It’s your wedding day. The day you get to marry your best friend, a day you’ve dreamed of and planned for months (let’s be honest, years!) All of the details perfectly planned out, checklists double checked and every item checked off. Stress levels are running high and suddenly it seems like what should be the most exciting and happiest day of your life has taken a turn for the worse. But this doesn’t have to be the case! After photographing nearly 100 weddings I have seen most everything and have created a two part blog post to help you create an amazing wedding day timeline and also some tips and tricks to keep things smooth along the way!!
First things first. I want you to look in the mirror and repeat after me. “I can not control it all”. Now repeat this process every day, extra for those higher stress days! Instead of letting yourself get carried away with the things you can’t change or control, get ahead of it all by being prepared. Have umbrellas at the ready and a sense of adventure!
Now that we’ve accepted that we can’t control it all, lets talk about what we CAN control. There are three major questions that need to be answered to create a great timeline.
1. Do you want to see each other before the ceremony?
2. Do you want the photos all in one location or multiple locations? (If you are planning for one location that isn’t the ceremony site I recommend counting that as multiple locations)
3. Will ALL of the photos be completed before the ceremony?
As you think about these questions and how you envision your wedding day let’s go through some general guidelines for helping to making the day go smoothly. Now these are tips and tricks that are pretty general but also specific to Schrage Photography brides. Every photographer does things differently and has a different set of needs and desires for accomplishing what they need to in order to do their job.
Most brides get ready together in one room with their bridesmaids. I cannot stress enough that having minimal clutter in the main portion of the room and actually the room as a whole is incredibly important. Not only does it save us time in not having to clear areas to do getting ready shots and detail shots, but the photos in the end look so much better with a clutter free room. Be prepared for us to do some furniture rearranging, but having a bulk of the clutter cut down on before we get there is great. Most times bridesmaids will have their own rooms reserved for the wedding weekend, have one or two of those rooms designated as the “clutter zone” and put a personal attendant or bridesmaid in charge of helping fetch forgotten items.
Let’s talk about those getting ready details. I like to suggest that my brides have a small box, perhaps a shoebox or even a simple photo box you can get from Hobby Lobby for $4.99 (50% off every few weeks!) and keep certain detail items in it as you collect them. What’s this list of detail items you ask? In this box I suggest the following:
When scheduling your morning routine for the wedding day, I always encourage brides to schedule extra time for their own hair and makeup as a buffer. Most hair and makeup artists will do this automatically but it is good to have in the back of your mind. If you are getting your hair and makeup done at the salon be sure to schedule ample travel time to your final getting ready location as well! Travel time between locations is one of the sticking points that always surprises brides when we sit down to talk about their schedule, what is easily a 10 minute drive can just as easily turn into an extra 20 minutes of time based on traffic and other factors.
Make sure that your dress is hung up and ready to go right away in the morning, and this is when I’ll remind you brides, think about purchasing a custom wooden hanger or even just a plain wooden hanger. This can be incorporated into the gifts for the bridesmaids as well so you all have matching hangers, plus it looks SO much better in photos. I can’t stress enough having your dress out of the garment bag as early as possible as well, just to give the dress time to breath and avoid any possible wrinkles! Getting into the dress typically takes more time than it did at fittings on a wedding day. I recommend setting aside 10 minutes for a zip dress, 15 if there are lots of buttons and 30 if it’s a full lace up dress.
Now you’re dressed, you’re excited and we’re ready to rock and roll! From here we’re going to assume that you are indeed doing a first look and completing all of the photos prior to the ceremony.
Here’s a great schedule for a 4:00 PM ceremony time where photos are being completed all at one location.
11:00 PM Photographers start, getting ready photos and details
1:00 PM First Look and Bride/Groom Portraits
2:00 PM Wedding Party
2:45 PM Family portraits
3:15 Break (Please eat something and drink some water!!)
4:00 PM Ceremony
One last tip, have a personal attendant (or two) and give them both a specific list of jobs for the wedding day. One personal attendant should have your wedding day emergency kit and be at your disposal all day, the other could be in charge of little errands and helping to wrangle people. Picking a personal attendant is almost as important as picking your maid of honor. They should be organized and on top of things all day, all of the smoothest wedding days have had amazing personal attendants.
