Wedding day timeline template
A wedding day timeline from getting ready to the last dance with the time, what happens, where and who is responsible, built from your ceremony time.
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- Free
Fill in what you need. The preview updates as you type.
What you type is not saved on our server.
Check the offsets with your vendors
The generated schedule is a common six-hour evening wedding: about five hours of getting ready and photos before the ceremony and five hours after. Your photographer's contract hours, the venue's end time, a religious ceremony that runs longer than 30 minutes and travel between sites all move rows. Send the draft to the planner and photographer and type the agreed version into the schedule box.
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Wedding Day Timeline
Jordan Lee and Taylor Kim
| Date | Saturday, November 21, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Ceremony | 4:30 pm |
| Venue | Barr Mansion, 10463 Sprinkle Rd, Austin, TX |
| Day-of contact | Casey Nguyen, (555) 010-0001 |
| Time | What | Where | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:30 am | Hair and makeup begins | Getting-ready suite | Wedding party, stylists |
| 1:30 pm | Photographer arrives, getting dressed | Getting-ready suite | Photographer |
| 2:30 pm | First look, portraits, family photos | Garden or chosen spot | Couple, families |
| 4:00 pm | Guests arrive, prelude music | Ceremony site | Ushers, musicians |
| 4:30 pm | Ceremony | Ceremony site | Officiant, couple |
| 5:00 pm | Cocktail hour | Cocktail area | Guests, bar |
| 6:00 pm | Reception entrance and welcome | Reception hall | DJ or band |
| 6:15 pm | Dinner service | Reception hall | Caterer |
| 7:00 pm | Toasts | Reception hall | Best man, maid of honor |
| 7:30 pm | First dance, parent dances | Dance floor | Couple, DJ or band |
| 8:15 pm | Cake cutting | Reception hall | Couple, caterer |
| 9:30 pm | Last dance | Dance floor | Couple, DJ or band |
| 9:45 pm | Send-off | Front entrance | Guests, coordinator |
Day-of contacts
| Contact | Name | Phone | Contact | Name | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planner | Casey Nguyen | (555) 010-0001 | Photographer | Sam Park | (555) 010-0002 |
| DJ | Riley Chen | (555) 010-0003 | Venue manager | Morgan Diaz | (555) 010-0004 |
How to use it
Type the ceremony start and the page builds the whole day around it: hair and makeup five hours before, the photographer three hours before, a first look and family photos at two hours, guests at 30 minutes, then cocktail hour, the reception entrance, dinner, toasts, first dance, cake, last dance and send-off, each at the usual offset. Fill in the names, date and venue and the contacts for the planner, photographer and DJ.
Once the vendors have agreed on times, copy the rows from the preview into the schedule box as time | what | where | who and adjust. Print a copy for the wedding party, one for each vendor and one for whoever is running the day, so nobody has to ask the couple what happens next.
Things to watch
Hair and makeup take about 45 minutes per person for the wedding party and an hour or more for each of you, so a large party starts earlier than the five-hour default. Guests arrive before the time on the invitation, so the invitation should say the ceremony start, not the doors-open time. Leave 15 minutes of slack before the ceremony; it is the one slot that cannot slip.
Calculators that go with this
Frequently asked questions
We are not doing a first look.
Type your own schedule and move the couple and family photos into cocktail hour. Give cocktail hour the full hour so the photographer has time.
The ceremony and reception are at different places.
Add a travel row between the ceremony and cocktail hour with the drive time plus 15 minutes, and put the shuttle company under the contacts. The venue in the header can hold both addresses.
Who should get a copy?
The planner or day-of coordinator, the photographer, the DJ or band, the caterer and the wedding party. Vendors usually want it a week ahead. The wedding checklist template has that as one of the final tasks.
Is what I type saved anywhere?
No. Everything stays in your browser and nothing is sent to our server. If you refresh the page it is gone, so print, save a PDF or download the DOCX when you are done.