Ceremony Time is so INCREDIBLY important.

As many of you know, it’s the beginning of busy season, so we are building a LOT of timelines right now for our upcoming weddings – and it makes us want to throat punch (ok, not really, but still) whoever told couples that getting married at 2, 3 or even 4pm during the summer was the most magical, best idea ever. Let me tell you, wherever you read that, or heard it…

They lied to you.

There are a lot of factors that come in to play when choosing the best ceremony time, and we often recommend that it starts a lot later than most of the wedding blogs and advice sites tell you. Let’s break it down.

HEAT & SUN

The peak sun time of the day falls between 1 and 4pm, meaning that those are the hottest, sunniest, most uncomfortable to be outside in dressy, heavy clothing times of day. Because of the sun’s position in the sky, it also means that unless you’re getting married inside or a in a dense forest, you’re going to have uneven or harsh light. That can mean lots of squinting, and that a lot of your guests and family members are going to be VERY uncomfortable or trying to not sit in the sunny parts of your seating area. Or carry umbrellas for shade (which can be really distracting in your ceremony photos).

PHOTOS

Of course, I am a photographer so I have to mention this part. A mid-day ceremony really impacts all of your photos more than most people realize:

1.That harsh sun or uneven light on your ceremony means your ceremony photos are going to be the worst photos of the day. Open shade is the best, or even when the light is blocked well by trees BEHIND couple at the ceremony site. Ceremony is the pivotal part of your wedding day – and we hate having to deliver photos that are less than our best due to the lighting at the ceremony space.

2. Most of our couples opt for a first look so that they have less time away from their guests and party – which means all photos are done before ceremony. For a 4pm ceremony, that means that first look happens at 130, and then all wedding party, family, and the majority (minus sunset) of couple photos are done by 315 – right in the peak heat and sunlight of the day. Again, some of your most important photos are going to be very limited in where and how they can be taken.

3.Many venues aren’t planned around sunshine for mid-day, and we often get requests for photos that are in direct sunlight. We have two options here – either take a photo in that spot where you aren’t looking at the camera, or ask if we can use that location at sunset … because that direct sun means dark eye sockets and shadowing around your face and nose, and a lot of squinting. We have lighting we can use to help over power this, but it definitely changes the look of the photo and we try to not use that as much as possible for our outdoor portraits.

RECEPTION

So, you want to party. We get that. But weddings are an event filled with expectations, and too long of a lull early on in the festivities can kill the party before it starts. There is a very strategic way to build a reception that rocks and keeps going strong until the end. Of course, part of it has to do with your DJ/MC and the music, but the other part has to do with what time everything happens.

Our biggest goal is that you can do everything you have planned, visit with everyone, dance and party, and also not have your party be a dud…. and we need to make sure that your party doesn’t die when we take you out for sunset photos later, too. That means there needs to be enough momentum going without several long periods of nothing before we do that. Long breaks tend to be too much – people wonder what is going on, what’s happening next and when, or even worse – they think you’re not doing anything else and all the fun stuff is over and head home. Ouch.

I’m going to throw out a couple of sample timelines so you can see the difference. We’ll do these based on a mid-July sunset time of 9pm, and photos before (as that’s our preferred – we need 90 minutes for photos and that’s a LONG time for a cocktail hour), and with the assumption of a special exit and having to be out of the venue by 10pm:

3pm Ceremony Time Sample

1230 Hair and makeup finished

1230 Wedding Party, Couple get dressed and ready

1 First Look

115 Wedding Party Photos

145 Family Photos

215 Couple Photos Done

3 Ceremony

330 Sign Documents

4 Enter Reception

430 Dinner

5 Toasts

530 Special Dances

Open Dance Floor/Mingling

630 Traditions

Open Dance Floor/Mingling

730 Cake Cutting

745 Open Dance Floor/Mingling

840 Steal You for Sunset Photos (sunset 9pm)

930 Special Exit

***

5pm Ceremony Time Sample

230 Hair and makeup finished

230 Wedding Party, Couple get dressed and ready

3 First Look

315 Wedding Party Photos

345 Family Photos

415 Couple Photos Done

5 Ceremony

530 Sign Documents

545 Enter Reception

6 Dinner

630 Toasts

7 Special Dances

Open Dance Floor/Mingling

8 Traditions/Cake Cutting

Open Dance Floor/Mingling

840 Steal You for Sunset Photos (sunset 9pm)

930 Special Exit

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To us, the 5pm (or later) ceremony time is the preferred set up.

It does give you a couple of good breaks to mingle and dance, but not with so much time that it feels there is nothing happening – meaning your guests are more likely to stick around for that special exit or to head to your after party with you (we are seeing this trending this year – casino after parties are huge right now).  It also has a few benefits for you – more time to set up and a lot more relaxing morning on your wedding day.

If your ceremony photos (and portraits) are important, and your wedding venue doesn’t have a lot of treed spots,
then you definitely want to plan on a later ceremony time.

Still not sure? Send us a note and we’ll create a timeline for you so you can see the impact on your own wedding day.