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MISTY C

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Tips for Creating Your Wedding Timeline | For Brides

June 23, 2016

Hi, I'm Misty.
Welcome to the blog where I share the beautiful parts of my business. You'll find tips, tricks, and stunning images. 
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Wedding days can be stressful. If you have a wedding planner, a little bit of that stress is relieved because they are the ones making sure your timeline is running accordingly, that your flowers are where they need to be, when they need to be, that your band knows where to set up, and a plethora of others things. Sadly, not everyone is able to have the luxury of having a wedding planner on their wedding day, and so it’s up to the bride, usually, to make sure things are going the way they should. Sometimes, even as the photographer, I have found myself acting more like a wedding planner and trying to find out where the florist is because we need the boutonnieres and they are no where to be found. This is an unfortunate event, and sadly, the images tend to suffer because of it. BUT, when you have a wedding timeline, one that you can send to all of your vendors, to make sure they know where and when they need to be in a certain location, it makes things SO much simpler. So here’s some tips for creating your wedding timeline!

Have Time Buffers

Ian and Sarah Ellensburg Wedding_0016

This seems like something so silly, but after being a part of many weddings, it’s such a simple thing that makes a WORLD of difference. Hair and make-up [i feel like] always run over time. It can take up wards of 40 minutes to get into a wedding dress. Yeah, it happens. So it’s always good to have 15-30 minutes buffers here and there throughout the day in case things go array. It never hurts to have a little extra time to just relax, but it can make the day a thousand times more stressful if things are running behind! More time never hurts! 🙂

Ask the Pros

Tips for creating your wedding timeline

One of the worst things about trying to come up with a timeline is not even knowing where to start. Most of the time, your vendors will be able to help you out with how the timeline “should” look. They have seen what works and when, and they know how the day should pan out!

I will give a word of caution though….sometimes you have to take their recommendations with a grain of salt. Sometimes photographer and DJ’s, or videographers and caterers, have different ideas of when things should happen. The most important thing to remember is that it’s YOUR wedding day. I always show my clients my “ideal” photography timeline and then we kind of go from there. If you have a vendor that is trying to take over every aspect of your day, and not allowing others to chime in with their opinion, well, like I said, it’s YOUR wedding day! Most of the time vendors are great and considerate with each other, but there’s always those instances that they aren’t.

Send the Timeline to Vendors

It’s thirty minutes until the ceremony, and your flowers are no where to be found, or your cocktail hour is supposed to start, and you have YET to see your DJ. It happens. And it’s scary!!!

When you have a sound timeline, and you send it to your vendors, they have no excuse (well unless something crazy happened) to not be on time. Communicating with them your expectations is SO important! That’s really the only way to be sure that things are going to go the way they should. You can’t just assume they are going to know when to show up! Also, make sure everyone has the correct address for where they need to be, and make sure they know how long it’s going to take to get there!

Breathe

There’s so many other things I could recommend about timelines, but this one is HUGE. Your wedding day will come and go. You might have EVERYTHING go wrong on your day, but the most important thing is that you will be married to the love of your life. You don’t need to stress out so much that when you think about your wedding day, all you can think about is how you didn’t have a wedding cake because they went to the wrong location. Just breathe. It will all work out, and you’ll be married!!!!

…But your timeline is still key to have on the day! 😉

Misty  
 xoxo

  1. Jamie says:

    Great tips! Buffer time is so important!

  2. Raelene says:

    Great points here! The day is stressful enough, for the bride with everyone asking her questions about when things are supposed to happen, for everyone that has to bother the bride with those questions! A timeline helps so much with that!

  3. Jill says:

    I love these tips Misty!! AND that first image- gorgeous!

  4. Sara says:

    ALL OF THIS!!!! So many YES’s!!!

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I'm Misty! Welcome to the blog where I share the beautiful parts of my business. You'll find tips, tricks, and stunning images. 

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