How to build your wedding day timeline

How much time do you need for wedding photos?

As a rough guide, budget about two and a half to three hours across the whole day for photographs, split into small blocks rather than one long session. A typical split looks like 30 to 45 minutes of getting-ready coverage, 20 to 30 minutes of couple portraits, 30 to 45 minutes for family and group photos, and 15 to 20 minutes with the wedding party. Splitting it up keeps any single block from feeling like a photo shoot, and it means you are actually at your own wedding for most of the day.

My portrait sessions are deliberately short, usually 20 to 30 minutes. That is enough time for the images you are hoping for, and short enough that you get back to your people before you start wondering how long this is going to take.

What time should the ceremony start?

Work backwards from sunset rather than forwards from the morning. Sunset is the single fixed point in your day that you cannot move, and it is when the light is at its best for portraits. In the Okanagan, sunset moves a lot across the season: roughly 9:00 PM in mid-summer, closer to 6:30 PM in early October. A ceremony that starts three to four hours before sunset usually leaves room for the ceremony, family photos, a proper cocktail hour, and a relaxed portrait window in good light without anyone checking their watch.

If your ceremony is indoors or in a church with a fixed slot, that is fine. It just means we plan the portrait block around sunset separately, often stepping out for fifteen minutes during the reception.

Should you do a first look?

There is no right answer, but the timeline consequences are real and worth knowing before you decide.

A first look, meaning a private moment where you see each other before the ceremony, moves most of the portrait and wedding party coverage into the hours before you get married. That usually means a shorter gap between ceremony and reception, a cocktail hour you actually attend, and a calmer afternoon. If you skip the first look, everything shifts after the ceremony, so you will want a longer cocktail hour, usually 90 minutes rather than 60, to fit portraits and family photos in without your guests waiting on you.

Both work. The mistake is skipping the first look and only scheduling a 60-minute cocktail hour, which is where most tight timelines come from.

How long do family photos really take?

Longer than almost anyone expects, and it is the single most common place a timeline slips. A reliable rule is about three to five minutes per grouping once everyone is standing in the right place. Ten groupings is roughly 45 minutes, not the 15 minutes it looks like on paper.

Two things make this part go quickly. First, write the actual list in advance rather than deciding on the day, which is why the PDF has a space for it. Second, ask one person from each side, someone loud and organised who knows the extended family, to round people up. A named person doing that saves more time than anything else on the day.

What about the reception?

Receptions mostly run themselves, but a few timings are worth writing down: the grand entrance, when dinner is served, when speeches happen, and the first dance. If speeches run during dinner, let your caterer know, since plates going out mid-toast is the usual collision.

If you are planning a sparkler or confetti exit, note that it needs full darkness to look the way you are picturing it. In mid-summer here, that can be well after 10:00 PM. Plenty of couples do a staged exit earlier in the evening with their guests instead, which gets the same photograph without keeping everyone up.

What should you send your photographer?

The details that actually change how I shoot your day: getting-ready addresses for both partners, the ceremony and reception addresses if they differ, a day-of contact who is not you, your planner or coordinator if you have one, and your family photo list. Beyond that, two questions matter more than people expect. What are the shots you would be heartbroken to miss? And is there anyone or anything you would rather I did not photograph? Both are on the last page of the timeline PDF, and both are worth answering honestly.

Do you have to fill all of this in?

No. Rough times are genuinely perfect. Fill in what you know, leave the rest blank, and we will fine-tune the final plan together before the day. The point of the timeline is not to schedule your wedding to the minute. It is to make sure nothing important gets missed, and to give you a day that has enough room in it to actually enjoy.