Why is important to have a wedding day timeline?

In my practice as a wedding coordinator in Northern Virginia, I’ve met a lot of brides that don’t feel particularly excited about the planning process. In fact, most of us hate planning – it’s stressful and often puts a strain to our relationship with our loved ones, especially if they’re not good planners themselves. However, in order to make sure your big day goes as smoothly as possible, you need to have a wedding day timeline for your Northern VA wedding.

Wedding timelines can be confusing, especially if you’ve never done one. We tend to attend weddings, without paying too much attention to how long the individual aspects lasted. As a wedding coordinator, handling the wedding day timeline is my responsibility – it’s an important part of the big day and is crucial to ensuring all aspects of the wedding go in the right order.

Usually, when deciding on the timeline, I focus on issues such as how early can the guests head into the reception space and when they need to get out; how long your photography package covers, as well as external factors, such as the time of sunset. Knowing how your wedding will go can help you prevent problems, such as you being late for the ceremony, because your hair and makeup took longer than expected; or your guests being late to the reception location, because you didn’t take into account the time for travel between the ceremony and reception venues.

Generally, when it comes to building a wedding timeline, I advise on starting as early as possible – as soon as you know what time your ceremony will be. Knowing the wedding day timeline will also help you decide on the timing for dinner – which depends on the type of food you’re serving and how large your guest lists is, and also help you decide on some seemingly minor things, such as when is the best time to toast, and when to ask your photographer to take the wedding pictures. In general, building a wedding day timeline – either yourself or with the help of your wedding coordinator – will not only ensure your big day goes as planned, but give you the peace of mind and confidence you need to feel and look your best!

Thank you for reading and good luck with your wedding planning!

Virginia Fernández-Swope

www.VVweddingplanning.com

hola@VVweddingplanning.com

Text me or call me 703-347-3013