October 7, 2015

Pre-Ceremony Portraits | Wedding Day Timeline

first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timelineIn my last post about creating your wedding day timeline, I outlined the “getting ready” portion of the day. So now that everyone is dressed and ready to go, it’s time for some pre-ceremony portraits! This part of the day varies based on whether or not you are doing a first look and when/where the ceremony and reception will take place! We are also at the mercy of the sun’s timing, so the time of year will also cause your timeline to vary. So here is an outline for the portraits that you will do before the ceremony. first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timelineAfter the bride, groom and wedding party are all dressed and ready to go, it’s time to start portraits! This will work differently depending on whether or not you are doing a first look. Let’s start with the scenario that includes a first look. Going off of the last timeline post, let’s say your first look is scheduled for 2:00. After you see each other and have a few minutes to yourselves, we’ll go right into your bride and groom portraits. A good amount of time to allot for these portraits is about 45 minutes. We want to allow plenty of time for these photos, as they are the most important ones of the day! And we also don’t want to feel rushed! This will give us time to roam the location for a variety of scenery in your portraits! I find that this is the most peaceful part of the wedding day. You get to spend some quality alone time together (except for the photographers and videographers, of course!) before the whole day really starts to take off! We also want to allot a good amount of time for this in case the beginning of the day is running behind. If your first look is scheduled for 2:00, but something runs late causing us to do it at 2:20, then we still have a good 20 minutes for portraits! first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timeline After your bride and groom portraits, we will then go into your wedding party pictures! With a 2:00 first look, we would plan to do wedding party pictures from 2:50-3:20. Before the first look, we’ll tell the wedding party to meet us (with bouquets and boutonnieres!) at a designated location at 2:40. This way we can easily roll right from your bride and groom portraits into your wedding party photos! At 3:20 we would then get the bride, groom and wedding party in hiding as guests start to arrive for your 4:00 ceremony!first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timelineNow that we’ve covered the scenario for weddings with a first look, here is how your timeline would look without one! When a couple doesn’t do a first look, all bride and groom portraits and wedding party pictures will be happening after the ceremony. Because there is often not more than an hour in between the ceremony and reception (more on that in a future post!), it can be quite a challenge to get all these photos done in that time, causing your bride and groom portraits to get the short changed which we definitely want to keep from happening! So a good way to give ourselves more portrait time after the ceremony is to do some of the wedding party pictures before the ceremony. Obviously we can’t do the whole wedding party, since the bride and groom won’t be seeing each other, but we can do the bride/bridesmaids and groom/groomsmen individually!

So once you are dressed and ready to go at 2, we will start with taking the bride and bridesmaids outside for pictures at 2:10. After these are done and the girls are back inside, we’ll bring the boys out at 2:30. Then they will be done and tucked away by 2:50 as guests start to arrive for your 3:30 ceremony. first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timelineIf the ceremony and reception will be in the same location, then your photographer may be able to photograph your reception details before the ceremony begins as well! You definitely want to find a way to give your photographer at least 20 minutes with your reception space (with setup complete!) before guests are allowed into the room. You put a lot of effort into planning and designing the reception space, but usually you don’t get to see it before it is full of guests! So this time while you are tucked away before the ceremony can be great time for your photographer to capture all that hard work! So if your ceremony and reception are in the same location, consider asking your planner to have the reception setup complete at least 30 minutes before the ceremony so that the photographer can capture the room untouched! first look bride and groom portraits and wedding party photos | wedding day timelineAs always, you also want to consider any travel time involved during this portion of the day. This scenario assumes that getting ready, portraits and ceremony are occurring in the same location. If there is travel in between these locations, you’ll want to adjust your timeline accordingly.

So here is a sample timeline for this portion of the day that includes a first look.

2:00 First look

2:50 Wedding Party Pictures

3:20 Everyone tucked away

3:30 Photographer capture reception details

4:00 Ceremony

And here is a sample timeline for when you are not doing a first look.

2:10 Bride and bridesmaids photos

2:30 Groom and groomsmen photos

2:50 Everyone tucked away

3:00 Photographer capture reception details

3:30 Ceremony

 

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  1. Maria says:

    This is great information…and a good idea for a blog post! So helpful :)

  2. Allyson says:

    Great information, I think it’s so important to get those portraits out of the way so that after the ceremony things can be more relaxing!! Lovely pictures as well, your work is gorgeous!!

  3. Jackie says:

    I love this! My photographer was such a huge partner when I got married. He helped with all of my timeline details and even rolled with the punched when there were bumps along the way. It’s such a gift to give your couples a sense of comfort in trusting that you’re on top of their timeline on their big day!

  4. Emily says:

    Such an informative post!! I’m in the process of advising one of my brides on how to write a timeline and this is so helpful!

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