Wedding day timeline example with an early ceremony
An early wedding ceremony creates a long gap before the reception and forces hair and makeup to start extremely early in the morning. Couples struggle to map out pre-ceremony pictures and a first look while keeping the rest of the day flowing smoothly.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Having guests go to a bar or take downtime between the early ceremony and the later reception happy hour
- 2Renting a party bus to take the wedding party to a bar after the ceremony
- 3giving guests an ample amount of time in advance to request time off work
- 4Secretly hiring another planning team on a consultation basis
- 5Going outside the planner's vendor recommendations to get preferred choices
- 6Trusting the photographer's schedule over the planner's preferences
- 7Moving family and wedding party photos to before the ceremony
- 8Doing speeches while people are eating dinner
- 9Cutting the shoe game to extend dancing time
- 10Doing the cake cutting during open dancing
- 11Leaving luggage at the front desk and formally checking in after the reception
- 12Booking the hotel room for the night before so it is ready on the day of the wedding
- 13Creating a gap in the timeline to allow guests to go check into their hotels
- 14Contacting the hair and makeup artists first to determine service duration, then sharing the estimated finish time with the photographer.
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My planner is giving me a hard time, saying “4:00 is sooooo earrrrly” for a Saturday night wedding. Like, she won’t stop saying it.”source ↗
“Does anyone have an example of a day of timeline they’ve had with an earlier ceremony time?”source ↗
“What time did you start hair and makeup in the morning? And what time did you do your first look/other pre-ceremony pictures?”source ↗
“We have had maybe 2-3 people out of 155 not RSVP / cancel due to it being a Friday”source ↗
“When she calls me, I feel anxiety and dread. I know it’s not good.”source ↗
“We are restricted by the venue limitations which leads to the compacted schedule. 8:30 is the latest option for the bride and groom to exit.”source ↗
“5 hours is quite a short window for a wedding, and you’re trying to fit in allllll the bells and whistles.”source ↗
“A lot of NYC people aren’t going to have cars which means they are ubering or taking the train out. If they can’t go to the hotel first that means They’ll bring their luggage to the church (and then wedding if there’s no gap? ) and that’s a logistical issue”source ↗
“Who should start making the timeline here, my photographer or my MUA/hair? I feel like they both work off of eachother so I have no clue who to reach out to first.”source ↗
“what are people’s thoughts on Friday weddings ?”source ↗
“I understand some may not be able to make it due to work, but I think with given an ample amount of time in advance people would be able to request off , etc.”source ↗
“Most hotels I’m looking at have a 3:00 PM check-in, which obviously does not work when guests need to be sitting in church by 2:15.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Can you actually plan a wedding in just a few months?
- 4How to plan a post wedding brunch people actually attend
- 2Is a holiday weekend wedding a bad idea for guests?
- 4How to find a wedding dress on short notice
- 2Ceremony and reception at different venues
- 2Inviting people to pre-wedding events who aren't invited to the wedding