Introduction

This blog post? It introduces you to Your Photography Wedding-Day Timeline! As a wedding photographer, my line of work directly impacts your vendors and your entire experience. We’ll dive into the impact your photography timeline has on your overall wedding-day timeline that you will receive from your event team, along with what factors impact when and how we capture different photos throughout your specific wedding day.

The impact of client experience

First and foremost, capturing the photos that you want most is what it’s all about! But if you want to get the absolute most of my services and ability on your wedding day, it’s all about planning and preparation in advance. My personal philosophy: the more intentional decisions you make ahead of time, the less decisions you have to make on your wedding day! Preparation is the absolute key to success.

Honestly, collaborating with me on a timeline that is photography-friendly will truly allow you to remember the most cherished memories, and most important moments that make your day unique and sentimental to look back on.

When any vendor isn’t looped into your preferences, priorities, and expectations, we can’t serve you the way you deserve!

How this impacts all of your vendors directly

On the vendor side, it is directly impacted by whether or not hair and makeup schedule ends on time, so I love sharing the ideal photo time in advance. Additionally, your event team, florists, and DJ’s ability to their job smoothly is directly impacted by my ability to take photos efficiently to keep the day on track, to keep a positive impact on the flow of events!

When it comes to hair and makeup, my start time directly impacts hair and makeups end time. Usually, finishing the bride’s hair and makeup second to last in the lineup is best. Also, highly recommend ending your hair and makeup final touch-ups at least 30 minutes before photography’s start time, to avoid any rushing! You have time to decompress, run to the restroom, sip something through a straw, and properly transition to the next thing on your way without feeling rushed!

For your event team/ coordination, they may be coming into the fold at different times in the planning process, depending on the services you booked with them. Do they begin planning support 6 months out? 3 month out? 1-month out? Day-of coordination? If it’s 3 months or less, I usually come up with something tangible for you and for them to hit the ground running, to make wedding planning easier!

Photography Start & End Times | Key Factors

There are several details we’ll ask for, and we’ll want to gather certain things from you and other vendors in order to craft the ideal timeline for your wedding day:

Location (changes): Are you staying at the venue all-day, or starting somewhere offsite before arriving at the venue? Are there location transitions between getting ready, ceremony, and reception? Depending on the logistics of your wedding day, you can lose up to 3 hours of capture time transitioning between places, and that significantly impacts how we capture your day.

First Look Before OR at Ceremony: This is a very personal decision! While we want to support your decision around when you see each other, this directly impacts the order in which we capture photos. If you are seeing each other at ceremony, there will guaranteed be at least 30 minutes of time to capture remaining photos of the two of you together, before capturing couples photos. Why? Because no matter what, we need to capture any and all photos where the two of you are photographed together- including family photos, wedding party photos, and photos of just the two of you! We can only capture these during cocktail hour in this case, because we will be moving through scheduled reception events after your grand entrance. For more details on this, please click here on this blog post to learn more about the impact of when you see each other for the first time!

Time of Year & Necessary Flash Photography: Depending on the season you are getting married and when your ceremony lands, you may not have any daylight after it ends, and therefore, would need to transition for flash photography. Generally speaking, when you are getting married closest to Winter Solstice, you have a day that’s shorter, meaning we switch to flash photography much, much sooner than Summer Solstice. It’s important to know your thoughts on the look and feel of flash photography! There is a little more leeway with summer weddings- the days are longer, and there is more natural light available to us, with a little more flexibility to when photography starts and ends

Your Cocktail-Hour Experience: How important is it for you to spend time mingling with guests during cocktail hour? First look or not, this will definitely impact your photo start time, especially if getting to spend closer to the majority of your cocktail hour this is super important to your wedding-day experience.

We will want to heavily consider taking the most amount of photos possible, before ceremony, if you are hoping to spend most, if not all, of your cocktail hour socializing with everyone that’s come near and far to celebrate! It would mean considering an earlier getting ready schedule, and moving your photo start time back.

Receiving Your Photo Timeline | What to Know & How to Interpret the Deets

1/ Time cushioning is absolutely essential. Although our timeline indicates that we’ll be dedicating about 30 minutes to an hour for the photo segment (like family photos, wedding party pictures, or couples shots), that’s truly built as some extra time to accommodate any unexpected delays that might pop up on the day. If we don’t allow for this time cushion, the photo-taking process might feel a bit rushed, and that can really come through in the photos, no matter how hard we try!



2/ Certain photo opportunities have moving parts & require set-up + coordination. Best examples? Having a “first look” with or without your partner! Whether it’s with your bridesmaids, dad, or someone special — please make sure to share those details with me by our final phone call before your big day! I want to help everything go smoothly, and planning ahead will ensure that your first looks feel relaxed and joyful instead of stressful or rushed. It’s all about making those moments perfect for you!



3/ Consider a timeline a means surefire way to keep things on track, versus feeling forced to stick exactly to it timeframe by timeframe. Things are imperfect, and things will happen on your wedding day that will take more time than expected, which is why we time cushion anywhere we can. Checking your phone or watch minute by minute to make sure were on time will do you no good on your wedding day! Let me and your event team keep track of this, and know that if we’re behind, your vendors are doing their best to get things back on track, and keep things stress-free for everyone!

4/ When the day comes, let me take the reigns! Don’t feel like you have to memorize the final photo timeline! I’ll be providing the finalized game plan to you, about 1-2 weeks before your wedding, by text and email. This is intended you to send accurate information directly to your wedding party and family members that will need to know when and where to be photo-ready. Additionally, I’ll be keeping track on the wedding day to let you know what is happening next!



5/ If you haven’t scheduled a timeline call with me yet, please do so here! If you have something important to share with me, whether it’s our final call, an update, or anything else, please feel free to book a time to chat! I’d be truly delighted to catch up with you regardless.

Keep Calm & Carry On | Let Me Handle this!

While this may sound overwhelming, I’ll guide you through it all! This might all make wedding planning sound daunting and overengineered. Totally understandable!

But… that’s also why you hired me 😉 This is all stuff for me to worry about! I’ll be providing you with the best-informed wedding photography timeline, and I want to work directly with your vendors to save potential stress and headaches from the planning process.

Be Open & Transparent with me when we sync!

Share what you’ve been trying to work through and think out- anything that sounds confusing and feels top of mind to figure out. I can give the best recommendations, and let you know the best possible time to have something important to you captured.

You’ll receive a drafted timeline, but know that it’s a living, breathing document until everything is decided on! Additionally, I’ll be working with your event planning team to make sure everything is aligned, so there isn’t anything complicated for you to try and figure out on your own.

Up Next: Family Photos

My next blog post for you to check out will be focused on family photos! These moments are truly one of the highlights of the wedding day and involve a detailed game plan to make sure everything runs super smoothly on your wedding day. I want to help you feel completely prepared for them, so together, we can ensure everything goes smoothly and feels sentimentally fun!