Wedding Timeline

You don't plan a wedding very often so it's understandable that you would have difficulty in deciding how much time you should allow for each event. This area demands your close attention in order to ensure an efficient use of the time which of course translates into the amount of money required.

It has been my experience that the average wedding will take 5-6 hours. You can do it in less time, but I can assure you that you won't be happy with the results.

The important thing is to establish a timetable for the events and stick to it. A professional DJ will help you maintain the timetable which will only work if you commit to staying on the schedule and allowing enough time.

..It has been my experience that the two items that can wreck a timetable are post ceremony photo- graphs and receiving lines (See "What things can ruin my reception" on my Wedding Tips Page. ) Work with your photographer to get as many photos as possible taken before the ceremony so that only a handful remain after the ceremony. If you don't have such a plan you will find yourself being delayed arriving at your reception by as much as 1 to 2 hours. Remember, your guests are waiting for you and your wedding party to arrive and nothing can be done until you arrive..

By it's very nature receiving lines take a large amount of time. Usually they will take at least 45 minutes to an hour. My suggestion is for the bride and groom to greet their guests by mingling with them during the evening which accomplishes the same purpose in much less time. This way you can control the amount of time you visit with each guest.

Below are two timetables examples, one is efficient, the other is not. You decide which you want.

Efficient Time line for a 5-6 hour wedding

500 - 530 PM Wedding Ceremony

530 - 600 PM Post ceremony pictures

600 - 610 PM Wedding party Grand Entry

610- 645 PM Introductions, Acknowledgments and Toasts

645 - 745 PM Dinner

745- 800 PM Cut the cake

800- 825 PM First Dances (Bride and Groom, Groom & Mom, Bride & her dad.)

825- 1000 PM

or 1100 PM General Dancing, bouquet and garter toss, money dance

Non-efficient Time line for a 5-6 hour wedding.

500 - 530 PM Wedding Ceremony

530 - 630 PM Post ceremony pictures

630 - 640 PM Wedding party Grand Entry

640- 715 PM Introductions, Acknowledgments and Toasts

715 - 815 PM Dinner

815 - 900 PM Receiving line

900- 915 PM Cut the cake

915 - 950 PM First Dances

( Bride and Groom, Groom & Mom, Bride & her dad,

Wedding Party etc.)

950- 1000 PM General Dancing, bouquet and garter toss, money dance

or 1100 PM

As you can see the efficient timetable leaves you with approximately 2 1/2 hours for dancing. The non-efficient schedule leaves you with 10 minutes or an hour and 10 minutes at most for dancing depending on your ending time. You can also easily see that trying to do it all in 4 hours would be a disaster.

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