Rushed Wedding Day

Hi there,


The amount of time just to get hair and makeup done is crazy. Mind you there was five of us and we had one stylist and one makeup artist. We took photos together with our phones so it make it more relaxed and less pressure. We only hired one photographer (to stay in budget) so we figured it’s better to have her be there for the actually wedding portion of the day.
Once we got to the venue us girls got in our dresses. When we did that I had the photographer take detail shots and photos of the venue. Then we went outside to take bridal party photos with the photographer. At the same time my FH (at the time) had to stay in one part of the reception room so he couldn’t see me. He had to delicate to others stuff that had to be set up because he wasn’t able to move from that spot. We didn’t do a first look. Thinking back it’s kind of funny he was stuck on a corner. Poor guy. After we came in to fresh up and my photographer took photos of the groom, groomsman and best man. This was done prior to the ceremony so we just only had to do group wedding party photos and they could go to enjoy the cocktail hour.

Regular ceremony photos etc. were done. We finished our ceremony on schedule, with built in buffer time just before the cocktail hour so guests/family/wedding party had a 20 minute break so they could get much needed shade (it was a very hot August day) and water. This worked out so we could wrangle everyone (close family and wedding party) for photos so it didn’t cut into the “cocktail hour”. We made our photo list short so we didn’t take long for group photos. It took maybe 20 minutes. The rest of the 40 minutes we had for my FH and I. Surprisingly we were pretty on time for a lot of events that day. Just some up in the air things that happen and you roll with it.

Talk to your photographer and see how they would approach it. Always chat with your vendors. You chose them for a reason and they can support you. In all, stagger photo times, create buffer time and make sure you share that plan with your wedding party so they know what they are doing. The picture below is what I shared with the wedding party — just cut out from the picture personal info like the location of our rehearsal dinner, the accommodations location, venue owner contact and accommodations contact.

My fiancee and her bridesmaids/MOH will be getting ready at our new home, with 1 photographer there, while my groomsmen and I will be getting ready at the hotel (wedding venue), with the 2nd photographer. As the wedding is an afternoon one the limousine picks up the ladies at the house and brings them to the hotel for the ceremony. After the ceremony the guests get cocktail hour but we are being taken to a local park for photos , lasting about 2-3 hours, before coming back to the hotel for the reception & dance.

I planned the day start with all pictures needed to get done and 1 hour each with our families getting ready and a family shot. The wedding party were also done after too.
Once the ceremony was done, groups were arranged and called up one after another with the big family photo at the end. Both families and my side too. The cocktail hour started and we didn't stay as we changed for reception. Our alone shots were taken in the sunset during dinner time as we didn't mind at all.

We did a first look and family pictures before the wedding so we could enjoy cocktail hour with our guests. We actually saved a lot of money because we just had photographer for first look and family pictures and ceremony. All reception pictures were taken by phones lol. I didn't care about cake cutting picture or first dance photo. We didn't have to pay for photographer to eat or pay photographer for all that down time either. Any guests who wanted a picture with photographer and us were invited to do so after ceremony.

View quoted message Awesome, hehe glad you posted this

We also did a first look, which was perfect because we walked down the aisle together (rather than the traditional groom waiting at the altar for the bride). This adds the advantage of having about an hour before the ceremony to do photos with the bridal party and parents. Then after the ceremony, we did a group photo with ALL the guests, then sent them on their way for cocktail hour while we took pictures with family. We finished much faster than expected, so we were able to then send the family and bridal party off to enjoy the cocktail hour, and me and my husband did our couples photos for another half hour. We then had about 15 minutes to just relax and the venue staff took care to bring us some of the hors d'oeuvres while we relaxed before we did our "grand entrance." It worked out perfectly.

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No need to sneak it, I'm giving it to you

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Perfect! I might steal that joke idea thanks

View quoted message Oh and we also had a joke first look - the best man put on my sisters wedding dress from 2001 😆 so factor in two first looks!

View quoted message It was about 2-4:30 pm and that wasn't rushed at all! Our ceremony was at 5:30.

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Hello, how much time did your first look + photos of couple + photos with everyone else take

I would like to do a similar set up and I am wondering if Im budgeting enough time

So for me I don’t want to do a first look which I know eats up cocktail hour time when it comes to photos. I’m planning to ask our photographers to do as many separate photos as we can beforehand (so like bride with parents, groom with parents, separate bridal party photos, bridal portraits, etc.). That will hopefully cut down on the time we need to spend getting photos done during cocktail hour.

View quoted message Sneak away monents, stealing this!!!

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Go for it! Tiktok has so many great wedding ideas that you just don't realize until another bride tells you.

View quoted message I'm gonna convince my partner to do a first look! Simply having more time to enjoy everything is a must and if that helps, I'm sold

View quoted message That sounds beautiful! I may also have to steal the idea

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Our venue is small and they do it all, across the street there's a church with a secret garden and they have allowed the use of their space for pictures, plus the venue is beautiful on it's own as it used to be an old school house.

I saw it on tiktok that the regrets people had was not getting enough time as husband and wife on the day of, and to plan little sneak away moments as the wedding day goes so fast that you want to be able to enjoy it together. So I am stealing the idea.

View quoted message Oh that's nice! Do you have a different location for the ceremony and reception or have you just scheduled some time in between?


I love the little sneak away moments you are planning!

We have enough time between the ceremony and cocktail hour to take photos. Then our main entrance we are doing the first dance right away, and the cake cutting because I only booked my photographer for 3 hours since I did not want to be bothered by a photographer when I'm trying to dance and have fun. Every hour we plan on sneaking away just to have a moment to ourselves and just being able to enjoy our wedding without interruptions.

We did all of our photos before. First look, photos just of us, wedding party, family... we did sparklers and sunset photos after the ceremony and then had alone time during cocktail hour (traditional for my religion). We kept peaking out though 😆 huge benefit to doing a first look. We really got to enjoy our entire evening.

View quoted message Highly recommend a first look! My husband was on the fence but he's so glad we did!! I think the more pictures you can do before the ceremony the better! We did couple portraits, all bridal party photos and some family pictures (3 bridal party members were family) after the ceremony it only took like 30 mins for the rest of the photos! I was so happy we had time for slushes! We also brought them with us for our grand entrance!

View quoted message I was thinking of doing a first look for this reason! But I should even look at doing the family photos before as well!


Honestly even having time for slushies sound like so much fun

We did a first look so my husband and I got to spend time together before the wedding which was amazing! Then we did 90% of the photos before the ceremony! The only photos we did after were family pictures! We had enough time to enjoy cocktail hour if we wanted but we went and got slushes from our favourite store instead 😂 we tried to get all the reception formalities (first dance, cake cutting, etc) done as soon as possible so we could enjoy the rest of the night. Then we also snuck away for sunset photos and we went home so I could put on my 2nd dress and my husband feed our cats 😂