There are a so many things that affect the wedding timeline. The less time you have the more stress you will have on the wedding day. 

I have personally photographed over 200 weddings. You can check out my portfolio here at Columbus Ohio Wedding Photography. There are patterns that emerge that I have seen that can impact your timeline and make you late for the ceremony or reception where guests are waiting. 

Here are the things that take more time than you think. 

• Hair and makeup

There are several things going on here. Sometimes it is simple as girls talking and interrupting the hair or makeup specialist. Sometimes it is having hair and makeup back to back. Other times it is only one or two hair and makeup people stylizing 12 bridesmaids. 

Solution would be starting one hour earlier than you think it will take.

• Transportation 

You never know what traffic would be like on the day of the wedding. Take in to consideration there might be a college game letting out of a stadium. There could be accidents along the route. There might be loading times for the dress, flowers, or personal belongings after ceremony. 

Solution would be to add 20 minutes more than you think it will take to get to the next location in your timeline. 

• Florists 

I can’t count how many times the flowers have arrived late for me taking photos. I need the boutonnieres on the groomsmen before I take formal photos of them. I also need bouquets dropped off before I take formal photos of the bridesmaids. 

Solution would be to call the florist a week before the wedding and make sure the flowers are dropped off when you are arriving at the ceremony site. 

• Receiving line

This takes way more time than you think. You are going to have a mini 15-30 second conversation with every guest that came to the wedding.

If you have 150 guests. This can take 37 minutes to over an hour to accomplish.   

Solution 

Visit every table as a couple right after you are done eating your dinner. The people that really want to talk to you will come to you. You don’t have to say much other than thank them for coming. 

• Photography

Yes, it is true the photographer does get blamed for arriving later than expected for the reception. This is because a lake of communication with the photographers timeline. If you try to crunch 90 minutes of portraits in to 30 minutes it will not work out well and the pictures will suffer. You might not get the best photographer work that you hired them for in the first place. 

Solution 

Make sure you get the 6 main shots after the ceremony. Big brides family, immediate family, just parents. Do the same for the groom side. This takes 20 minutes. Every combination with another group takes around 2 minutes extra to set up. 

Make sure the family does not leave before the portraits. Grandparents love to leave and forget to stay for portraits. 

Make sure you have 2-3 hours in between the ceremony and reception starting time so you can travel to a gorgeous location to take beautiful portraits. 

Brian Kellogg is a Columbus, Ohio Wedding photographer. Be sure to subscribe so you can receive helpful tips and tricks before you get married.