So you got engaged - woohoooo! Now all of a sudden you’ve been thrown into the world wedding planning. . . and are feeling overwhelmed AF. You’re trying to hire your vendors, plan your ceremony, wedding reception timeline, you name it.

Long story short: it gets overwhelming FAST.

That’s why today, I wanted to give you some advice from my experience as a wedding professional! I’m the one who has attended & worked tons of weddings, so don’t worry - I’ve got you covered. You don’t need to figure it all out on your own!!

I’m walking you through my top 4 tips for planning your wedding day timeline, from getting ready to the moment you exit the celebration. Let’s dive in!!

**Disclaimer: I can give you all the tips I’ve got once you book me, but I HIGHLY highly recommend hiring a WEDDING PLANNER!! They are going to help you nail down every single detail of your timeline more than I’ll be able to. 1000% an investment you will be SO happy you made!**

My Top 4 Wedding Day Timeline Tips

1. Do a non-traditional first look

You’re probably familiar with the wedding tradition that you don’t see your partner before the ceremony. If you’ve been truly dreaming of following that tradition since you were little, and it would make your day meaningful, go for it. But I want to open your mind up to the possibility of something else: doing a first look!!

What is a first look?

A first look is pretty self-explanatory: it’s when you see each other for the first time, except it’s BEFORE your ceremony rather than when you walk down the aisle.

So instead of getting ready separately, spending hours apart until your ceremony, you’re able to see each other as soon as you’re done getting dressed!! No having to wait until after your ceremony to finally spend time together. With a first look, you get to be with each other for more of the day and have an intimate moment before seeing all your guests.

Benefits of doing a first look

You can get ready together
- If you don’t have to wait to see each other until your ceremony, why not get ready together?! This is an especially great option if you’re having a somewhat intimate, private elopement or wedding where you don’t have a wedding party you want to get ready with. Instead, get ready together and enjoy the time helping each other prepare.
It’s a time to be together in private
- On a normal wedding day, it is sooo hard to find time to be alone together. The whole day is spent rushing to get ready, interacting with guests, etc. Isn’t it better to have intentional time to be alone together before you to interact with everybody else? After all, the day is about YOU two isn’t it?!?!
You can exchange vows/letters/gifts
- Doing a first look also gives you a chance to exchange your vows in private, give each other gifts, or read letters to each other. If you’d rather not say your vows in front of 200 people, exchange them during this time, and tell your officiant you’ve already said them to each other.
You get more time together
- Finally, having a first look gives you WAY more time together on your actual wedding day. If you don’t do a first look, you’ll see each other for the first time among all your guests, and probably head straight into mingling, dancing, eating, trying to catch a breath. Doing a first look allows you to have more time in the day spent with each other!
You’ll get extra portraits together
- Doing a first look means we’ve got some time to take photos of the two of you!! I love doing some portraits before the ceremony whenever possible. That way, in case the evening comes around and you just wanna rock out on the dance floor with your guests instead of stepping away for sunset photos, we’ve already got portraits from the morning!!

2. Take wedding party & family photos before your ceremony

This one bounces off of #1: if you do a first look, you’ll be able to do most (if not all) of your family & wedding party photos BEFORE your ceremony!

If you don’t see each other until you walk down the aisle, you’ll have to wait till after the ceremony finishes to take all your formal photos. Because you haven’t seen each other, so you can’t really be in photos together!

So if you do a first look, you’ll have seen each other already, and then you can do all your photos right then & there.

That way, once the ceremony is done, you won’t have to worry about gathering all your family members for group photos - you can go straight into eating & celebrating!! And no worrying about Uncle Bob getting cranky because he wants to eat!

Bonus tip: If you have some family members who aren’t showing up until the ceremony, check off as many family photos as you can before the ceremony. Then, finish up the last few with the rest of your family after the ceremony!

3. Make time for sunset portraits

One of the things I hear most from couples who have traditional weddings: “Everything went by so fast, we barely had a chance to breathe!!”

My solution to making sure that doesn’t happen to you and your partner: make time in the evening for portraits of the two of you!! If you carve out intentional time in your wedding timeline (I’d suggest 20-30 minutes) for us to take some portraits of you at sunset, you’ll get a chance to be alone together and breeeathe. Even if we don’t take the whole 20-30 minutes for photos, you can go off somewhere private for a few minutes and be alone before going back to your guests!

4. Stage your exit earlier in the night

My final tip is to consider staging your exit earlier in the night before the majority of your guests leave!

When exits are only left to the very end of the night, a lot of times the majority of the guests have left. Especially older folks, or families with kids!

If you stage your exit earlier in the night and do some sort of faux sendoff (maybe with sparklers or glowsticks), you’ll have lots more guests present to make it more fun! Then at the end of the night, you can head out whenever you’re ready without having to worry about preparing for an exit!

2 Wedding Timeline Examples

Before I leave you with some wedding inspiration to check out, I wanted to give you a few sample wedding timelines to show you how a first look affects the day!! These are based off how long certain photos typically take, as well as what changes with a first look.

Don’t take the times too seriously - your timeline will COMPLETELY depend on factors like your location, ceremony time, sunset time, activities you’re doing, etc. But I wanted to give you a couple of places to start!!

*These timelines are based around a 5:00 pm ceremony & sunset at 7:30 pm!*