Wedding Day Timeline {Our Wedding Day Schedule}
We have been in the mood to share secrets, tell stories and educate everyone on how we run Shingleur Photography! We have a TON of knowledge that we are wanting to share, and we are doing it just one blog post at a time! Every. Single. Wedding. Is totally different. This is why we think it's important to customize a wedding day timeline for each specific Shingleur Bride. I am going to walk you through our process of creating a wedding day timeline. We know that it's hard to stick to a schedule on your wedding day. We know that not everyone is going to be in the right spot at the right time. We understand that freak accidents happen and throw everyone off schdeule! Sometimes you just can't beat the inevitable. BUT, we do have a plan in place to help! Let's use our imiginations! Let's pretend that 'Millie and Thomas' are getting married. Their wedding colors are White, Gray and Gold... SO. DREAMY. (Their wedding colors have nothing to do with this timeline, but I was encouraging your imignaion. You're welcome.) Their wedding starts at 2:00pm and it's about 2 weeks away from their wedding! This is when I try to send a timeline! It gives Millie (said bride) time to look over it, share it with her bridal party, family and eveyrone else that needs to know! If she sees any corrections that need to be made, we make them! We typically book weddings for 4 hours, 5 hours or 6 hours depending on the needs of our Shingleur Bride. Each wedding package offeres something different and each give more and more options! Millie and Thomas have booked us for 6 hours. So here's a little example of what we would cook up for Millie and Thomas' 6 Hour Wedding Coverage. They're such a sweet couple. HA!
Wedding Day Timline - Millie | Thomas
11:30 - PHOTOGS ARRIVE
11:30 - Kathryn (2nd Shooter) will be in the dressing room with Bride and bridesmaids doing some last minute 'getting ready' shots. This inlcudes everything from spritzing perfume, brushing mascara, applying lipstick, slipping into the dress, bride mom putting on veil... YOU NAME IT. Kat is there to get every little moment.
11:30 - Lance (me) will be doing TONS of detail shots of the rings, shoes, jewlery, bouquets, etc. He will also sneak in with the groom and groomsmen and get some behind the scenes shots of them putting on jackets, straighteing their bowties, looking for the other black sock, etc.
12:00 - FIRST LOOK This is a special time for our bride and grooms if they choose to have a first look with eachother. We find a secluded private spot for them to go to so they can have their last moments together before they become Husband and Wife. (Y'all. The pictures of a first look are something that you just cant ever explain. So. Precious. Everytime.) We also take this time to get some incredible portraits of the bride and groom.
12:20 - BRIDAL PARTY PICTURES We set a location and inform the whole bridal party to be there or be square! We love bridal party pictures! We finally get a chance to meet the friends of our Bride and Groom and it's always so much fun!
12:40 - FAMILY FORMALS - We typically shoot Family Formals at the ceremony site (alter) unless our bride has something else in mind. We require a list of each family grouping that the Bride and Groom would like photographed. This is usually the most stressful part of the day for the bride and groom so it's easier for us to take charge with a list of your families names.
1:00 - BRIDE AND GROOM HIDE - We try to schdeule a 1 hour window before the ceremony for a couple of reasons. For the most part, this 1 hour window is to fall back on incase someone is running late. We ALL hate feeling rushed so this one hour really gives us some mental help when a groomsman realizes he left one of his black shoes at home and has to go get it. Never fails. Also, this one hour gives Kathryn and I a lot of time to finish ceremony site details and finish up anything we did not shoot when we arrived.
2:00 - CEREMONY - We play SUPER low-key during a ceremony. You can find me at the front while the family and bridale party are being ushered in and while bride is walking down the isle, but other than that you probably won't be seeing us. We think its respectful to the bride, groom and their guests to not be a distraction during the ceremony. We can still be creative and get all the dreamy shots you want at the back of the ceremony. When you hire a photographer, it's important to know their style. No one wants a attention seeking photog. It's not about us. It's about Millie and Thomas. Hello. 2:30-2:45 CEREMONY ENDS - We typically go straight to the reception unless there are more Family Formals to knock out. Millie and Thomas have a long list of family. We are expecting to have to finish up during this time. No big deal. We can do it quickly!
3:00-3:15 RECEPTION BEGINS - We love receptions. It's a time for us to take a breath and take our camera bag off for a second! Those things sure get heavy! We play receptions by ear! There's no specific schedule with us, we just leave it up to the DJ. We get all the important shots of the cake cutting, toasts, bouquet toss, garter toss, mingleing, dancing and so so so much more! We like to pretend to be the bride and grooms paparazzi during receptions. We follow them around and get special moments of people drooling over the brides ring, fist bumps with the groom, highs with grandmaw and even get down on the dance floor witht hem too! 5:30 - PHOTOGS LEAVE - This will make 6 full hours of photography! Sometimes we take our Photographer Hat off and stay at the reception for a little bit, but we are usually so worn out we are craving a hot jacuzzi bath and lots of sleep.
We really encouage ALL brides and grooms to get with their photographer to work up a wedding day timeline. Your day will run so much more smoothly and you will all be on the same page! For other photogs that read our blog daily, if you're not utulizing this method of orginization for your Brides and Grooms, START! They will love you forever!
This timeline is overloaded with detail about what we do and we certinaly do not bombard our Brides with so much information. We give them the basics and go from there. By the time we shoot their engagement session and her bridals, they know our style well enough to know that we will not leave out a single detail! It's so awesome to see such strong friendships with our Bride and Grooms! We are always so thankful that they trust us to get the job done and we never take wedding photogrpahy lightly. We have one chance to get it right and we better make it count! Happy Thursday!