Planning the timeline was fun in the beginning. Eventually, it got down to the tough decisions and became tedious. There was so much we wanted, and it all had to squeeze together. I was surprised to see what a small portion of the timeline the wedding was. Much of it was prep-work (my day before was also hectic with eyebrow threading, mani-pedis, the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner). In order to plan out the timeline we had to know the vendor limits. We had the venue (ceremony and reception) for 6 hours, but we could show up at any time to get ready. We had the photographer for 8.5 hours. We had the photo-booth and the videographer for 4 hours. With everything considered, here was our final day-of timeline.
8:30 AM - Bride arrives at the venue. Start bride's hair-styling and jamming with the girls. My hair stylist was a friend who recently graduated from cosmetology school, so we allotted a lot of extra time. My bridesmaids arrived as they wanted to, since some took less time to get ready than others. 10:00 AM - Florist arrives. We ordered bouquets for the bride and the bridesmaids, boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen, fathers, and grandfathers, corsages for the mothers, grandmothers, and reader, some alter flowers, and some cake flowers. We ordered our reception centerpiece flowers from SAMs club and my father arranged them. 11:30 AM - Bridal lunch. Our venue provided a nice lunch for the bride and bridesmaids. The groomsmen ate lunch together elsewhere and arrived later. 12:00 PM - Photographer arrives. Initially, our photographer took photos of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready and photos of the accessories: jewelry, shoes, dress, ect. 12:45 PM - Groom and groomsmen arrive. The groom and groomsmen stopped by Men's Warehouse to get their bow ties tied, so they came ready. We staged some photos of Zach's dad adjusting Zach's bow tie and of Zach putting on his tux jacket. 1:00 PM - Makeup artist arrives. Our makeup artist did makeup for the bride, matron of honor, my mother, and my mother-in-law. 1:45 PM - Bride gets into dress. 2:00 PM - Bride and Father of the Bride first look photos. My fiance is not as emotional as my father. I definitely wanted the moment captured when my father saw me in my dress with my hair and makeup done for the first time. I plan to utilize one of these photos on a key chain for him for Father's Day. 2:30 PM - Bride and Groom First Look. I always wanted to have a first look, because I didn't want to shove a lot of photos into cocktail hour. Plus, I'm a private person, and really wanted to be able to see my groom without ALL my guests being present. Just him hugging me before melted away a lot of the pressure. 3:00 PM - Bridal party photos. 3:30 PM - Family photos. We included a lot of people in our family photos. With family spread across the country, this was one of the times everyone was together, especially with a professional photographer, and before the wedding was the best time to get everyone together in their formal outfits. For my family, we included my grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins in photos (10 people for my mom's side and 6 people on my dad's side, plus my immediate family). For his family we had both sets of his grandparents, aunts, and uncles (5 for mom's side and 6 for his dad's side). It was quite a party before the wedding. 4:30 PM - Photos complete. Videographer arrives. Bride and bridal party in hiding. Photographer and videographer captured ceremony and reception decor. 5:00 PM - Ceremony. Our ceremony was about 20 minutes long. It included one reading and a sharing of the cup ceremony. It started a few minutes after 5:00 PM. 5:30 PM - Receiving line and cocktail hour starts. I chose to have a receiving line with only the bride and groom. I looked at options such as mingling during cocktail hour and going to each table during dinner. But based on our schedule, I realized we would not have enough mingling time between dinner and toasts. Then, by the time first dances were over, some guests would have gone home, and I would have missed them. Plus, between the bar and the photo-booth, guests were not always at their tables. Having a receiving line was awkward, but it allowed me to enjoy my reception and not have to worry about making sure I meet everyone. I went to some tables, danced with some people, but I didn't need to stress with making sure I met with everyone because that was taken care of earlier. With 175 guests, the receiving line took us about 30 minutes. 6:00 PM - Photo Booth starts. More photos of bride and groom. Our photographer recommended having more photos after the wedding, since we have a new glow of just getting married. After the receiving line, we headed back outside for photos while the guests enjoyed cocktail hour. We had the videographer stay to capture cocktail hour so we could look back on it later. 6:20 PM - Dress bustling. This took about 10 minutes. I had a friend come with me to the final fitting to learn how to bustle the dress. My dress was probably more complicated than others, since it was a layered ballgown. 6:30 PM - Grand entrance/First Dance. I am a huge fan of "getting things over with", especially when it comes to being in front of people. We had our grand entrance right after we came back from our photos, and we decided to have the first dance right after. I saw this as a transition from the day being about us to it being about the guests. Plus, I wanted to drink during the reception and wanted to make sure I was sober during the choreographed dance; we spent quite a bit on lessons. 6:35 PM - Dinner/Buffet. The DJ dismissed everyone by tables to join the buffet line. We started with bride and groom, then vendors (we had a vendor table on the dance floor that was moved during the dancing), then guests. Everyone was through the line in about 45 minutes. 7:15 PM - Toasts and cake cutting. My father gave the first toast. Followed by the groom, the maid of honor, and the best man. 7:30 PM - Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. 8:15 PM - Bouquet toss. I decided to do the bouquet toss right after the first dances so that we could add the single ladies to the floor, then add everyone to the floor, as opposed to clearing the floor of everyone but single ladies at the end of the night then having people get back on the floor to dance. It seemed to be less choppy and kept people dancing for most of the night. Also, it let the people who wanted to leave early see everything. 7:40 PM - Group photo on dance floor. Our DJ recommended this common trick. We had a group photo of everyone on the dance floor. Then he played YMCA to keep them all there. 8:30 PM - Photography and videography ends. 9:30 PM - Bar closes. 10:00 PM - Photo Booth closes. 10:30 PM - Reception ends.
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AuthorHi! I'm Amber. I love spreadsheets and painting. This blog is where I post about my crafts and adventures. Archives
November 2018
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