Wedding Day Timeline

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Thank you

Your day timing sounds good and well thought out given time for pictures inbetween the traditions. I had done the same to get family pics beforehand and after the wedding with groups to cut the time. You are on a role, keep it up!

View quoted message It sounds sooo good! I have been to only one wedding of a Chinese-Canadian couple, but if they did have a tea ceremony I definitely wasn’t invited. Good luck!

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Yeah I don't particularly enjoy being the center attention haha :p so the shorter the better lol

View quoted message No problem!

View quoted message Yes that will definitely help for timing for photos. Our ceremony is going to be longer so I wasn't sure how long yours was and just wanted to double check to make sure you had time for photos 😊

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That is quite true thank you for your help this helps make my day easier

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Yeah it's a chinese custom that is done at the bride's house before the ceremony (groom and bride see each other before ceremony) and we serve to our elders as a sign of respect. It's almost saying thank you for raising us and look how we have come, please have this cup of tea as a thank you and it's a sign of the elders giving their blessing towards the marriage. Which is normally done for parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles. But we are cutting ours extremely short by just doing parents and grandparents (makes the ceremony 5 min instead of 45 min- 1hr).

View quoted message Ya! We decided to do pics before the ceremony for a number of reasons:
1) we will do a first look so itll still be a special moment and our photographer will be there.
2) it gives is more time in the day to work with and have a more relaxed schedule
3) its an extra 3 hours my FH and i can spend together the day of
4) hair and makeup will still look fresh because we wont have been sweating all day before pics
5) i wont be tired hungry and grumpy for pictures which i would imagine i would be if we did pics between ceremony and dinner
6) no awkward gap for our guests to kill time between ceremony and reception.
7) earlier dinner
8) we will be able to mingle with guests during cocktail hour BEFORE dinner so we can sit down and enjoy our dinner and not worry about making the rounds.

Its a little less traditional and not very common to do pics before but i think itll just make for a much more relaxed and more enjoyable day!

Wow, that’s a well organized plan! Sounds quite reasonable and also although I have never heard of a tea ceremony, it looks very interesting!

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Estimating about 2.5 hrs for pics, about a 15-20 min ceremony. Will be taking pics right after ceremony and we will most likely miss cocktail hr which is no big deal for us.

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Estimating about a 15-20 min ceremony so pictures after that and during cocktail hr so we most likely will miss cocktail hr. But that's ok not a big deal for us. Estimating about 2.5 hrs for pics, bridal party and family included

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So pictures before the ceremony....never thought of that. Wonder how the hubby would feel about that

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So not too bad then.

I've been told by a few people that pictures take longer than they expected. Not sure where you are planning on fitting them into your schedule.

Not sure what you are planning for cocktail hour, but with a later dinner I would suggest something like appetizers so people don't get too hungry before dinner.

Seems reasonable! Just remember to allow time for photos. We are getting married at 2 and then dinner isn't until 6:30. Cocktails will be at 5:30 though.
*our ceremony will most likely be 40 minutes to an hour long and we are leaving time to have a receiving line outside the church

Here is what we are planning:

8:00 hair&makeup
12:00 wedding party photos
3:00 ceremony
3:30 family photos
4:00 cocktail hour &snacks
5:30 dinner
6:00 desert and speeches
7:00 first dance and then party time!

Our day went like this...
8am - hair and makeup
1pm - photographer - getting ready photos
3pm- ceremony (20 min)
photos - family, bridal party, bride/groom
Cocktail hour during this time for guests
5:30pm - dinner
after dinner, when dessert was served we started speeches.
Then we went and mingled and said hello to our all guests
first dance - we did these a little too late. but it all worked out!
And then the party started!