Wedding Photography Timeline Guide
Timeline Tips for a Day that Flows Naturally and Photographs Beautifully
This guide was created to help you design a photography-friendly timeline that supports the kind of experience you want to have, with realistic expectations for what can be accomplished within your day.
Your Timeline is Key
_JPG.jpg)
Custom to You
Your timeline should reflect your priorities, not anyone else’s. Some moments deserve extra breathing room, and others can stay simple.
In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to create a custom photography timeline that does just that.
More Than a Schedule — It’s the Framework of Your Story
The way your timeline is structured shapes how your wedding day feels and how it photographs. A good photography timeline isn’t just about scheduling photos; it makes space for real moments to unfold naturally, so what you see in your photos truly reflects how it felt.
You’ve probably heard it before, but your wedding day isn’t a photoshoot. Are there moments that are? Of course. But my goal is to help you build a timeline that makes space for those brief photo-focused parts, while allowing the rest of your day to stay sacred, natural, and meaningful.
Step One: Choose Your Ceremony Time
This is always where I start. The light you choose for your ceremony ultimately effects the look of the photos for your entire day, including my flexibility in choosing well-lit backdrops. When the timing is right, every outdoor moment that follows — from portraits to family photos — naturally falls into that same beautiful, flattering light.
WHY IT MATTERS –
HOW TO DO IT
From a photography perspective, lighting is the difference between acceptable photos and beautiful ones. If you’ve chosen me for my portfolio, part of my job is to make recommendations that allow me to create my best work that feels consistent with what you fell in love with. I’d love to say I can make magic in any light (and I’ll always do my best), but the truth is that the very best results come from being intentional about the light we have to work with throughout your day.
It doesn’t mean everything has to be perfect — just that whenever possible, I recommend following these guidelines to give your photos the best chance to shine. Starting your timeline by choosing a ceremony time that aligns well with good lighting naturally places any outdoor portraits, wedding party photos, and family formals in the most photogenic part of the day. It’s the single most effective way to set your entire day up for success — both in how it feels and how it’s captured.
Whenever Possible: Plan for your ceremony to begin about two hours before sunset on your specific wedding date and location. This timing gets us the closest to sunset, without risking running out of daylight if it happens to be cloudy, or if any sort of unexpected delays happen (and we ALWAYS want to be allowing for a little extra "flex" time so that you're day isn't hinging on everything going exactly to plan, which is a recipe for stress).
You can find your exact sunset time by simply Googling your venue location and the words “sunset time.”
A quick note: the listed sunset time is when the sun disappears below the horizon — not when it looks its prettiest. The most flattering, golden, glowy light actually happens during the 1–2 hours before "sunset". Scheduling your ceremony and portraits within this window gives us that beautiful, soft light you see throughout my portfolio.
I would also personally consider an additional 2 hours prior to this to be "okay" lighting, but before that when the sun is directly overhead it can be very unflattering and unphotogenic.
So what happens if your ceremony CAN'T be 2 hours before sunset?
Really, don't sweat it. You're photos won't be trash. I can't emphasize enough that these recommendations are to achieve the best possible results, not that the alternative is going to suck. Still, I would still start with the ceremony time to build the rest of your day around.
Step Two: Work Backwards
Now that you have a ceremony time set, we'll fill in everything that you want to happen before the ceremony to determine when photography coverage needs to begin.
Pre-Ceremony
This part of the day might sound simple — just “getting ready photos,” right? But it’s actually so much more than that. These are the hours where anticipation builds, where real emotion and connection unfold, and where so much of the tone for the rest of the day is set.
I like to figure out the photography start time next because, from experience, this window has a bigger impact on your overall experience than the end of the night ever will. If it comes down to choosing, I always recommend prioritizing more time at the start of the day over coverage at the very end of the reception. This is where your story begins, and it deserves time to breathe.
That said, the key is simply being realistic about what can and can’t be accomplished without it feeling rushed or hectic. As long as we set expectations accordingly, your day can still flow beautifully no matter how much time we have.
If you’ve booked me for full-day coverage, perfect. If not, that’s okay too. My goal is simply to help you make the most intentional use of your time so the day feels calm, meaningful, and true to you.
Build Your Pre-Ceremony Timeline
Use the chart below to estimate how much time to allow, working backwards from your ceremony, for each pre-ceremony event that you want to include in your day, based on how important each part feels to you.
The "Minimal" column is how much time I recommend for things that you want to do – but are fine with keeping brief and minimal. "Average" is what I most commonly recommend, and the amount of time in the "Extra Time" column is for anything that you prioritize extra highly, or for when you want to slow down, breathe, and fully soak in the experience with extra wiggle room.
Step Three: Fill in the Rest
Now that you’ve built the pre-ceremony portion of your timeline, it's time to fill in everything that happens after the ceremony. If you haven’t booked me yet, this step will help you see how many hours of photography coverage you’ll need to capture everything that matters most to you. If you’ve already booked, it will help you visualize how everything fits into the time you have — where you may have some extra time to slow down, or if adding a little extra time to your contract might make the day feel more relaxed.
Pro Tip – Not everyone opts to keep me until the very end. A great option if budget is an issue is to end photography coverage after all of the important things are finished – toasts, special dances, bouquet toss, and maybe even the first 30 minutes to an hour of open dancing – but just not the last hour or two of dancing, if you're night is going to go late.
Build Your Post-Ceremony Timeline
Use the chart below to estimate how much time to allow for each post-ceremony event (starting with the ceremony itself) that you want to include in your day, based on how important each part feels to you. Be sure to leave out anything that you may have already completed before the ceremony, ie. wedding party portraits, or bridals, unless you want to do more.
Final Step: Add Wiggle Room
Now that your general timeline is built, it’s time to look it over and add a little breathing room. Go through each part of the day and check for places where you might need an extra five minutes (or more) — whether it’s for travel between locations, touching up makeup, greeting family, or simply catching your breath. A little buffer time makes all the difference in how your day feels, helping everything flow smoothly even when small delays happen.
Places to Add a Little Extra Time
-
Travel Between Locations:
Anytime we’re moving from one place to another that’s more than a few steps away. Consider the layout of your venue — how long it takes to walk between spaces, whether golf carts or transportation are needed, and how long those transitions realistically take.
-
Unpredictable Moments:
Parts of the day that are harder to time perfectly, like finishing hair and makeup, getting dressed, or gathering family members for photos. It’s common for someone to need a last-minute fix, grab a missing item, or run back for something they forgot. A little buffer here keeps things feeling calm and stress-free.
-
Highly Emotional or Special Moments + Time to Just Be Present
For anything that deserves to unfold naturally — like a first look, a letter reading, or time spent with family — it’s worth building in a little breathing room. The amount of time we set aside to capture something doesn’t have to be how long it actually takes to do it. It’s simply the time you’re giving yourself to be fully present. That’s how you create a day that feels intentional, genuine, relaxed, and memorable for all the right reasons.
Sample Timeline
To tie everything together, here’s a sample timeline showing how all of these pieces could fit together for a wedding day.
This example is based on a hypothetical wedding in Austin, Texas, on October 8, 2026, at a small, easy-to-navigate venue. The sunset that day is at 7:05 PM, making 5:00 PM an ideal ceremony start time. They have booked 9 hours of photography coverage.
In this scenario, the couple’s top priority is maximizing portraits of the two of them while also having large families and not wanting family formals to feel rushed after the ceremony. To make that possible, they chose to do a first look and complete most of their bride and groom portraits, along with all of the wedding party photos, before the ceremony. This approach allows the evening to flow calmly and keeps the time after the ceremony focused on family, celebration, and enjoying the moment rather than feeling hectic.
