One of the things we like to talk about with clients is the timeline of your wedding day, because it has a serious impact on what we can accomplish with photography!
Whether you’re normally a punctual person or not, you’ll find a wedding day has all sorts of extra things that will distract you. A few examples, all from actual weddings I’ve photographed.
- The bride is dressed, walking out of the hotel lobby towards her venue down the road and realizes she left her wedding vows upstairs in the hotel. Normally, this would be a 5 minute delay. However, with her poofy wedding skirt, her maid of honor and another bridesmaid had to go back upstairs with her so her dress wouldn’t drag all over the hotel. Once she got to room, she remembered her brother had the key to the suite, so she called him to get the key. He then had to wait for the elevator to go to the top floor. 15 minutes later, she finally leaves the hotel.
- The bride and groom chose to see each other before the ceremony and wanted to meet at a local park for a special moment and then some couple portraits. After 20 minutes, the rest of the bridal party was to meet there, too, as well as both families. The bride and groom successfully arrive on time, but the bridal party doesn’t show up for quite some time. The families arrive, but we can’t take family photos yet since there are family members in the bridal party limo that has yet to arrive.
- The makeup artist arrives late, so all the girls are running behind. This happens often, of course, but this time it’s compounded by downtown traffic. The portraits we were supposed to photograph before the ceremony get pushed back to after the ceremony, and the bride and groom miss their cocktail hour.
All of these situations could have been easily fixed by making a timeline with lots of extra padding. 15 minutes here and there can add to a lot of delay, but if you have little pockets of 15 minute padding throughout the timeline and plan for the unexpected, you won’t lose portrait photo time later. If by some miracle, everything runs perfectly on time, you’ll end up with either extra portrait time or time to actually relax and enjoy your wedding day!
Every wedding is different, so it’s best to talk to us and make the most out of the time you have. One of my favorite photos ever is below. It was taken at a wedding that had a successful timeline. We photographed the bride and groom seeing each other for the first time before the ceremony and then photographed the wedding party shots. After the ceremony, we photographed the formal family portraits, and then had a little extra pocket of time to take a golf car to the far side of the property and catch this moment:
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