in both locations. Often they have small groups with just immediate family at the church and then larger groups of the whole family at the venue (where there’s often more room to work with).
Having your group photos across two locations is naturally going to take longer. We can’t start group photos at the church with everyone stood around chatting outside the front of the church. So once people have had a chance to congratulate you, we will need your guests that aren’t needed for photos to head off to the venue. This leaves us a clearer and quieter space to do the group photos you want at the church, and I will dismiss guests as soon as their photos are done so that they can also head off to the venue. Eventually it will just be the two of you left (and myself) and I assume you’ll also want some photos by the church too? This won’t be a two minute thing as these are your special wedding portraits! We should allow 10 – 15 minutes for photos of just the two of you at the church before we then head to the venue ourselves. Then we need to factor in the travel time of course.
If you wanted more group photos at the venue, it’ll take some time rounding up everyone we need as they will have dispersed around the venue by this point. Then after the venue group photos, I assume you’ll want some photos of just the two of you at the venue also? Maybe we’ll have to get that done straight away if the sun is due to set or if the weather threatens to turn.
So in short, having your venue spread across two venues does mean you need to factor in more time for photos than you would have to if your wedding was all in one place. I can’t tell you how much longer we’d need without having a really close look at your group photo list, wedding timeline and postcodes. We’ll probably be more rushed for time and we will have to be extra careful with your group photo list to keep it very short and sweet. You’re not likely to have time for breaks to mingle with your guests, as we’ll need to get everything you want done before your food is due to be served. If you’re having a summer wedding we should have daylight on our side which means you may be able to do some group photos after your meal, but I do think it’s important not to make your whole wedding into a photo shoot and if we can get it all done in one go then that frees up the rest of your day to enjoy yourselves.
Your Portraits
Allow 20 mins +
Firstly your wedding portraits aren’t the same as your group photos - I’m not just going to deliver a couple of photos of you and your other half stood straight onto the camera in just one location of your venue. We’ll wander around the venue grounds (maybe even indoors too) and I’ll capture a variety of beautiful portraits for you. There are often so many beautiful photo locations at wedding venues, and I want you to get your money’s worth out of that (and me) by utilizing the wonderful place you’ve chosen to have your wedding, as much as we can.
Why would it take this long?
Some venues are so vast that a member of staff will have to drive us around to various photo locations – if this sounds like your venue then we may need a little more than 20 mins, or we may not be able to visit as many locations as you want us to.
If you’re having a videographer they may have a different vision to your photographer and therefore you may find that you’re asked to do things that they want, separately to what you’re photographer is hoping to capture. I recently worked with a videographer that made the Bride and Groom walk down a path about 4 times! The couple walked down holding hands and then the videographer asked them to go back and do it again, and again and again. I’m not sure why? Perhaps he was documenting the moment differently each time. But I was unable to use any of these takes because each time the videographer was in very close proximity to the couple (in their faces). So I had no choice but to stand and wait my turn and then unfortunately I had to ask the couple to walk down the path for a 5th time, so that I could get the shot I needed. Please don’t be put off videographers; they’re not all like this! But I hope it gives you an idea of how you may be asked to repeat the same thing if you have two people capturing the moment with their own visions. I also worked with a videographer that was very traditional and wanted to pose the couple in very classical ways, which was not my style at all. So again, I had to let him have his turn before I did my thing because I know the couple didn’t book me for that style and would have been disappointed if all their photos were like that.
Side note: please feel free to ask me about videographer recommendations.
Once again, if you’re having your wedding spread across different locations (such as a Church and a reception venue for example) will you want portraits of the two of you in both locations? And don’t forget to factor in the travel time from A to B too.
If you want golden hour photos, sunsets and creatively lit evening portraits then you’ll need to give your photographer the time to do this for you too. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, a wedding day is not a photo shoot and no photographer wants to keep you too long for portraits – most of us agree with you that the candid and natural photos are the best! But if you’ve seen some of these creative portraits and you want them for your day, don’t be frustrated at having to give your photographer an extra ten minutes or so later in the day too. In the grand scheme of things, 20 – 30 minutes to get a variety of creative portraits of the two of you on your wedding day isn’t that long. You will still have hours left to be with your guests. But remember, if you don’t want those portraits, then that’s fine too – your photographer should be led by you and what you want from them, not what photos they want for their portfolio.
Take a look at some timelines from real weddings that I have photographed throughout the years!
I have chosen weddings from different months of the year, some were held all at one venue and others weren’t. Some were long days, other's weren’t. I hope this gives you an idea of what your wedding day timeline could look like.
Vicky & James
The sun didn’t set til 20:10 on this beautiful spring day, so this meant we didn’t have to rush to get all the outdoor photos done before the daylight went. Unfortunately Vicky and James did lose just under an hour of photo coverage because time was being used up travelling from the morning prep location to the church, then from the church to the reception venue. This was quite a busy timeline and the couple didn’t have a great deal of down time between the ceremony and when the food was served. Their time to take a break from photos was pretty much used up travelling from the church to reception. But they remained enthusiastic throughout all of their posed photos and they knew they’d have the whole evening to enjoy the day with their guests. They loved being able to have some photos at the church and others at the reception venue and they still received plenty of candid photos from throughout the day too.
Rebecca & Jacob
This was such a simple and stress free wedding timeline, which allowed the couple to spend a lot of time relaxing with their guests. The sun was incredibly bright on this hot spring day and this did make the group photos a little challenging as people were squinting (there wasn’t any shade for us to use in the area that the couple wanted to have their group photos taken). Another downside of the beautiful weather was that it took the guests a while to gravitate indoors to the dance floor, as most of them preferred to be outside enjoying the sunshine.
Sarah & Oliver
This couple’s wedding venue is HUGE (Edgcumbe House and Country Park and The Orangery at Mount Edgcumbe) so I’m not exaggerating when I say there are endless photo locations to use! Some photo locations were only accessible to use via a trip in a land rover, driven by one of the venue staff members. The travelling combined with the many photo locations meant the couple needed to allocate extra time for their wedding portraits and they were okay with this. If you’re booking a venue like Edgcumbe, it’s in your best interests to really make the most out of it and have photos in as many beauty spots as you can manage. But don’t be mistaken, this couple still had loads of time with their guests and many candid moments were captured from throughout the day. With the long summer day, the couple could have chosen to have their wedding start later in the day and it wouldn’t have been a problem daylight wise. But the advantages of this long wedding day meant that they didn’t notice the time they spent away from guests with me so much, because that was only a tiny part of their day overall. The disadvantage of the late sunset was that it wasn’t dark enough for their sparkler photos. The venue coordinator needed to clock off and go home and asked us if we could do the sparklers while she was still on site (due to health and safety reasons). The photos still came out really nice, just a bit different to usual.
Emma & Aimee
This couple used the 19:20 sunset to their advantage by having an afternoon wedding. Because the whole day took place in the one venue, they were able to make the most out of every minute of their day. There’s something very relaxed about an afternoon wedding and that’s just the vibe that this laid back couple wanted. If you’re planning your wedding on a budget it, a later wedding can sometimes help to cut down on costs as you may not feel like you have to provide as much food or entertainment for your guests. You might also be able to save money on your photography as you might not need to book them for the full day 10+ hour’s coverage - it’s possible you could capture the full day but with less hours coverage. The downside of the late sunset is that it can sometimes take a while for your guests to join the dancefloor as they’re still enjoying the day and not feeling those evening party vibes straight away.
Kasia & Adam
This wedding took place in three locations (just like Vicky & James’ wedding) but this couple were lucky in that they only lived a five minute drive away from the church. Kasia & Adam also decided to have all of their group photos taken at the church, which took the pressure off needing to find the time to do them at the venue. This autumn day meant that the sun set just in time to set the scene for the party in the evening.
Emily & Liam
I love that Emily and Liam planned a 11am ceremony for their winter wedding because with the sun setting at 16:15, they were able to make the most out of the daylight they had. You need to be on board with having a long wedding day with an 11am ceremony - an afternoon wedding like Emma & Aimee’s would be very challenging in December. But Emily and Liam knew what they were signing up for and they hired an incredible venue (The Green Cornwall) which had lots of indoor space to use if the weather didn’t play ball.
