Putting together a wedding timeline ...

I have been asked by some of you beautiful soon-to-be brides to do a break down of my "day-of" schedule telling you what worked and what didn't work.

Let me start off by saying that the "day-of" timeline took a lot of logistical planning and scheduling. Thinking about a timeline really started to stress me out a few weeks before the wedding. My bridesmaid's probably thought I was crazy because I would email them hour-by-hour timelines for the day of the wedding.

Here is an example of my timeline merged with my photographers timeline (courtesy of the lovely APR Photography):
Saturday, May 2nd:
11:00 AM- Bridal Luncheon
12:30 PM- 3:30 pm- Hair Appointments
4:00 - pictures start
4:00 - Ready with exception of her dress, arrive at Brooks (all bridesmaids as well)
4:15 - boys arrive - they need to be dressed & ready
4:30 - First meet with Megan & Rob
5:00 - Group shots - Wedding party and breakdowns
5:30 - Family Shots - this needs to be all family that you want in images - unless there are grandparents that can't get there until ceremony time. In that case, we can photograph them right after.
5:45 - "down time" before ceremony - this is to get ready for the ceremony, let you have a minute to freshen up relax and catch a few detail shots
6:30 - ceremony begins
7:00 - reception begins - I will keep you outside for just a few minutes so all of your guests can get inside and settled
during reception: I will work with the coordinator at The Brooks on the event times for the rest of the night.
First Dance
mingle & eat
Cakes
10:50 - exit

1: Take all of the necessary items to your reception venue a couple of days before your wedding. For instance, I took my guestbook, champagne flutes, favors, coozies, nameplates (that I didn't end up using), and our picture frame for guests to sign. I took all of these items to my venue planner the Thursday before the wedding and left them with her. This was great because they were out of my hands and I could trust that she would put them in their necessary places when they were setting up for the reception.

2: Make sure you have someone to be your "personal assistant" for the wedding day. For me, this was Paisley & Pearls. When we got to the hair studio and I noticed that my dress was not a zip down dress, Paisley & Pearls went to get me more clothes, champagne, and some crackers.

3: Account late-ness in your timeline. I over-estimated my hair appointment times which resulted in us having some nice downtime at my house. Some things will run late and some things will take less time than you thought, so be prepared for that.

4: Don't change into your wedding dress until you are at your ceremony venue. Hopefully your venue will have a room set up for you and your bridesmaid's to get ready. Save your dress for this room because your photographer will want to get some pictures of your dress, you getting into your dress, and your bridesmaid's helping you with your dress.

5: Make sure you have someone that will be watching your gift table at your wedding reception. I wish I would have told someone to periodically take my gifts and cards to a car. I totally forgot to make a card box or to get one of those birdcage boxes. I wish I would have remembered because we feel like I got way less cards than we expected and I'll never know if someone took them or not.

6: My hair and make-up stylist came to my house the morning of my wedding and did my base make-up. This was a good idea because it gave me enough make-up for my luncheon and gave me a base for her to touch-up when we went for our hair appointments.

Edit:

My friend Lauren who just started her own wedding planning business, added this, which is so true:

You forgot to add... for all those who aren't planner diva's in the making... you can just hire a wedding coordinator.. show up, look beautiful, and have a luxurious day at your fingertips : ) Shameless plug... couldn't help myself. Great timeline explanation : )

Any gals in the Kentucky area, check her out at LC Events KY