WEDDING TIMELINE

This timeline is a tool that hopefully helps simplify the flow of your beautiful wedding day.
I want you both to be able to enjoy every minute of it and not be stressed out about small details.
I hope you can use this as a foundation and if anything needs to be tweaked, don’t worry about it, I’m flexible.
Through years of photographing weddings, this is what I’ve determined works most efficiently in being able to capture every moment.
I’ll explain under each category my suggested timeframe as well as what I like to typically capture during these moments.
However, whatever unique opportunity presents itself outside of this rough timeline, I’ll try my best to be there to capture it.

BRIDE PREP

(30 min – 1 hour)

The day begins with you preparing yourself for that beautiful moment when you first see your man.
I want to be there in the morning to capture you, your mom and your girls perfecting your hair and makeup.
I want to get all those detail shots of shoes, necklace, ring, veil and any other opportunity I see.
We will worry about that last important step of getting into the dress until you’re at the location of the ceremony.

GROOM PREP

(30 min – 1 hour)

The next step is hopping over to wherever your man is preparing himself for that moment when he gets to see his beautiful bride.
I want to capture him chilling with his groomsmen and waiting last minute to finally put on that tux.
I want that shot of the best man straightening his tie, polishing his shoes and brushin’ that dirt off his shoulder.

HIDDEN MOMENT

(30 min)

After you both have finished preparing yourselves, I’d suggest having what I like to call your “Hidden Moment”.
This is where you two can meet for the first time before the ceremony without any distractions.
This provides a brief pause in the busy day where you can catch your breath and spend an intimate moment together.
The evidence of pure joy and excitement shines through in this private moment!
If you choose to go the traditional route and wait to see each other until you begin walking down the aisle, that’s quite alright too.
That’s what my wife Ariel and I did and we don’t regret that equally beautiful of a moment a bit!
I’ll explain towards the end of this timeline what I like to do to make this traditional style work smoothly.

FAMILY PHOTOS

(30 min)

As you can see with the timeframe, I try to advise my couples to be as efficient as possible with family formals.
I understand how important it is to capture your loved ones who support you in making this day happen.
I promise to capture those moments but I challenge you by asking one question.
Which would you rather have hanging on your wall for the rest of your life in a 20×30 print…
do you want that photo of your entire family crammed up on that tiny little alter…
or do you want that irreplaceable and intimate moment between the both of you during your Hidden Moment or Creative session?

CREATIVES

(1 hour)

This is the fun part that allows us to capture those stunning artistic moments that will blow you away for years to come!
We would find a relatively close location to begin capturing these shots.
It’s still before the ceremony at this point in the timeline so we will need to handle your dress, hair and makeup with extra precaution.
I promise we can execute this time with care and you will love these shots so much more than formally standing at the altar.

CEREMONY

Next up is the highly anticipated ceremony where you will commit your lives to each other!
I promise to try my hardest to capture every special moment during your unique ceremony.
There are often rules about where I am allowed to be during the ceremony but I make it my personal mission to stay hidden.
I respect my boundaries because the focus should only ever be on the two of you.
This is your day and I don’t want to steal any attention away from your beautiful ceremony.
I don’t use any flash and I only go where you say I’m allowed to go.

BONUS CREATIVES

(1 hour)

After your ceremony we usually have another great amount of time to allow for off location shooting.
During this time we have a lot more freedom with where we go and the fun we can have.
We can travel to gritty back alleys, beautiful parks, downtown architecture or whatever else you think is your style!

COCKTAIL HOUR

This is important if you want me to be able to capture your beautiful reception venue without any guests in the room.
I often don’t have a lot of time to take photos of the cake, head table and table settings without this timeframe.
Allowing for this time provides me with the brief window I need to capture all of these amazing details you’ve spent time on.
I can still capture these details even if we aren’t able to schedule for this, it will just be far more rushed.

RECEPTION

Announcement (15 min) • Cake Cutting (15 min) • Toasts (30 min) • Dinner (1 hour) • Dances (30 min) • Bouquet/Garter (15 min) • Dancing!
When the ceremony is finished and you two have been pronounced Husband & Wife, let the fun photos begin.
We will head to whatever beautiful location is close or on the way to the reception for some outdoor photos.
We can have some fun with a little more freedom now since the ceremony is over.
We can do the classic jumping photo or in one of my most recent weddings the bride was tossed into the air by the groomsmen!
We will get more shots of just you two and some fun ones with the whole bridal party too.

TRADITIONAL TIMELINE

What we would do in this situation is try our best to get as many of the separated shots taken care of.
We would try to get the bride with her girls and the groom with his fellas before the ceremony arrives.
After the ceremony we would try to make sure all the necessary family sticks around to get those shots knocked out.
After that’s finished we would then travel to our off location site to begin our lengthened creative session.

HELPFUL?

I hope the foundation of this timeline helps comfort you with your decisions and the planning of your day.
If you have any more questions that you feel might need to be answered, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Just remember that I’m very flexible and I aim to satisfy far beyond what you may ever expect!

Thanks for your time and consideration!
Have fun planning! Enjoy every moment of it and do not worry!
It will all come together and if one small detail isn’t perfect, remember that at the end of the day…
the most important detail is that you’re still going to be married to the one you love!