Originally Posted on Darby Elizabeth Photography

Planning Your Wedding Timeline

There are so many wonderful guides online to help you plan and map out your wedding day timeline.

This timeline from Liene Stevens over at Blue Orchid is a great guide to help you remember to include key events into your timeline that you might otherwise neglect. Also here’s a fabulous mock up timeline from WeddingBee that show’s how a wedding timeline might look for brides to have a starting point in planning their day.

I thought it might be fun to add my thoughts as a photographer to these great minds on things to consider when drafting your wedding timeline. And since I’m a photographer, most of my suggestions tend to be about the photography heavy portions of the day!

Family Photos: If you have very small families you can get away with 15-20 minutes for this sections of the day. I usually suggest having 30-45 minutes set aside just for family photos. We usually don’t get all of this time due to outside factors such as a family member being late or MIA at the time of photos. Also it’s common to add extra group photos as we are shooting. I love adding extra groups as I come from a huge family and always want to have the shot of me and my cousins of my mom and her sisters, but it does add extra time so buffering your time-line to allow for these kinds of situations is a great idea.

I also love to shoot the family photos before the wedding when the bride and groom are seeing each other prior to the wedding ceremony. One great advantage to taking all of the family photos prior to the wedding ceremony is that everyone can enjoy and mingle during the cocktail hour!

Bridal Party Photos: I love bridal party photo time because it’s just the bride and groom with their best friends! My biggest suggestion for the bridal party photos is to have an extra person on hand to be the drink runner or errand person should someone be missing. One of the hardest parts of shooting a large group of fun young people is that someone is always running off to do something. By having an extra hand it will help keep things moving along at a swift pace. Bridal party photos are one of the liveliest and fun times of the entire day. I usually like having around 20-30 minutes just with my bridal party, though I’ll always take more time when I can get it!

Bride and Groom Photos: Well your photographer is not going to complain if you give them tons of time to shoot photos of the two of you. I love to have at least thirty minutes set aside just for the couple at a minimum. While that might sound like plenty of time we usually don’t get all of that time to ourselves. On your wedding day everyone wants to give you a hug and a kiss and tell you how good looking you are, which is so much fun but takes a few moments here and there. Buffering your time together will allow you and your guest to mingle as your photographer takes you around the venue while allowing your photographer to get all of the shots that you fell in love with and hired them to get! If you have the ability try to set aside 60 minutes for your couple photoshoot so that you have some of that buffer time built in.

Also if you are seeing each other prior to the wedding it is a little easier to maximize that couple photoshoot time. When shooting the couple photoshoot after the ceremony during cocktail hour plan on spending 15-20 minutes signing the wedding license and being congratulated!

End of the Wedding: One area of the wedding that is kind of unclear is how long to have your photographer stay at your wedding. While this varies for your event needs and ceremony time my general suggestion is 10 or 10:30 and here’s why. By 10 or 10:30 the bar has usually been open for 4-5 hours and your guests are probably becoming a little adverse to bright flashes and just want to relax with their cake and coffee. This suggestion is exactly that, a suggestion, but I’ve found it to be pretty true for most weddings.

Today’s spotlight is on Cicely Rocha-Miller of Life Design Event Planning. Cicely is sassy and funny, it’s one of the reasons her clients love her so much!

In this mini interview I asked Cicely to why she loves weddings and here is her answer!

If you’re enjoying this popular series go ahead and check out all of the videos at ARIZONA’S WEDDING GENIUSES.

I want Cicely to send me more information!

A few weeks ago we had the chance to work with Hollye and her team at the Arizona Biltmore and this little mini-film shows her working her having fun and working her magic!

(That song is so stuck in my head now.)

If you want to learn more about Hollye and her mad photo skills you can visit her website by clicking here, or you can just fill out this little form and Hollye can get right in touch with you!

I want Hollye to send me more information!

If you’d like to see this wedding’s trailer just click HERE.

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ps. This wedding took place at the Sanctuary on Camelback, if you wanna see how it looked set up for the wedding click here.

A while back I caught up with Melissa Lewis and Dianna White-Samuels of Table Tops Etc. (one of the valley’s premier floral design companies). They were busy setting up for an event at the Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center (which you can see behind Dianna in this clip). They were nice enough to let me steal them away for a few minutes to get to know them a little better!

I’m glad to say Dianna, and all of the vendors featured on the Wedding Geniuses site, are the best of the best. Not only are they extremely talented at their craft, but they are wonderful, enjoyable, happy, and honest people.

Today, Dianna White-Samuels of Table Tops Etc. shares how she ended up as the co-owner of Table Tops Etc. alongside Melissa. You never know where your path will take you!

If you’re enjoying this popular series go ahead and subscribe to the blog

I want Dianna to send me more information!

I love being able to spotlight the personalities of Arizona’s best wedding vendors and to give engaged couples a little insight into the people they’ll spend so much time with on their wedding day!

Today’s spotlight is on Cicely Rocha-Miller of Life Design Event Planning. Cicely is sassy and funny, it’s one of the reasons her clients love her so much!

In this mini interview I asked Cicely to share a memory of the first ‘event’ she ever planned. It’s about 30 seconds long, so enjoy!

If you’re enjoying this popular series go ahead and subscribe to the blog

I want Cicely to send me more information!

Ok, not really, but she does reveal how she got her company name and all of the perks that come with it!

Victoria Canada, of Victoria Canada Weddings and Events, is one of Arizona’s elite wedding planners. Enjoy a minute with Victoria’s fun and vibrant personality. When it comes to hiring and working with your wedding vendors, remember it’s all about the personality!

I want Victoria to send me more information!

And if you’re enjoying this popular Wedding Genius series, make sure you subscribe to our blog!

So take a minute and check out today’s Hot Spot film of The Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix to see if it might be the perfect place for your wedding! This one’s a few short clips from a full wedding at The Wrigley Mansion in the month of March.

Keep an eye out for:
•The view! The house was built on a 100 foot knoll overlooking the valley and the Arizona Biltmore Resort.
•The wonderful greenery and flowers.
•The fun and unique ceremony location and set up.

Come back often to see more venue films, or just subscribe to the blog!

Melissa has owned and operated the upscale floral and decor company Table Tops Etc since 2003. She is not only delightful to hang out with, but also happens to be wildly talented.

Recently I asked Melissa what her “guilty” reality TV show pleasure was. Her answer was hilarious because it’s so true!

So, hit play and enjoy a minute of Melissa.

If you enjoy this popular series, make sure you subscribe to ourRSS feed!

And if you are feeling busy (or maybe a little lazy), but want to find out more about Melissa and her talent for flowers – just fill out the little form below and Melissa will get back to you on what she can do to make your big day easier!

Ray Grace of Ray the DJ has been in the wedding DJ business for a very long time, and has earned a solid reputation of bringing music perfection to weddings.

I asked Ray what he’d be doing if he couldn’t be a DJ, and without a second’s delay he told me what his second dream job would be:

I want Ray to send me more information!