← Wedding day timeline builder
The photo plan decides the shape of the whole day. Portraits are the only part of a wedding that can happen before the ceremony or after it, and where they go decides when hair and makeup starts, how long guests wait at the cocktail hour, and whether there is light left for sunset pictures.
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Common planning conventions, which you can change in the builder: a first look is 15 minutes, portraits of the two of you 30, the wedding party 10 minutes plus 2 per person, and family portraits about 3 minutes per group plus 5 minutes of setup. For a party of 8 and 10 family groups that is 15 + 30 + 26 + 35 = 106 minutes, or about 1 hour 45 minutes.
A Saturday in mid October in Charleston, South Carolina, ceremony at 4:30 PM, music stopping at 10:30 PM, 120 guests, a one-hour cocktail hour and five people getting hair and makeup with two artists. Sunset is at 6:46 PM.
| Moment | With a first look | Without |
|---|---|---|
| Hair and makeup begins | 10:44 AM | 12:30 PM |
| First look | 2:24 PM | none |
| Family portraits begin | 3:35 PM | 5:00 PM |
| Ceremony | 4:30 PM | 4:30 PM |
| Couple joins the cocktail hour | 5:10 PM | 6:36 PM |
| Cocktail hour length for guests | 1 h | 1 h 46 min |
| Grand entrance | 6:00 PM | 6:46 PM |
With a first look, everything is done before the ceremony and the cocktail hour is the hour it was meant to be. Without one, the same portraits start at the end of the ceremony, the couple reaches the cocktail hour at 6:36 PM and guests wait an extra 46 minutes, and the sunset portraits compete with the entrance and the first dance for the same minutes. The other fix is a longer cocktail hour planned on purpose, with food and a bar to match.
The builder places a 15-minute session about 30 minutes before sunset. In the first-look plan that is 5:41 PM, in the middle of the cocktail hour, so no guest-facing event moves. It treats the ceremony, portraits, entrance, first dance, dinner and toasts as times the couple must be present and looks for the nearest gap.
Allow about 15 minutes for a first look, 30 for portraits of the two of you, roughly 10 minutes plus 2 per person for the wedding party, and about 3 minutes per family group plus a few minutes of setup. For a party of 8 and 10 family groups that is about 1 hour 45 minutes in total, which is why many couples do a first look and move most of it ahead of the ceremony.
No, but without one every portrait happens after the ceremony and eats into the cocktail hour. This builder shows both versions: with no first look it tells you how many minutes the cocktail hour stretches while guests wait, so you can decide with real numbers.
Aim to start about 30 minutes before sunset and keep it to 15 minutes, so the light is low and warm but you still have it. The builder works out sunset for your date and city and places a 15-minute session at the nearest time that does not collide with anything the two of you must attend.
Late enough that the ceremony and family portraits are in good light, early enough that the ceremony ends well before sunset if it is outdoors, and with enough room before the music stops for dinner, toasts and an hour or more of dancing. The ceremony time advisor scores every half hour from 10 AM to 7:30 PM against your own details and shows the best three.
About 90 minutes for the bride or lead client and about 60 for each other person is a common starting point. The builder splits the list across your artists, shows each person's start and finish and works the start time backwards from when the dress goes on.
No. Everything is calculated in your browser, nothing is sent to a server and there are no accounts. Use Save timeline to keep a file you can load again, and print or export the timeline for each vendor.