One of the most popular questions I get as a wedding planner is how long things take on a wedding day.
Below are the average time ranges I shoot for when making a timeline (making your own wedding day timeline? This template will help).
These timings will fluctuate. You’re planning a human event and that means giving yourself room to breathe and enjoy! May this article work as a guide to help you on your way.
Set-up: two to four hours
For any set-up, I recommend at least two hours before guest arrival with three to four hours being most comfortable.
You may want to shift this earlier if you’re planning to do photos at the venue ahead of guests arriving and there are certain decor elements — most commonly, a ceremony arch or floral installation — that you want in those photos.
Hair and makeup: 45 minutes per appointment per person
At minimum, budget 45 minutes per hair appointment and 45 minutes per makeup appointment. Many stylists will tell you they prefer 60 minutes per hair and 60 minutes per makeup, particularly for the client.
If you do this math and you’re looking at a very early start time, I recommend talking to the hair and makeup team; this might be a good reason to add a stylist or two.
Photos: 90 minutes
No matter when you do photos — before or after the ceremony — I recommend budgeting 90 minutes. That most commonly breaks down as:
30 minutes for the client (called a “first look” if you do it before the ceremony, “couple or client photos” if you do it after)
30 minutes for the wedding party
30 minutes for family, chosen or biological
If you don’t have a wedding party, this timing still works well, or you can smush wedding party and family together and aim for 75 minutes total (so, 30 minutes for you and your partner(s) and 45 minutes for your Wedding VIPs).
If you do the photos before the ceremony, I strongly recommend having them end at least 30 minutes before the ceremony begins. This nearly always aligns with when guests start to arrive and gives a buffer that has saved my butt more than once on a wedding day.
That 30 minute buffer is also a good tool to use if you do all photos after the ceremony. Instead, that’ll be your goal for when you and your partner(s) are dressed and ready.
Getting dressed: 30 minutes
I include this because it’s all too easy to have any hair and makeup or pre-ceremony programming go right up to when you need to be in photos or heading down the aisle but, of course, you’ve got to have time to get dressed.
I allocate 30 minutes per person getting married unless the client tells me they’re wearing something particularly elaborate.
Ceremony: 30 minutes
No, this doesn’t mean you’re going to be standing at the front of the ceremony for 30 painful minutes. It means that we often have to delay a ceremony a few minutes as people roll in late and that you have some buffer so you can take your time as you do the most important part.
Does your timeline need a gut check? Rent my brain for an hour.
Cocktail hour: 60 minutes
I’ve seen enough overlong cocktail hours to say fairly confidently: Just keep it a true hour. Sometimes folks want to push to 90 minutes or even two hours and it’s just too long. People get antsy.
Are there exceptions? Of course. Exceptions for having a longer-than-an-hour cocktail hour include: You’re doing all photos post-ceremony. You’re asking guests to travel from the ceremony location to the reception location. You have a very extensive room flip (i.e. where the layout of the space is changing between the ceremony and the reception).
If you have a cocktail hour that’s longer than an hour, two suggestions: 1) be prepared for a higher bar bill; people don’t usually slow down drinking until they sit for the main meal and 2) consider serving hearty appetizers.
If you aren’t already legally married on the day of the wedding, this is also when you’ll likely sign your license. I budget 15 minutes for that.
Main meal: 90 minutes
In most Western weddings, this meal is dinner and I note it as 90 minutes because this is often when the bulk of what I call “reception programming” occurs. Painting a broad brush, that programming includes:
Toasts — I usually note this to start 45 minutes into dinner service and allocate five minutes per toast. My goal is that everyone — including the vendors — have had at least 20 minutes to eat before we move into toasts.
First bite — 15 minutes and up to you if you want it to be more of a moment (i.e. do it right after toasts) or less public (i.e. do it during open dance floor/mingling time).
First dance(s) — Five minutes per dance and usually right after the first bite or, if the first bite will be less public and held later in the reception, right after toasts. Sometimes folks like to do their first dance to start off the main meal if they want more attention paid to it; that can be nice if the layout allows and your guests have had enough appetizers to hold them.
Dancing/mingling: 90 minutes to four hours
This is what people think of as the “party part” of a wedding. It’s when all programming is done and you’re just hanging out with your guests. At a Western wedding, it often involves dancing but if you’re not doing dancing, consider this “general mingling” time.
Sometimes clients tell me that they want this part to be really long, as in more than four hours long. My friends, this is not a night out at the club. No matter when you start on a wedding day, you will be exhausted. Your guests will be exhausted. Trust me, you do not want this part to be more than four hours. You will be paying vendors to stick around and watch 10 people drink.
Much more successful: 90 minutes to two hours. That may feel short but time and again, it’s the length that I find has the best dance floor and largest crowd because people can ride adrenaline for that long right after the main meal.
If you’re serving dessert, it usually appears during this time. Personally, I like to have it out as soon as any first dances are done so guests can immediately go from watching that to eating.
Depending on when the sun sets on your wedding day, this may also be when you briefly leave the reception for “sunset” or “golden hour” photos. Those usually take 15 to 30 minutes.
Clean-up: one hour
This is the time between when the reception ends (i.e. music is off, lights are up) and when you need to be out of the venue. An hour is plenty; you don’t need more or less unless a vendor has explicitly told you otherwise.
Depending on your clean-up plan, there’s a good chance that you’re not around for this part — perhaps you’ve headed off to an after-party or wherever you’re staying the night. It’s still very important to keep on your timeline including any notes on who’s taking what at the end of the wedding.
Got rentals that need to be picked up including any kind of tent? This article will help.