December 3, 2015
Reception Timeline
It’s time for the final installment of the Wedding Day Timeline series!! Now that your ceremony has come and gone and your officially husband and wife, it’s time to party!! The scheduling of your reception timeline will most likely be determined by your planner/coordinator, DJ and venue. This is the one part of the day that the photographer doesn’t have too much of a hand in scheduling, but there are still a few things to consider when planning your reception that will affect your photos! 
After your reception entrance, you will most likely go into your first dance with your new spouse and possibly into your parent dances after that. Then comes dinner. You’ll want to talk with your planner and caterer about how much time to allot for dinner. The amount of time needed will depend on a few factors including how many guests, buffet or plated dinner, etc. It’s important to have a good idea of how long dinner will take so that you can plan the rest of the reception events accordingly and so that we, the photographers, know how long we have to eat dinner before we need to be back and ready to go! 
Depending on the time of year of your wedding, you will also want to schedule a time to go back outside with your photographer for sunset photos!! I know that at this point in the day, you may be a little tired of taking photos, but I promise that going back out for these photos is SOOO worth it! You probably know by now that photographers LOVE that glowy golden sunlight that happens right before sunset. Your bride and groom portraits are the most important photos of the day, so wouldn’t you want to do them in the best light possible?! I think so! So if your wedding takes place between late Spring and early Fall, then the sun will probably set towards the beginning or middle of your reception. If the sun is scheduled to set at 8:00, plan to do sunset pictures from around 7:30-7:45. You’ll want to keep this time in mind so that you can schedule your reception events around this. 
It’s also fun to go out after the sun sets for some fun nighttime shots!
Any good planner or DJ knows that there is a science to scheduling your reception events so that the party has a nice flow throughout the evening. You want to space the different events out so that the party isn’t stagnant, but with enough room in between each event so that the dance floor can stay open and gain momentum in between! Your planner will be able to walk you through how to best schedule the events for your reception. But be sure to keep the photographer in the loop during this process so they can provide input as well! 
We have now arrived at the FINAL part of your day- the exit! A grand reception exit is a great way to wrap up your wedding day as your guests send you off with a bang! Whether you’re doing sparklers, streamers, confetti, etc.- chances are you are going to want photos of the exit! Depending on the amount of coverage time you purchased from your wedding photographer, that coverage may or may not cover the entire reception. Most wedding photographers offer the standard 8 hours of wedding day coverage in their base package, with the option to add additional hours. Depending on how long your particular wedding day will be, you’ll want to double check the timeline for the day to ensure that your photographer will be there for all the moments you want captured. Often times, the 8 hours will take you to the middle of the reception so that all the main reception events are covered. So if you want your photographer to be present for your exit, then you may need to budget for an extra hour or two of coverage! It’s important that you discuss this with your photograph months before the wedding so that you are not blindsided the week of the wedding when you realize your purchased coverage doesn’t include the exit! 
This now concludes the Wedding Day Timeline series! Hopefully these posts will help you to plan a wedding day timeline that will make for a fun and stress-free wedding day! In case you missed it, here are the other posts from this series!