Day of schedule

Now that all your wedding details and vendors are planned out, what are you and your guests actually doing on the day of? Here's the schedule that I used, and my thought process behind it!

My setup:
- Total venue time was 6 hours, not including vendors being able to come 3 hours early.
- My hotel was a 20 minute drive from the venue
- My bar package included only 3 hours of bar time

- We had makeup artists doing makeup for the bride and 6 bridesmaids/mothers.
- We estimated a 30 minute ceremony at most, if not shorter.

	Time
	10:00 AM	Bridal party & moms start on makeup at hotel
	1:30 PM	Bridal party leaves for venue (20 minute drive)
	2:00 PM	Bridal party, groomsmen, helpers arrive at venue to set up and get dressed
Photos (2 hours)	2:30 PM	Wedding party shoots with photographer
	4:30 PM	Wedding party finishes shoot and retreats back to room to relax
Ceremony	5 or 5:15 pm	Start ceremony no later than 5:15pm, but can start earlier than 5:15pm if ppl have all arrived. Venue ceremony coordinator to cue.
	5:45 or 6 pm	Ceremony ends.
Cocktail hour	6:00 PM	Bar opens and cocktail hour begins
	6:30 PM	Grand Entrance (Bridesmaids & Groomsmen, Bride & Groom)
	6:35 PM	Polish bread greeting
	6:40 PM	Bride's dad to toast
Dinner (1.5 hours)	6:45 PM	Dinner to start
	7:15 PM	Bride & groom to toast tables
	7:45 PM	Slideshow
	7:50 PM	Groomsman toast
	8:00 PM	Groom's dad to toast
Dancing (1.25 hours)	8:15 PM	First dance / surprise groomsmen and bridesmaid dance / segue into general dancing
	8:45 or 9 PM	Bar ends (3 hours after start)
	9:30 PM	Break dancing. Bride and groom thank guests
		Cake cutting
		Bouquet toss
		Garter removal
		Garter toss
Dancing part 2 (0.5 hours)		Resume dancing after finished
	10:25 PM	Last Dance
	10:30 PM	Music off
	11:00 PM	Venue begins to break down

Things to watch out for:

• Make VERY sure, and I mean confirm it verbally, that someone is keeping a timetable for you (most likely your coordinator or DJ host). You do not want to think about a schedule when it's your wedding!
• Be very aware of how often you're interrupting the flow of events for "everyone has to pay attention to the bride/groom" moments. This is why we did our first dance and then went straight into the open dance floor. Other weddings had the bride and the groom play games to entertain the guests during dinner, but it kills conversation.
• On the other hand, make sure there aren't long amounts of dead time! Give your guests enough time to enjoy their food and talk to each other at their tables, but don't make them wait after they're done!
• I had 5 hours and 130 guests, which was not enough time to see and talk to everyone. I really could have gone all day. ;)
• Due to our limited time schedule, we didn't do any newlywed games. I've really enjoyed watching these at other weddings, though!

Where did we go off-schedule?

• We started our wedding party photos late because getting dressed at the actual venue took longer than expected, with 5 bridesmaids and 1 bride getting ready. (Fun fact: the bride was ready faster than the bridesmaids! :) )
• Toasting tables will take much longer than you think!