When the food is eaten, the flowers are dead, the tuxedos returned, and the reception hall abandoned. . .THE PHOTOS ARE FOREVER.
Timing Your Wedding Day for a Stress-free Experience
There are plenty of tips for reducing stress and organizing the complexities of the wedding festivities. But right now I want to give you some practical advice about planning and organizing the timing of the day.
Time is what keeps everything from happening at once, right? Well, often I find people letting one wedding activity run into the next and it causes them a great deal of stress. So, from years of wedding day experiences and observations, here’s my advice on how much time to allot to each activity.
Getting Ready for the Wedding
Of course, only you can guess at how long it will take you to get yourself ready. Some are simply faster at it than others. Some have more complicated dress logistics to manage. But the thing to keep in mind here is: however long you think it’s going to take you, plan at least a half hour longer. You know it’s true.
Wedding
Traditional weddings can be very brief; most are. There isn’t a whole lot to say here except do try to keep it brief. Rumblings tend to bore everyone.
The real advice is for how much time to plan on doing photos after the ceremony. Typically you need to plan a half hour to 45 minutes for group photos. Then it’s best if we can take at least an hour to an hour and a half to do photos of the bride and groom. Often those wedding-couple photos take place after a luncheon; in that case, just remember to save some time between the luncheon and reception for those photos.
As for LDS temple weddings, whenever the sealing is scheduled to happen, plan on coming out of the temple a hour later. Sometimes the temple will give you a more optimistic number, I think it’s to encourage you to keep on schedule, but 98 times out of 100 it takes the bride and groom an hour or more to exit the temple. From that point we do group photos for half and hour and photos of the couple following that.
Wedding Luncheon
Here’s the greatest source of time mismanagement. This may be because traditionally the groom’s family is in charge and they don’t’ get properly informed as to al the other goings on; they’re just thinking what’s best for their guests, not how much time the couple needs to get the photos. Here’s the thing, the food will be gone in a matter of minutes and Aunt Clara’s life isn’t going to end if she has to wait an hour for the bride and groom to arrive.
It’s more annoying for your guests for them to be told lunch is at a certain time, and then make them wait. Here’s what you do. From the sealing time, add 3.5 hours, then declare that the luncheon time. This gives you time for photos and travel to the luncheon and reduces mounds of stress that get heaped on the couple while people have to wait on them to get to the luncheon.
You only get married once, don’t rush it. You won’t enjoy it if you’re you being pushed along to the next event. Give yourself plenty of time, and enjoy each moment.
The best advice I can give is to actually hold the traditional wedding luncheon the night before. I did that for my own wedding and for my brother’s, and let me tell you, it make the wedding far less programmed and stressful.
Reception
Coming soon.