Wedding Day Timings

Your venue should be able to help as they will have held weddings so should know how long elements take like the ceremony, meal, etc. In honesty it all depends on if you are having a meal, cocktails, travel between venues, photo shoot etc. If you can give some ideas of what you are doing I am sure we can then help with timings.

If it is 1pm then ceremony would be done by 1.30pm, I would then have 45 mins to an hour for group photos etc to 2.30pm then have drinks reception for 1-1.5hours as this allows you and hubby to go off for couples shoot for half an hour or so. So your meal could be at 4pm, allow 2-2.5 hours if you have speeches, so done by 6.30pm and then that leaves time for the venue to turn the room around for the evening to start at 7-.7.30pm. This is a general idea, but is flexible if you have other elements in your day

Our venue gave us a suggested timeline and said we can tweak as we like - but it's been a really helpful starting point and we're probably going to go with pretty much all their suggestions!

View quoted message Ah perfect, thank you! That’s pretty much how my day would be planned out in my head but I just didn’t know timings of everything etc. - we are looking to get a photo booth for the evening so do you think 7:30pm would be a good time for them to set up?

View quoted message Thank you - how long before your wedding did they give this to you?
We are going back to the venue in Feb to have a chat so I can ask about this!!

View quoted message Depends on your packaged hours. We have 6 Hou s and they are going to set up as we eat just outside the main room. Again, speak to your venue about logistics for supplier set ups once you have agr ed your timings

For a civil ceremony at a venue 90% of the time I find there is 1.5 hours between stepping outside after the ceremony and being called in for the meal. Unless the ceremony time is 11 or 12 then I usually see longer. Or if you have 130 guests and the meal is in the same room as the ceremony so they may need longer than 1.5 hours to turn it around.

The 1.5 hours is when the photos and drinks are done. Any suppliers like the booth then tell them what time you will need them ready and let them decide what time they need to set up.

At almost all weddings evening guests are told to arrive at 7-7.30 with a first dance at 8pm. First dances can be held later if your wedding was later but that may not leave much left of the evening