Timeline opinion and question

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Great suggestion. Add to the website an arrival time and actual start time.

I sent my timeline to all my vendors and said I was open to suggestions if they had any.



I put my ceremony for 3pm it will start at 3pm. People usually know okay it’s at 3 I need to be there 5-10 early !

We’ve created our own timeline based on the start times of hair/makeup and venue.

Due to us being postponed 4x, we’ve had to change a few times (hair is now 8am instead of 10am due to availability for the new date etc) so it just involved a few emails to big vendors to ensure we could coordinate. The only vendor that gave us a specific start time was my MUA- so I planned the day around that appt and the start of the ceremony…. I don’t think anything needs to be “approved” by anyone- it’s your day. Just be mindful of the start times of your vendors and coordinate as needed.

I'm learning so much from other bridal discussions - I would've never thought to get timeline approval, or put the ceremony time earlier on invitations! Thank you for bringing these questions forth, Jillian

If you have a shuttle dropping off most guests, I probably wouldn't worry too much about altering the ceremony time on the invitation - maybe put the correct time, and add on the invitations asking guests to arrive 15 minutes early (incentivize by further adding something like "to get good seating"). Or put it on the wedding website, if you have one.

Hello Jillian,
I would say that keep your time at 3pm, try to give a 10-15 minutes wait to start.

Also; you send send your timeline to your day of coordinator, photographer, and DJ. Keep in mind that your venue might ask for it as well.

I didn't have to get approval for the timeline as I had created it myself given the ceremony time and hours or preparation set for photographs before and after the ceremony with family and group shots. The photographer and DJ knew what times they had to be there and for the songs and shots.

The ceremony time should 3pm as your guests will be arriving before the starting time itself.

I sent my timeline to my photographer and venue just to see if they had any suggestions about moving anything around but they said it was good!


My ceremony is at 3 I put that on save the dates, invitations, wedding website! People will know they need to be there for 3 so lots of your guests will show up at 2-2:30 you may have a few that are late but that’s life! It’s not a big deal in my opinion anyway!

I wouldn't put 230pm as your ceremony time if it doesn't start until 3pm. I would hate being a guest waiting an extra half hour. I would just put 3pm on your invitation.

I would make sure any vendor that is affected by your timeline has seen it even just to reconfirm everything one extra time. They may notice something you may have forgotten (like travel time lol)
I put our start time for church at the time we have church booked for. We only have the space for one hour so I'm hoping everyone comes on time. I'm not sure if there is a wedding in the chapel just before ours or not. We are hoping for a shorter ceremony so if everyone gets there at 2:30 and we start at 3 it'll be fine. As a guest I always make sure I'm at least 15 minutes early for ceremonies I would hope most people would do the same. Even knowing most ceremonies start a little late I always go early.

It is not a good idea to put your ceremony time early. Guests are usually aware the ceremony is scheduled to start at the time listed so if you say 2:30, some guests will start showing up at like 2 and will be annoyed waiting for an hour. I would list 3pm and maybe start at like 3:10 if nessacary due to any guests running behind. I have done 4pm on the invites and on our website I made note that guests need to arrive by 3:45 and the ceremony will be starting on time at 4pm. I know I won't be late for the ceremony as we are doing a first look so I need to be ready by 1pm. So far the only person I've gone over timeline with is our photographer.