Free wedding timeline template: build your wedding day timeline

Sample wedding day timelines by ceremony time

Four common start times with a first look, and the 4pm day without one. Each has a plated dinner and four people in hair and makeup. Open any of them in the generator to change it, or download it as Word from there.

How long each part of the wedding day takes

These are the defaults the generator uses, with the range you'll see in planners' and photographers' own timelines. Sources disagree most about when the photographer arrives and how long the reception runs, so treat those as starting points.

First look or no first look: how it changes your day

A first look moves most of the photos before the ceremony. You see each other about two hours ahead, then do couple portraits, the wedding party and immediate family, and you're free to join cocktail hour with your guests.

Without one, you stay apart until the aisle, so the family and wedding party photos happen straight after the ceremony and couple portraits take 20 to 30 minutes of cocktail hour. In the generator's 4pm day without a first look, family portraits start at 4:30 PM and couple portraits at 5:05 PM. Keep family formals to immediate family if the evening is tight, and leave the extended family photos for the dance floor.

Wedding reception timeline: order of events

Cocktail hour, then 10 to 15 minutes for guests to find their seats, the grand entrance and dinner. Toasts usually land about half an hour into dinner, while people are still at their tables. Cake comes about an hour in, then the first dance and parent dances, and the dance floor opens around 90 minutes after dinner started for a plated meal, or sooner with a buffet. The last dance is 10 minutes before the send-off. To work out how much each course needs, use the wedding food calculator.

The free cake serving calculator works out how many slices your guests need and the smallest cake that covers them.

If your venue has a hard end time, put it in the generator's options. It warns you if the reception runs past it, and you can pull the end time back until it fits.

Wedding ceremony order and length

A non-religious ceremony runs 20 to 30 minutes; a religious one 45 to 75. The usual order: processional (5 to 10 minutes), welcome (3 to 5), readings (3 to 5), the officiant's address (5 to 10), declaration of intent (2 to 3), vows (3 to 5), ring exchange (2 to 3), an optional unity ceremony (3 to 5), the pronouncement and first kiss, and the recessional (about 5). Seat guests 20 to 30 minutes before the start.

The how long is a wedding guide has the ranges by ceremony type and a sample day from a 5 pm ceremony to an 11 pm end.

Who to send your timeline to, and when

Send a draft to your vendors four to six weeks out, lock the main times about four weeks before, and send the final version to every vendor and the wedding party a week ahead. Turn on vendor call times in the options to add load-in, arrival and sound check lines for the planner, florist, rentals, caterer and DJ or band.

The venue and the caterer want the final guest count around the same time, with each meal and every dietary note. The free wedding guest list template keeps RSVPs, meals and plus-ones in one list and counts them as you go, then downloads as a spreadsheet you can send them.

Print the final version for the bag that goes with you: the free wedding day emergency kit checklist lists the rest of what the day-of kit needs.

For venues and coordinators: one schedule everyone works from

Couples bring a timeline; the venue runs the day from it. Save it as a BEO and the schedule lands in the BEO's timeline, next to the guest count, menu and room setup, so the kitchen, the bar and the floor work from the same times. Our wedding run of show template lays the same day out by who owns each block, and the free BEO template shows the rest of the sheet. Venues running a wedding every weekend keep all of it in one dashboard with wedding venue software.

Add this wedding timeline template to your website

Venues, planners and wedding blogs can put it on their own site for free. Paste this where you want it; it works in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix and plain HTML. Nothing is tracked about your visitors beyond page views.