One thing is true… we are absolute suckers for a good, well-thought-out wedding timeline. If you are wondering if this is the stuff that gets us excited then you are 100% absolutely correct. Having a perfectly curated wedding timeline is one of, if not the most important component while wedding planning. Your wedding timeline is essentially the glue that holds everything else on your wedding day together. Which can not only make our jobs easier but can make your wedding day smooth and stress-free. By this point, you probably want a bit more clarification as to why wedding timelines are important for your destination wedding. Don’t worry, we got you! Whether you’re a couple who just got engaged or are in the midst of planning your wedding. We’re here to spill the tea.

It’s piping hot by the way…

What Is A Wedding Timeline?

It’s important to understand what a wedding timeline is before diving into why it’s so important for your wedding day. A wedding timeline is essentially a detailed breakdown of key moments and details happening on the day of your wedding. It’s a structured timeline of when certain moments begin and when they will end. Wedding timelines can be as detailed or as simplified as you want. However, in our personal experience, we believe that the more in-depth and detailed the better!

Why Wedding Timelines Are Important for Your Destination Wedding

Helps Create Buffer Time

Your wedding day can be very fast-paced. So many things are bopping around every minute and second and it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Especially if you run into the issue of running behind. Whether there was traffic or an unexpected accident or event, things happen. That’s just the way it is! However, the best way to combat this, in our opinion, is to create buffer time within your wedding day timeline. Whenever we are drafting up timelines for our couples, we make sure to double the allotted time. Speeches taking 2.5 minutes? We’ll give you 5 just in case. Keeping in intervals of 5 or 10 minutes helps us create the perfect amount of buffer time.

Buffer time allows room for error while still being able to be on time for important festivities throughout your day. Buffer time is essentially going to be your BFF when it comes to things running behind on your wedding day. Moral of the story: always have buffer time.

Helps With Vendor Communication

If you’re someone who plans on having a ton of different wedding vendors, then a wedding timeline is necessary. Your wedding timeline will make sure that you are communicating with your vendors and have everyone on the same page. Whenever we work with our couples and create the best timeline for them we love to be able to share it with the other wedding vendors. That way we all are able to communicate with each other. Not only that, but we can also ensure that we’re on the same page about your wedding day start and end times, event times, etc.

Working with our couples, we make it our mission to make sure that the vendors are there for the best time period. An example is, if you decide to hire a wedding photographer for 8 hours. We are going to make sure that the photographer is there for the best 8 hours of your day and utilize them to the fullest!

Makes Sure Guests & Wedding Party Know Where They Need To Be

Building out your wedding timeline isn’t just for you and your partner, or your wedding vendors but also for your guests. More specifically, your wedding party and family members. If you are planning on having family member portraits and wedding party portraits, it’s important that everyone has an idea about where they are going. It can become a very stressful time when you are trying to manage where everyone is and gathering everyone up for photos or certain festivities. Having the perfect timeline already created allows for everyone to know where and when they need to be on the day of your wedding.

One way we help with this is we always provide our couples with a PDF timeline for our couples to send to family/friends and the wedding party. This eliminates our couple from having to answer so many questions and having to deal with constant back and forth. With the timelines that we provide, family of the couple, the wedding party, and our couples are happy. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Minimizes Stress & Worry

At the end of the day, the last thing you want happening on your wedding day is for you to stress and worry. Hey, this is a fun time here! Curating the perfect wedding timeline will put your mind at ease. It will also help you know that you are ready for just about anything. Emphasis on the just since we can’t really predict everything. A wedding timeline will make your wedding day run 10,000x more smoothly.

Tips To Build Your Own Wedding Timeline

Okay, so you know the why but maybe you’re still in need of some tips on how to build your own wedding timeline. Here are just a few of some of the tips we like to use when we put our secret spin on building wedding timelines for our couples.

• Add Buffer Time – As we mentioned before, adding buffer time is going to be your best friend. Between events and special moments throughout your day, we like to include at least a 30-minute buffer in case things run behind.
• Don’t Make Your Guests Wait Long – The last thing you want is for your guests to feel like they are waiting an eternity to witness the ceremony or eat their dinner. So while including buffer time is important, also keep in mind your wedding guests.
• Start As Early As You Can – The getting ready process is easily one of the longest parts of your wedding day. It is never to early to start getting ready, so always try and aim to start earlier rather than later. This will save you in the long run!
• Talk To the Experts (aka a Destination Wedding Planner) – When in doubt, we always recommend talking to the experts and consider hiring a wedding planner. Wedding planners are the people who make your life 10x easier and help alleviate some of that wedding planning stress. It’s literally our job!

Why Timelines Are Important for Your Destination Wedding

Hopefully, if you’ve gotten to this point you understand a bit more why timelines are important for your destination wedding. If you’re still confused and are just wanted to hand off some of this wedding planning stress to someone else, we may just be the perfect match! Check out this blog to see if maybe it’s about time you hire yourself a destination wedding planner. Psst… we’re kinda hoping you do!