All the weddings we plan here at Detailed Touch Events are carefully curated, down to the finest details. What I love most is creating color stories, gathering the vendors that will bring your wedding vision to life, and telling your story through cohesive, beautiful details. Behind the event itself, besides the couple, wedding party, and guests, is a common thread: the wedding day timeline.

Your wedding day timeline is THE document that pulls your day together. It informs the couple and the wedding party of each milestone and touchpoint throughout the day, while also allowing vendors to know how to time deliveries, setup, and breakdown in accordance with the event so their teams can work seamlessly behind the scenes. Without your wedding day timeline, there’s no direction on what happens next. As the birds-eye view into your day and its most important moments, the timeline is the glue that holds your event together.

Keep reading to find out how we add structure to client wedding days, which moments are of highest priority on the wedding timeline, and what happens when we need to make down-to-the-wire adjustments.

 

How We Time Wedding Days

When I’m planning a wedding, I always keep both the couple and the vendors in mind by breaking up the day into several key sections. The early hours are dedicated to hair and makeup, so we plan this part of the day by consulting with the makeup artist, stylist, or other professionals to determine how long it will take to prepare the wedding party.

Once hair and makeup prep come to a close, the photographer arrives to capture getting ready photos and details like your rings, invitations, and wedding shoes (you know, like those gorgeous flat lays we’re all seeing on Instagram these days). If you’re doing a first look, we always incorporate extra time into the wedding day timeline to ensure we are right on schedule for your ceremony, portraits, cocktail hour, and reception.

Once your reception is underway, we ensure your catering team is in place to serve guests. After dinner, it’s all about dancing and cake! Because who doesn’t want cake?!

Photography: Caroline Tran

 

What Impacts a Wedding Timeline

One moment really does lead to the next on a wedding day. A delay of any kind tends to run us off schedule. Still, the last thing we want is for you to worry when you should be focused on enjoying your wedding (because you’re getting married, remember?). That’s why we communicate with our couples to ensure that everything they value is represented on their wedding day and, therefore, the timeline so no detail is missed. To keep delays in check, we allow plenty of time for each step of the day so if one or two things run longer than expected, we’re typically still on schedule. Because we’re pros, we can seamlessly make adjustments as needed.

For example, when your ceremony begins is important because a delayed ceremony can mean less time for portraits or a delayed dinner schedule. The start and end time of your reception also matters because the timing tells us how long we have not only for dinner but also for speeches, toasts, dancing, and dessert before your reception comes to a close.

Photography: Caroline Tran

 

Can We Adjust Wedding Timing?

The short answer is yes! At DTE, we’re always ready to adjust timing as needed. In the moment, our couples often don’t realize their timing has been adjusted because everything is happening in the moment.

Something we do always keep in mind is the start and end times for each item so we can make adjustments on a rolling basis. These times are more or less set in stone but we can work around them to make sure you experience every meaningful moment without feeling frantic, rushed, or stressed.

Photography: Mariel Hannah

 

On your wedding day, our goal is for you to feel stress-free. That means leaving all of the timing details to us, your wedding planners! We love a great wedding day timeline, and we’re always eager to create a plan that allows you to enjoy your wedding day to the fullest.