The Ceremony

Happy Wednesday!

We’re half-way through the week and now that the bruising in our feet is finally gone from last weekend’s double-header, we’re ready to get back out there! Matt & Johannah’s Hot Springs Country Club wedding is going to be uh-mazing!

One of the things we’ve noticed that brides seem to have the most questions about, is the wedding day timeline. A LOT goes into a wedding day and it’s a bit overwhelming to try to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. That’s why we LOVE to help our brides building their wedding day timeline! If there is a coordinator invoiced, they will help the bride schedule the events of the day, and then we will help build the “photo timeline.”

We’ll go in depth about each aspect of the timeline in later posts, but today we’ll offer some tips for choosing your ceremony time.

Venue

Some venues (like the one shown in the photo above) book multiple weddings in one day, so in that case you are limited to the available times. If your venue is available all day and your ceremony will be outdoors, we recommend starting an hour and a half before sunset. Reason being, the light is soft and golden instead of bright and harsh, which makes your skin tones look fabulous! Isn’t that what every bride wants?! Also because that typically gives us time for the family photos after the ceremony. (We’ll explain why we shoot family photos after the ceremony another day.) If there ceremony lasts 30 minutes or less, family photos take about 20 minutes, then we have time to grab a few more bride and groom portraits at sunset 🙂 All of this only works, though, if you share a first look with your groom before the ceremony. Again, we’ll go over that later!

If you have access to your venue all day and your ceremony is indoors, the start time isn’t quite as particular as an outdoor ceremony. The thing to keep in mind is that wedding prep takes quite a while, and you probably don’t want to be up at the crack of dawn on your wedding day! Also, the later in the day your ceremony is, the prettier the light for your portraits 🙂 Okay, so really it’s all about the light!

To Look First, or Not to Look First

If you decide that you absolutely do not want to share your first look before the ceremony, then the ceremony should ideally be at least 3 hours before sunset. That should leave plenty of nice daylight for the ceremony, the family photos, the bride and groom’s romantic portraits, and the wedding party photos. For our couples who don’t share a first look, we shoot the bride with her bridesmaids and the groom with his groomsmen before the ceremony to save time for the other photos after the ceremony. Whatever you decide, we ensure that you don’t miss out on anything!

We hope this is helpful! Obviously there are tons of other factors that can play into the ceremony time, but these tend to be the main points. If you know someone who is engaged and you think can benefit from this, please feel free to share!

Have a fabulous Wednesday!